Providing Multi-brand Customer Support - Zoho Desk Knowledgebase

Providing Multi-brand Customer Support

Your brand distinguishes the products or services you offer from those of others. As much as your brand you must be unique and consistent with your customer service. Multi-brand customer support in Zoho Desk allows you to distinguish the identity of your brands by providing each brand its own Help Center. 

You might already be knowing that you can organize your customer support operation into departments in Zoho Desk. Each department can have its own service channels, SLAs, notifications, community, and Knowledge Base articles. With the multi-brand feature, you can now add a Help Center for these departments. You can customize the logo, colors, layout and permissions of the multi-brand Help Centers to make them follow your brand principles. Moreover, you can allow your end-users to have a single profile to access all brands (i.e., Help Centers) or they can register for individual brands. 

Permission Required
Users with the Support Channels administrative permission can access this feature.
Check Feature Availability and Limits
Basics of Multi-brand Support
On creating a Zoho Desk account, a default department, and its Help Center is added. You can add departments to add as many brands as you need. However, managing user profiles in a multi-brand environment is a little different to using the default Help Center. To begin with, two types of multi-brand Help Centers are available in Zoho Desk. They are:
  • Common User Base
  • Unique User Base
The Common User Base model provides your end users the convenience to access multiple Help Centers with one set of login credentials (e.g., email address and password). So regardless of the Help Center, you invited from, they can access all of them. Please note that your users will not be aware of the other branded Help Centers unless advised to access.

In the Unique User Base model, your end-users can only access the Help Center they have registered for or were invited. So when a user visits a new brand, they must register again to access the Help Center. In both the models, you are required to manage end-users from within the respective Help Centers.  
Creating Multi-brand Help Centers
Creating multi-brand Help Centers involves three steps:
  1. Add departments for your brands.
    [You can customize the departments as per the requirements of your brand]
  2. Enable Multi-brand Customer Support. 
    [Multi-brand Help Centers with a common user base is enabled]
  3. Add Help Centers for the departments you've created.
    [You can customize the Help Centers for their appearance, permissions, etc.]
Adding Departments
Before you add the branded Help Centers you must create the requisite departments in Zoho Desk. To add departments, see Managing departments. When you add a department you must configure the support channels and associate agents to receive and answer tickets respectively. To create a multi-branding department, ensure that it is not associated with more than one Knowledge Base category.
Enabling Multi-brand Customer Support
By default, you will have only one Help Center regardless of the number of departments you've in Zoho Desk. You must enable the multi-brand customer support feature to add branded Help Centers for each of your custom departments.


To enable multi-brand support
  1. Go to Setup (  ) > Organization > Rebranding.
  2. Click Multi-branding under the Rebranding sub-menu.
  3. Click Enable Multi-branding.
    Multi-brand feature with a common user base is enabled.
Note
  • Although you could switch between the user bases (common vis-à-vis unique), we strongly recommend that you decide and stick to either one of them.
Adding Help Centers for Departments
Now that you've enabled multi-brand support you must add the Help Centers for the respective departments [read, brands] in Zoho Desk. You can proceed to click Configure, on the multi-branding setup page or follow the instructions below:



To add a Help Center
  1. Go to Setup (  ) > Channels > Help Center.
  2. Click New Help Center in the upper right corner.
  3. Select a Department Name from the drop-down menu.



  4. On the Help Center page, follow the below steps:
    • Click upload icon to add a logo.
      The logo should not exceed 20 KB and is best viewed in 200:40 pixels.
    • Click upload icon to add a favicon.
    • Enter the Logo-linkback URL.
      Customers will be directed to this URL when they click your logo in the Help Center.
    • Enter a Name for the Help Center.
      This name is displayed alongside the logo in the Help Center.
    • Select the Help Center URL from the domain section, e.g. support.bayandco.com. Simply hover over a domain URL and click Set as Primary.
      This URL is where your customers will access the brand's Help Center. 
      If you don't have a domain, click Map Domain to add a new one.
  5. Click Save.
You can follow the above steps to add more branded Help Centers in your help desk.

Switching to Unique User Base
By default, you will be enabled for multi-brand support with a common user base. However, you can choose to switch to the unique user model so that your end users can access only the Help Center they have registered for or were invited.



To switch to unique user base:
  1. Go to Setup (  ) > Organization > Rebranding.
  2. Click Multi-branding under the Rebranding sub-menu.
  3. Click Manage on the Multi-branding page.
  4. Click Enable Unique User.



  5. Click OK in the alert window that appears.
    You may check the box in the window if you'd like to invite your existing users to the branded Help Centers.
    Multi-brand Help Centers with Unique User Base is enabled.
Notes
  • You must have configured at least two branded Help Centers to enable multi-brand support with the unique user base.
  • While switching to the unique user base, you could invite your existing users to the branded Help Centers. By doing so, your end-users will receive an email invite from the domain address of the individual brands (i.e., Help Centers).
  • Once unique user base in enabled, you can't roll back to the common user base. 
  • Administrators cannot independently switch back to the common user base. To switch to the common user base, please reach out to support@zohodesk.com.

