Customer Assignment

Learn how to assign customers to sales staff and manage customer-staff relationships.

Overview

The Customer Assignment system allows you to:

• Assign specific customers to staff members
• Support one-to-one or many-to-many relationships
• Add notes and comments per customer
• Grant access to all customers for managers
• Track a primary staff per customer (used for display and optional order assignment)

Assignment Methods

Method 1: From Staff Account

Navigate: Staff > All Staff

1. Edit staff account
2. Scroll to Customers section
3. Use filters to find customers:
   • Name
   • Email
   • Customer Group
   • External Customer ID
4. Select customers (checkboxes)
5. Save staff account

Advantages:

• Bulk assignment
• See all assigned customers in one place

Method 2: From Customer Account

Navigate: Customers > All Customers

1. Edit customer account
2. Set the Primary staff value
3. Save customer

Advantages:

• Quick single assignment
• Set primary staff (used for dashboard display and order assignment if enabled)
• Customer-centric view

Method 3: Mass Assignment

Navigate: Customers > All Customers

1. Select multiple customers (checkboxes)
2. Actions dropdown > Assign Primary Sales Staff
3. Select staff member
4. Apply action

Advantages:

• Fastest for bulk operations
• Territory assignments
• Staff changes

Method 4: Import/Export

Requires: MageB2B_StaffImportExport add-on

1. Export current assignments
2. Edit CSV file
3. Import updated assignments

Advantages:

• Large-scale operations
• External data integration
• Backup and restore

Assignment Types

One-to-One Assignment

Configuration:

• Can customer have multiple staff: No

Behavior:

• Each customer should have exactly one staff relationship
• The system uses the customer’s Primary staff to represent that relationship
• When the primary staff changes, the previous staff assignment is removed automatically (so you don’t accumulate multiple assignments by accident)

Use Case: Territory-based sales, exclusive customer relationships

Example:

Customer A → Staff 1 Customer B → Staff 2 Customer C → Staff 1

Many-to-Many Assignment

Configuration:

• Can customer have multiple staff: Yes

Behavior:

• Customers can be assigned to multiple staff accounts
• The customer can still have one primary staff
• All assigned staff can access the customer (unless you restrict access via other settings)

Use Case: Team-based sales, account management teams

Example:

Customer A → Staff 1 (Primary), Staff 2, Staff 3 Customer B → Staff 2 (Primary), Staff 4 Customer C → Staff 1 (Primary)

Access All Customers

Configuration:

• Staff account: Access All Customers: Yes

Behavior:

• Staff can access any customer
• No explicit assignment needed
• Useful for managers, customer service

Use Case: Senior sales, customer support, management

Primary Staff

What is Primary Staff?

Primary staff is stored with the customer account and is used for:

• Displaying the assigned sales contact in the customer account dashboard (if enabled)
• Assigning orders to the primary staff when Set staff permanently on order is enabled

Setting Primary Staff

From Customer Grid (bulk):

1. Customers >All Customers
2. Select customers
3. Actions >Assign Primary Sales Staff
4. Pick staff

From Customer Edit (single):

1. Customers >All Customers > Edit customer
2. Set Primary staff
3. Save

Primary Staff Benefits

• Order Assignment: Orders can be assigned to primary staff (optional setting)
• Customer Communication: Primary contact for customer
• Reporting: Primary staff in reports

Customer Comments

Adding Comments

Purpose: Track customer-specific information

Examples:

• "Prefers phone orders"
• "Net 30 payment terms"
• "VIP customer - priority service"
• "Contact before 2 PM only"

Add Comment: Comments are typically managed by staff users in the frontend:

1. Login as staff
2. Go to Customers
3. Add/update the comment for a customer

Admins can still view comments in the staff-customer assignment grids.

