How to Set Your Customer Portal Password the First Time
The first time you use the Customer portal, you choose your own password with Set your password on the sign-in page. Your service provider creates your sign-in for your email address first; you then put a password on it, and you are signed straight in. Your service provider never sees the password you choose. If your service provider has already given you a password, you do not need this page: sign in with that password instead.
How do I set my password for the Customer portal the first time?
On the Customer portal sign-in page, select Set your password, type your email address, your name and a new password twice, then select Set your password again. You are signed in straight away and do not need to sign in a second time.
- Open the Customer portal address your service provider gave you.
- Select Set your password under the Sign in button. The page's heading changes to Set the password for your sign-in.
- Type the email address your service provider set up for you in Email address. You cannot choose a different address here: only the address your sign-in was created with works, so if you want to use another one, ask your service provider to change it first.
- Type your name in Your name. This is the name your service provider sees, for example beside a call you log, and the name the Customer portal greets you by and shows at the bottom of its menu. Check the spelling: the portal has no screen to change it later, and only your service provider can correct it.
- Type a password of at least eight characters in New password, and the same password again in Type it again. Select Show beside New password to see what you typed in both boxes, and Hide to cover them again.
- Select Set your password. While it works, the button reads Setting it….
Your password is now set, and the Customer portal opens on your account, or on Choose an account if your sign-in is linked to several. Next time, sign in with your email address and this password on the page headed Sign in to see your calls.
Why do I need my service provider before I can set a Customer portal password?
You cannot sign up to the Customer portal on your own: your service provider first creates a sign-in for your email address and decides which of your accounts it reaches and what it may show. Set your password only puts your own password on a sign-in that already exists. The Customer portal does not send you an invitation email either, and no confirmation email after you set your password: your service provider tells you the portal's address and the email address they set up for you. If you are expecting an invitation that has not arrived, ask them for those two instead.
The same goes for a colleague: each person needs a Customer portal sign-in of their own, created by your service provider for their email address, so ask your service provider rather than sharing yours. With a shared sign-in, every call logged and every change made to a call is recorded under your name, and a Forgot password by either of you switches the sign-in off for both of you.
If you use Set your password before your service provider has created your sign-in, you see The company has not created a sign-in for that address yet. Ask them to add it. Contact your service provider and ask them to set up Customer portal access for your email address, and check that you typed the address they used.
What do the messages on the Set your password screen mean?
Each message on the Customer portal's Set your password screen points to the box or the setting that needs attention.
- Enter your email address. — the Email address box is empty.
- Enter your name, so the company knows who logged a call. — the Your name box is empty.
- Enter your ABM password. — the New password box is empty.
- The two passwords are not the same. — New password and Type it again differ. Select Show beside New password to see what you typed in both boxes, correct them, and select Set your password again. The two boxes are compared on the page before anything is sent, so nothing has been set yet.
- Choose a password of at least eight characters. — the new password is too short.
- The company has not created a sign-in for that address yet. Ask them to add it. — there is no sign-in for that email address yet.
- That address already has a password. Sign in, or use Forgot password. — a password is already set for this address, by you or by your service provider. Use Sign in with the password you were given or chose. If you do not know it, Forgot password sets a new one, but it switches your sign-in off until your service provider switches it back on, so you may prefer to ask them first.
- Access has not been granted for that sign-in. The company has to switch it on. — your sign-in exists but is switched off. Contact your service provider.
- That sign-in cannot be used here. Ask the company to check it. — your sign-in is not set up for the Customer portal. Contact your service provider.
- The server is busy signing people in; try again in a moment. — you tried again very quickly. Wait a few seconds and try again.
If, after you select Set your password, a message names your email address and ends The office has to set which customer accounts this sign-in reaches., The office has to correct it. or The office has to narrow it., your password has been set, but your service provider has a problem with the list of accounts your sign-in reaches. Do not set your password again: contact your service provider, and once they have fixed it, sign in with the password you just chose.
Note: Moving between Sign in, Set your password and Forgot password empties the password boxes but keeps your email address, so a password typed on one screen is never used on another by mistake.
Does my Customer portal password need a capital letter, a number or a symbol?
No. The only rule for a Customer portal password is its length: a new password must be at least eight characters long. The New password box on Set your password and on Forgot password says so before you type, with the hint At least eight characters. Capital letters, numbers, symbols and spaces are all allowed, and none of them is required, so eight or more of any characters you like will do. A shorter one is refused with Choose a password of at least eight characters., and nothing is changed.
The eight-character rule is checked only when a password is set, never when you sign in. So if you already have a shorter Customer portal password, for example one you have used since before this rule, it still works: sign in with it as usual on the page headed Sign in to see your calls. Only if you choose a new password with Forgot password does the new one have to be at least eight characters, and then your sign-in is switched off until your service provider switches it back on. A password your service provider sets for you is at least eight characters too.
A longer password that you do not use anywhere else is safer, because the password is the only thing that protects your Customer portal sign-in.
Can my service provider see my Customer portal password?
No. Your Customer portal password is stored scrambled, in a form that cannot be turned back into the password, so nobody at your service provider can read the password you chose, and their list of Customer portal sign-ins does not show it. This is true of any password you choose yourself with Set your password or Forgot password. A password your service provider sets for you is one they typed, so they know it until you choose your own.
What your service provider can do is set a new password on your sign-in, of at least eight characters, and tell you what it is. That replaces your old password, and any browser where you were signed in with the old one is signed out. They do not need to know your current password to do this, so there is no reason to tell anyone your password, including your service provider.
If your service provider has set a password for you and you would rather have one only you know, use Forgot password on the sign-in page to choose your own. Remember that Forgot password switches your sign-in off until your service provider switches it back on, so contact them afterwards.