Troubleshooting the Customer Portal

Are your customers struggling to log into the Customer Portal?

Log onto the customer's account and see if they've ever successfully logged into the Customer Portal. Check the box on the top right of the customer's account. 

If a customer has logged in before, it will look like this:

If a customer has not logged in before, it will look like this:

If they have told you they're having problems, and they have not successfully logged in, try these steps to help them log in.

Does Their Email Exist Anywhere Else in the System?

Normally, clients need a unique email address inside of Sera. On rare occasions, a customer will be imported with the same email as another archived customer. This normally happens when data is imported from another system. Even if a password reset was successful, the system may still have issues with customers logging in if their email is used in two different accounts. Check their email against every email in the system.

To do this, navigate to the Customer Service screen, change the Toggle to All, and search for the customer's email. It should only return one result. If it returns more, change the archived customers's email on file to something different.

Send a Password Reset

The first step to try is to confirm the email on file and reset the password by clicking on Reset Password. Alternatively, direct your customers to your portal and have them reset their password there. More information can be found by reading our Customer Portal Article. 

Passwords sent from the system are only good for 12 hours for security purposes. If a customer tried to click on their reset password email after 12 hours, they would get an error informing them that their Password Token Expired. 

Help Them Click on the Correct Reset Password Link

Sometimes, customers will claim that even though they just reset their password, they still are getting a Password Token Expired error, like in the image below

This customer did not click on the correct Change My Password link in their email. This has to do with how their email provider stacks emails. 

For example, in the video below, I have sent this customer 5 different password resets. As you can see, gmail stacked all the emails together, and the correct "Reset Password" link is in the email at the bottom of the stack.  You may have to tell clients to scroll down to select the correct link or use the time stamps on the email to ensure they are selecting the most recent email. Any email from over 12 hours ago will result in a password token error.

Manually Reset Their Password

The last step to try is the most complicated, but it will often solve the customer's problems.

1. Write down the customer's email that's having a problem logging in.
2. Change the customer's email to an email used by someone at your company. You may need to add a +customer or +testing to circumvent Sera's email criteria. For example, if a technician is using the email jonathan@company.com, you could change the customer's email to jonathan+test@company.com and the email should still go to the email address.
3. Once the email is changed, send a password reset. This will send a password reset email to the email you just entered.
4. Set the password to something basic: Company123, and change the email on file back to the customer's original email.
5. Log into the customer portal using the credentials on the account: customer email + your new password. This ensures the credentials are correct.
6. Send those credentials to the client, tell them you manually reset their password, and they should be able to successfully log in. 

Here is an example of the process. 

If you are still having trouble, reach out to our support team by emailing help@sera.tech.