Viewing Comments

Staff Dashboard:

• Go to Customers
• Comments visible in grid (if enabled)
• Hover for full comment

Configuration:

• Show comments in my customers list: Yes

Access Control

Customer Group Restrictions

Configuration: Stores > Configuration > MageB2B > Staff > General

• Restrict customer groups: Select groups

Behavior:

• Staff can only see selected customer groups
• Other groups are hidden
• Useful for B2B/B2C separation

Example:

Staff Group: B2B Sales Restricted to: Wholesale, Distributor Cannot see: General, Retail

Website-Specific Staff

Behavior:

• Staff accounts are website-specific
• Staff customer filtering by website depends on website sharing scope configuration
• Multi-store isolation

Use Case: Multi-brand operations, regional websites

Customer Search & Filters

Standard Filters

Available in Customers grid:

• Name: First name, last name
• Email: Customer email
• Customer Group: Group filter
• City: Billing/shipping city
• State: Billing/shipping state
• ZIP: Postal code
• Country: Country filter

External Customer ID

Configuration:

• Enable External Customer ID on customer grid: Yes
• External Customer ID attribute code: erp_customer_id

Use Case: ERP integration, legacy system IDs

Example:

Customer: Acme Corp External ID: ERP-12345 Staff can search: ERP-12345

Address Filters

Configuration:

• Filter default billing address only: Yes
• Filter default shipping address only: Yes

Benefit: Improved performance for large customer bases

Custom Search Filters

Configuration: Stores > Configuration > MageB2B > Staff > General

• Search filters for customer grid: Configure filters

Options:

• Enable/disable filters
• Reorder filters (drag & drop)
• Custom attribute filters

Customer List Display

Show Customers by Default

Configuration:

• Show customers by default: Yes/No

Yes: All customers displayed immediately No: Customers shown only after search

Recommendation:

• Yes: < 100 customers per staff
• No: >100 customers per staff

Records Per Page

Configuration:

• Enable limiter on Customer Grid: Yes

Options: 10, 20, 50, 100, 250, All

Benefit: Staff can choose preferred view

Removing Customer Assignments

Remove from Staff Account

1. Edit staff account
2. Find customer in Customers grid
3. Click Remove or Delete icon
4. Save staff account

Result: Customer-staff relationship removed, customer account remains

Staff Can Delete Customers

Configuration:

• Can staff delete his own customers: Yes

Behavior:

• Staff can remove customer assignments from frontend
• Only removes relationship, not customer account
• Useful for territory changes

Mass Assignment Note

The customer grid mass action supports Assign Primary Sales Staff. Bulk removal of staff-customer relations is handled through staff/customer edit flows.

Customer Reassignment

Customer Self-Reassignment

Configuration:

• Can customer reassign own account to another Sales Staff: Yes

Behavior:

• Customer can choose their sales representative
• Available in customer dashboard
• Staff receives notification

Use Case: Customer preference, territory changes

Admin Reassignment

Scenario: Staff member leaves company

Process:

1. Go to Customers >All Customers
2. Filter by departing staff
3. Select all customers
4. Actions > Assign Primary Sales Staff
5. Select new staff member
6. Submit

Result: All customers transferred to new staff

Best Practices

Territory Management

Strategy:

1. Define territories (North, South, East, West) 2. Create staff groups per territory 3. Assign customers by ZIP code or state 4. Use mass assignment for efficiency

Team-Based Sales

Strategy:

1. Enable multiple staff per customer 2. Assign account manager (primary) 3. Assign support staff (secondary) 4. Use comments to define roles

Customer Service

Strategy:

1. Create "Customer Service" staff group 2. Enable "Access All Customers" 3. Set commission to 0% 4. Focus on support, not sales

Performance Optimization

For Large Customer Bases:

• Disable "Show customers by default"
• Enable address filters (default only)
• Use external customer ID for quick search
• Enable limiter for pagination

Reporting

Assignment Reports

Available Data:

• Customers per staff member
• Unassigned customers
• Multiple staff assignments
• Primary staff distribution

Access: Staff > Reports

Customer Distribution

Metrics:

• Total customers per staff
• Customers per staff group
• Average customers per staff
• Unassigned customer count

Troubleshooting

Customer Not Visible to Staff

Check:

1. Customer is assigned to staff
2. Customer group not restricted
3. Website scope/sharing settings allow the customer to appear
4. Staff status is Active

Cannot Assign Customer

Check:

1. Customer exists
2. Staff account is Active
3. No customer group restrictions
4. Correct website selected

Multiple Staff Conflicts

Issue: Customer has multiple staff, unclear who is primary

Solution:

1. Edit customer account
2. Verify primary staff checkbox
3. Only one staff should be primary
4. Save customer

Next Steps

Learn about customer impersonation:

Customer Impersonation →