Every person who contacts your desk becomes a customer record. AB Support matches them on email address or phone number — whichever their channel gives it — so when they write in again, their earlier tickets are right there.
This is AB Support’s own customer store — not the AB Sales CRM. A support customer is someone who asked for help; it is not automatically a sales lead. The two products keep their own records so a company can run either one on its own. See what AB Support is.
Two identity keys, one per kind of channel
Which detail identifies the person depends on how they reached you. There is no sign-up and no password — the channel supplies the identity.
| Channel | Matched on |
|---|---|
| Web chat, support email, web form | Email address |
| WhatsApp, SMS | Phone number |
The same person on two kinds of channel starts as two records. Someone who emails you and later messages you on WhatsApp is matched by two different keys, so you will normally see a separate customer for each until the phone number is on the record. Their ticket history is split accordingly — worth knowing before you conclude a customer is new.
How a customer record forms
You don’t create customers by hand. The first time a new email address or phone number reaches your desk, AB Support opens a record for that person and attaches the ticket to it. The next message from the same address or number lands on the same record.
New email or number writes in Customer record created Later tickets attach to the same customer
What’s on a customer
| Field | Where it comes from |
|---|---|
| Name | What the person gave in chat, the form, their email “From” name, or their messaging profile. |
| The identity key for web chat, email, and web forms. | |
| Phone | The identity key for WhatsApp and SMS, stored in international format. |
| Ticket history | Every ticket this person has opened, across all of your channels. |
Why history matters: when you open a ticket, you can see whether this is a first-time visitor or someone you’ve helped before — so you don’t ask them to repeat themselves. See how a ticket works.
The customer store lives inside your support desk — each desk has its own customers, just as it has its own tickets and settings.