# Customers
The customer dashboard enables you to manage your customer information. Within this view, you can easily handle all the contact details and addresses. You can sort and filter the list by customer's ID, first name, last name, company or preferred sites.
Customers
You can also change the default view by using the options available under the orchestration icon.
{% hint style="info" %}
With the table orchestration, you can add custom columns to the list view, by adding **mixin** fields as columns. If you have already defined a mixin schema for the entity, you'd be able to select the defined mixin fields to display them in the main view.
See example how to do it in the [Displaying mixins in entity list view](/ce/management-dashboard/settings/mixin-schemas.md#displaying-mixins-in-entity-list-view) documentation.
{% endhint %}
### Creating a customer
{% stepper %}
{% step %}
**Choose to create a customer**
To start creating a customer, go to **Customer Management** -> **Customers** and choose **Add New Customer**.
{% endstep %}
{% step %}
**Provide customer's details**
Fill in the details related to the new customer, such as: name, contact details, preferred site, or a currency that the customer uses.
{% hint style="warning" %}
**Preferred Currency** and **Contact Email** are mandatory for a customer creation. You can decide to edit other details later. You can also set up a custom customer ID in the **Id** field. Otherwise, a unique ID is automatically generated when the customer is created.
{% endhint %}
{% endstep %}
{% step %}
**Optional: Assign restrictions**
This step is applicable when you use site permissions or custom restrictions to restrict visibility of entities to different user groups. When the sites and restrictions sync is on, there is no need to explicitly add restrictions, the restriction is identical to the **Preferred Site**. If you override the **Restriction** field, it takes precedence over the preferred site property.
To restrict a customer, select a site (or a restriction value) to a customer **Restrictions** field.
Customer restriction
{% hint style="warning" %}
The list of sites or restriction values depends on the specific user's restrictions to the site-aware (or restriction-aware) entities assigned through an employee group.
For more information about site permissions, see the [Site permissions](/ce/system-management/authentication-and-authorization/authorization/site-permissions.md).
{% endhint %}
{% endstep %}
{% step %}
**Create initial password**
Create an initial password for the customer for the first login. You can define it manually or use autogenerate option.
Customer password
{% endstep %}
{% step %}
**Choose Save to create the customer**
Save the details to create a customer in the system. As a result, the ID and the customer number are created, and the creation date is added. You can also see a new section related to marketing details, it includes data about coupons and deliveries.
{% endstep %}
{% step %}
**Set activation**
Mark if the customer is on hold and if it's an active customer.
* On hold - place the customer on hold whenever it's needed, for example when you want to perform any checks related to the customer
* Active - choose if the customer is active or inactive
{% hint style="info" %}
The default behavior for customer activation is set in **Settings -> System Preferences**. The system administrators can set `customerOnHoldOnCreation` or `customerActiveOnCreation` accordingly. For more information, see [System Preferences](/ce/management-dashboard/settings/system-preferences.md).
{% endhint %}
Customer activation
{% hint style="warning" %}
Depending on the activation settings, different actions follow the customer creation operation.
If you create a customer account with an initial password and `active = true` and `onHold = false` settings, after the customer is created in the system, they receive an email with the password.
If you create a customer account with an initial password and the `active = false` and `onHold = true` settings, after the customer is created in the system. After that, the customer receives an email with the initial password and the information that the account is being prepared. The customer can't log in yet until the account status is changed to fully active. Bear in mind that if you allow customer registration through your storefront, you need the storefront to notify the customer that the account is created but not yet fully approved.
Once you activate the customer's account (by setting `active = true` and `onHold = false`), the customer receives another email with information that the account is now active and they are able to log in using the password from the initial email.
The latter scenario mostly responds to B2B use cases, where customer account preparation requires several steps and workflows before the account activation, for example granting some permissions, assigning to legal entities, groups etc.
{% endhint %}
{% endstep %}
{% step %}
**Provide customer's address**
In the **Addresses** tab, you can provide the details of the customer's addresses with information about contact details and company names related to the customer. You can provide multiple addresses for the same customer and mark which one should be used as default. Similarly to the customer creation, you can also set up a custom address ID in the **Id** field. Otherwise, a unique ID is automatically generated when the address is added.
{% hint style="success" %}
It is possible to create a customer from a company contact. If you want to grant storefront access to an existing company contact person, see [Converting Contact to Customer](/ce/management-dashboard/customer-management/companies.md#converting-a-contact-to-a-customer).
{% endhint %}
{% endstep %}
{% step %}
**Assign a company**
For B2B scenarios, to assign a customer to a company, go to **Customer Management -> Companies** and select the specific company. Go to the **Contacts** tab and choose **Assign customer** option. Choose the customer from the list.
{% hint style="info" %}
For more information, see [Companies](/ce/management-dashboard/customer-management/companies.md).
{% endhint %}
{% endstep %}
{% endstepper %}
### Managing customer's details
The customer Details view allows you to check and manage the customer's information.
When a customer is assigned as a contact to a company or to a customer group, this assignment is also displayed in the customer view. From there, you can easily navigate to the assigned segment, company or group by clicking its name in the list. The customer view also shows the date and time of the customer’s last successful login to the online store.
Edit customer view
### Assisted Buying
{% hint style="warning" %}
The Assisted Buying button is visible only if there's at least one site with the configured storefront URL and if the logged in user is a member of the support group.
{% endhint %}
The **Assisted Buying** feature can be configured for each customer. The feature allows you to perform actions on behalf of the customer.
{% stepper %}
{% step %}
**Log in as a customer on a storefront**
In the drop-down menu of the **Assisted Buying** button, you can find all the customer's sites for which the assisted buying is configured. When you choose the site from the menu, a related storefront URL opens in another tab.
Assisted buying
{% hint style="info" %}
To check how to configure Assisted Buying, go to the [Sites](/ce/management-dashboard/settings/sites.md#assisted-buying) guide.
{% endhint %}
{% endstep %}
{% endstepper %}
---
# Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation
If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question.
Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter:
```
GET https://developer.emporix.io/ce/management-dashboard/customer-management/customers.md?ask=
```
The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language.
The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation.
Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.