Updating Help Centers with Logo
You can upload a logo to the branded Help Center to distinguish it in the minds of your customers. It also makes it easier for your customers to submit and track tickets in the right portal. To upload a logo, go to Setup >> Help Center >> Select Help Center >> Rebranding
The uploaded logo will be visible on the:
  1. Help Center, obviously.
  2. Emails sent out at various points such as user invitation, user activation, user deactivation, and password reset.
Note
  1. If you don't upload a logo, visitors to your branded Help Centers will see the default Zoho Desk logo in the masthead. Moreover, the emails sent to your end users will include your company logo available under SetupGeneralRebranding.
Disabling Multi-brand Support
You can disable multi-brand customer support at any time in Zoho Desk.
To disable multi-brand support
  1. Go to Setup (  ) > Organization > Rebranding.
  2. Click Multi-branding under the Rebranding sub-menu.
  3. Click Manage on the Multi-branding page.
  4. Click Disable Multi-branding.
  5. Click Yes to confirm your action.
Point to consider
  • When you disable multi-brand with unique users:
    • The branded Help Centers will be deleted and their end users will not be able to visit or submit tickets to those brands.
    • You may choose to migrate the end users of your brands to the default Help Center. By not doing so, the users will be deleted from your Zoho Desk.
    • The migrated users who are not a part of your default Help Center will receive an email invite.
  • You must delete all of your multi-brand Help Centers before you could disable multi-brand setup with common users.

    Access your files securely from anywhere

      Zoho CRM Training Programs

      Learn how to use the best tools for sales force automation and better customer engagement from Zoho's implementation specialists.

      Zoho CRM Training
        Redefine the way you work
        with Zoho Workplace

          Zoho DataPrep Personalized Demo

          If you'd like a personalized walk-through of our data preparation tool, please request a demo and we'll be happy to show you how to get the best out of Zoho DataPrep.

          Zoho CRM Training

            Create, share, and deliver

            beautiful slides from anywhere.

            Get Started Now


              Zoho Sign now offers specialized one-on-one training for both administrators and developers.

              BOOK A SESSION









                                            You are currently viewing the help pages of Qntrl’s earlier version. Click here to view our latest version—Qntrl 3.0's help articles.




                                                Manage your brands on social media

                                                  Zoho Desk Resources

                                                  • Desk Community Learning Series


                                                  • Digest


                                                  • Functions


                                                  • Meetups


                                                  • Kbase


                                                  • Resources


                                                  • Glossary


                                                  • Desk Marketplace


                                                  • MVP Corner


                                                  • Word of the Day


                                                    Zoho Marketing Automation

                                                      Zoho Sheet Resources

                                                       

                                                          Zoho Forms Resources


                                                            Secure your business
                                                            communication with Zoho Mail


                                                            Mail on the move with
                                                            Zoho Mail mobile application

                                                              Stay on top of your schedule
                                                              at all times


                                                              Carry your calendar with you
                                                              Anytime, anywhere




                                                                    Zoho Sign Resources

                                                                      Sign, Paperless!

                                                                      Sign and send business documents on the go!

                                                                      Get Started Now




                                                                              Zoho TeamInbox Resources



                                                                                      Zoho DataPrep Resources



                                                                                        Zoho DataPrep Demo

                                                                                        Get a personalized demo or POC

                                                                                        REGISTER NOW


                                                                                          Design. Discuss. Deliver.

                                                                                          Create visually engaging stories with Zoho Show.

                                                                                          Get Started Now









                                                                                                              • Related Articles

                                                                                                              • Customizing Help Center Home Page

                                                                                                                Customize the way your Help Center content is organized using the simple drag-drop method in Zoho Desk. You can add custom widgets, show or hide tabs and customize their appearance to keep your customers engaged with the right content at the right ...
                                                                                                              • FAQs: Help Center

                                                                                                                What is help center in Desk? Help Center is a customer portal that allows users to learn about the product and understand its processes by accessing knowledge base articles. It provides a platform for self-help and learning, where users can find ...
                                                                                                              • Managing Help Center Permissions

                                                                                                                When you set up the Help Center, you must determine who should have access to it. You may allow anyone to access the Help Center or only those who have registered for it. Providing an open Help Center is less of an effort for your legitimate ...
                                                                                                              • Implementing a secure user authentication for help center using JWT

                                                                                                                User authentication and data exchange play a crucial role in today's interconnected digital world. The increasing reliance on online services, cloud computing, and the exchange of sensitive information necessitates robust mechanisms to verify the ...
                                                                                                              • Guide to building a multilingual Help Center

                                                                                                                Whether you are a global business or expanding into a new market, you need to find a way to help customers in their native language. Because it doesn't matter how well-written or comprehensive your knowledge base articles are if your customers can't ...
                                                                                                                Wherever you are is as good as
                                                                                                                your workplace

                                                                                                                  Resources

                                                                                                                  Videos

                                                                                                                  Watch comprehensive videos on features and other important topics that will help you master Zoho CRM.



                                                                                                                  eBooks

                                                                                                                  Download free eBooks and access a range of topics to get deeper insight on successfully using Zoho CRM.



                                                                                                                  Webinars

                                                                                                                  Sign up for our webinars and learn the Zoho CRM basics, from customization to sales force automation and more.



                                                                                                                  CRM Tips

                                                                                                                  Make the most of Zoho CRM with these useful tips.



                                                                                                                    Zoho Show Resources