Search filters are used throughout the application to narrow down your search criteria. They take the form of input boxes which will automatically populate when you start typing. This makes the search much more accurate as it is data that actually exists in the system.

An example would be when you click the Profile administration button, you are able to filter on commonly used fields like first name and Last name.

If you were to start typing into the first name field as demonstrated below, you will see that the input box starts listing names that would seem familiar. These are the names of people that currently exist in the system. Just select the one you are searching for and click the Search button.

We have selected to search for all profiles that have a first name of Michael and once we click the Search button all profiles with this first name will be displayed in the grid.

The process of impersonating a profile means, in the context of this application, to do something on another profiles behalf. When a customer calls up and wants to schedule a collection, you want to book that collection on that customers behalf. If they phone up to cancel a collection, you want to perform that on their behalf. This is exactly what impersonating the customer refers too.

As with most customer related tasks, they are driven from the Profile administration page. In the previous tutorial you were introduced to filters so now we will use that as we would like to impersonate a customer. Let us find Michael as we would like book a collection on his behalf.

Type Michael into the First name field, and click the search button. The list of available customers will shrink down dramatically; now move the mouse cursor over the name of the Michael you would like to impersonate. Once you have done that a fly out will open up with a couple of options, we want the impersonate option, so click the Impersonate button.

You will now be redirected to the profile you are impersonating Account page, where you can update contact information, change password, maintain collections etc. Notice in the top right hand corner that you are impersonating the customer; you are also able to schedule a collection by clicking the Arrange Collection menu item.

When you have entered the data on the customers' behalf, please revert back to your own profile by clicking the Revert link in the top right hand corner of this page.

This will revert you back to your own profile, please note top right hand corner of this page.

What we have found is that some of our customers prefer to register over the phone. There is the Add user functionality that has been provided for exactly this. You are able to register the customer on their behalf and then impersonate them in order to schedule collection on their behalf too.

What happens every now and then is that the customer would prefer to manage his own bookings so they register on the site in order to do so. Now you have a dilemma, you have two profiles associated with that customer each one containing already scheduled collections. Again, because stats are important to us, we would prefer to merge these profiles together rather than ignoring the old one and using the new one.

Again, fear not as the IroningWeb platform can very easily cope with any of this problem.

Navigate to the Profile administration page by clicking the Profile administration button on the administration dashboard.

Now, find the old customer profile you would like to merge into the newly registered customer profile. So here we are searching for the old profile.

NOTE: This is important as once the customer profile has been merged that profiles status will be set to suspended and that profile will no longer be able to have collections scheduled against it.

If you get it wrong, it can all be reversed so not all is lost; it’s just a bit trickier than getting it right first time round.

When you have found the old customer profile, hover over his name and click the Merge button.

You will now be presented with the following page allowing you to search for the new customer profile. This uses the same mechanism as the Profile administration page, so when you start typing the first name the type-a-head feature will list all possible options for you to select from.

Once you have narrowed down the new customer profile, click the merge button associated with that profile. The merge button is the green and orange arrow button on the right for that record.

If you see this page, it confirms the profiles have now successfully been merged.

As you can see the old profile has now been marked as Suspended so that collections can no longer be associated with this profile.

If a customer requests to be removed from your database then the easiest way to do that is to suspend the account. If for what ever reason you no longer want a customer to schedule a collection, again just suspend their account.

As with most customer related tasks, they are driven from the Profile administration page. In the Filters tutorial you were introduced to filters so now we will use that as we would like to suspend a specific profile. Let us find Michael as we would like book a collection on his behalf.

Type Michael into the First name field, and click the search button. The list of available customers will shrink down dramatically; now move the mouse cursor over the Status field of the Michael you would like to suspend. Once you have done that a fly out will open up with a couple of options, we want the suspend this profile so click the Suspend button.

The profile is now suspended and what this means is that that customer will no longer be able to gain access to your web site in order to schedule a collection.

If you have suspended the wrong customer, not too worry as we will be running through the profile activation tutorial next.

In the past some customers have found it tricky to activate their account, this is mostly due to the email being reformatted and clicking the link therefore does not have the desired effect. If you ever have a customer phoning up that would like to schedule a collection but is unable to do so due to an incorrectly formatted email, worry not as within a few clicks you can activate his account giving him the ability to schedule that all important collection.

As before, most customer related tasks are driven from the Profile administration page. In the Filters tutorial you were introduced to filters so now we will use that as we would like to activate a specific profile. Let us find Michael, who has recently registered but has had problems activating his account. Please remember to uncheck the Active only checkbox.

Type Michael into the First name field, and click the search button. The list of available customers will shrink down dramatically, now move the mouse cursor over the Status field of the Michael you would like to activate, currently it will have a state of Registering. Once you have done that a fly out will open up with a couple of options, we want to activate this profile so click the Activate button.

The profile is now active and the customer will be able to schedule a collection when they next try and login.

If you need to email a customer and use Outlook, click on the Profile administration image button.

Find the profile you would like to email and click on their email address. This will launch Outlook allowing you to compose an email to that customer.