Customer Center
The NetSuite Customer Center is a time saving and productive tool for any company. The out of the box customer center comes with the ability to open support tickets, view recently ordered products, quotes, and open balances. Not only that, customers will be able to make payments, place orders, print statements, and edit account details. These tasks may otherwise take employees hours to complete, but can be done directly by the customer.
How do I reach the customer center?
Under Setup > company > company information is the link to the customer center that is included in the notification email when access is granted. The normal NetSuite login page will not work for customers trying to access the customer center. The image below shows where the link is if it ever has to be manually sent.
How do I enable the customer center?
In order to enable the customer center: on the customer record, go the system information tab, then to access, and from there, you will see an option to either enable a general login for the customer or a login per user. In either case, it is best to set a generic password and send a notification to the customer that access has been granted. If a generic password is entered, then inform the customer over phone or edit the email template that sends out the customer center link with this information. Image of access section on customer is below.
What does the customer center look like and can its appearance be customized?
The customer center can be revised in 3 main ways:
- Permissions – Permissions associated with the customer center role can be changed for each specific user. After creating a copy of the customer center role, permissions levels can be changed but new permissions cannot be added. This is one of the main complications with the customer center. Example SuiteAnswers article: 9897
- Portlets, Links, and Tabs – Editing portlets in the customer center can be tricky. Essentially, NetSuite looks at the customer center as part of the website. Custom tabs are created but then must be associated with website categories. SuiteAnswers has a depth of knowledge spread across at least 10 articles covering this topic. Example SuiteAnswers article: 18305
- Forms – Revising the forms associated with the role, like adding and removing subtabs, can control what tasks a user is able to complete while logged in. All customer center forms have “external” as part of the form name. Example SuiteAnswers article: 9897
The beauty of the product is that there can be several versions of the customer center associated with different users in one company. There can be one customer center for an accountant and another for a sales person. Its general, appearance cannot be dramatically changed though. To add a skin to this product, the premium customer center is needed.
The out of the box customer center is pictures below:
My Account
If a company has a NetSuite hosted website, then the customers will likely be logging into that site to manage that account. The “My Account” section of the website is the center associated with the customer record in NetSuite. The customer center does still exist through a separate link if someone wants to access it that way. If a company has a site that is not hosted by NetSuite, the standard customer center will probably still be used. Editing the customer center edits “My Account”. The image below is of the “My Account” section of a website. Please note that the layout may have changed but a lot of the customer center functionality is still listed.
Premium Customer Center
The premium customer center is an enhanced version of the customer center. This feature is sold separately or comes with the Suite Commerce Advanced purchases. The Premium Customer Center has an additional cost for site builder customers. Some of the features include full quote capabilities (request to approval), scriptable carts, and wish lists (item lists). Its true purpose is to enhance the B2B experience and build upon the existing Site Builder limitations. In general, it may not look different from the customer center, but the abilities are enhanced, especially when it comes to development.
Advanced Customer Center
The advanced customer center role is something that comes with suite commerce advanced. The only purpose of this role is to setup the store locator feature for a website. The role comes in bundle 134179. How to setup the store locator in in Suite Answers article 51626. An example of the store locator is to take a customer’s listed information and return stores within a fixed proximity, ex: 20 miles. The store locator feature incorporates google maps like the image below:
The table below includes a breakdown of the roles:
| Standard NetSuite Customer Center | Premium Customer Center | Advanced Customer Center | |
| Billing | Yes | Yes | No |
| Make a Payment | Yes | Yes | No |
| Print a Statement | Yes | Yes | No |
| See A/R Register | Yes | Yes | No |
| See All Transactions | Yes | Yes | No |
| Orders | Yes | Yes | No |
| Enter an Order | Yes | Yes | No |
| See Orders | Yes | Yes | No |
| Quote Request and Approval | No | Yes | No |
| Request a Return | Yes | Yes | No |
| See Return Requests | Yes | Yes | No |
| See Items Ordered | Yes | Yes | No |
| Support | Yes | Yes | No |
| Contact Support | Yes | Yes | No |
| See Support Cases | Yes | Yes | No |
| See Support Issues | Yes | Yes | No |
| Account Information | Yes | Yes | No |
| Update Account Information | Yes | Yes | No |
| Website | Yes | Yes | No |
| Scriptable Cart | No | Yes | No |
| Wish Lists | No | Yes | No |
| Mapping Store Locations | No | No | Yes |
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Additional NetSuite Resources
Why You’ll Love NetSuite’s Business Intelligence Dashboards
Creating a Save Search in NetSuite for Transactions With Related Records
