Adding and Onboarding Customers

Master the four methods of adding customers to Nukta — manual registration, captive portal self-onboarding, CRM lead conversion, and bulk CSV import.

Four ways to onboard customers

Nukta provides four distinct paths for onboarding customers, ensuring that whether you are signing up a single fixed-fiber residential client or admitting hundreds of walk-in Wi-Fi users daily, your operations remain streamlined and automated:

1. Manual Account Creation: Used by customer service and network technicians when provisioning new fixed PPPoE lines, commercial clients, or static device bindings.
2. Automated Captive Self-Onboarding: Zero-touch customer acquisition for public Wi-Fi zones, student hostels, and retail hotspots.
3. CRM Lead Conversion: One-click transition from an interested sales prospect in the Leads pipeline into a live customer record without retyping information.
4. Bulk Spreadsheet Import: Safe migration of existing customer lists from legacy billing tools or spreadsheets.

Method 1: Manual account creation

To create a customer account from your administrative dashboard:

1. In your dashboard, open Users → Customers.
2. Click Add Customer in the top-right corner.
3. Fill in the primary customer details:
   • Full Name: The legal or preferred name of the customer (e.g., Jane Doe).
   • Phone Number: Customer's mobile telephone number including country code (e.g., +254 712 345 678 or your country's dial code). This number receives payment receipts and renewal SMS reminders.
   • Email Address (Optional): For dispatching monthly PDF billing invoices and account statements.
   • Account Number / Prefix: Choose an auto-generated prefix (e.g., S105) or enter a custom identifier (such as an apartment unit number like A12-DOE).
4. Select the Connection Type:
   • Hotspot: For walk-in Wi-Fi access on campus, hotel, or estate hotspots.
   • PPPoE: For residential broadband, fixed wireless CPEs, and dedicated commercial fiber links.
   • Device Binding: For browserless hardware (e.g., Smart TVs, consoles, and cameras) requiring pre-authorized MAC access.
5. Configure network context and package assignment:
   • Assigned Package: Select an active plan from the package picker. The dropdown automatically filters to plans compatible with the chosen connection type.
   • Assigned Router: Select the MikroTik router serving the customer's physical premises.
   • Access Credentials: Enter a unique username and a secure password or PIN. These can be shared directly with the customer or copied to their home router configuration.
   • Plan Expiry: By default, Nukta calculates the expiration date and time automatically based on the package duration. You can also set a custom target expiry date for special contracts.
6. Click Save Customer.

Nukta provisions the account immediately. If the customer is on PPPoE, enter the credentials into their home router WAN settings to establish connection right away.

Method 2: Automated captive self-onboarding

For public Wi-Fi zones and hotspot estates, automated self-onboarding operates without requiring manual team intervention:

1. The customer joins your open Wi-Fi network.
2. The branded Nukta captive login portal appears on their device automatically.
3. The customer browses your active packages and selects their preferred plan (e.g., 3-Hour Unlimited or 24-Hour Pass).
4. They enter their mobile telephone number and select their preferred payment method (such as an automated mobile push, card checkout via Paystack, or a prepaid voucher PIN).
5. Upon payment confirmation:
   • Nukta creates an active customer record in your dashboard.
   • The customer's device MAC address is automatically bound to the account.
   • An optional welcome SMS is dispatched containing their login credentials and payment receipt reference.
   • The device connects to high-speed internet in seconds.

Method 3: Converting leads from the CRM pipeline

When sales representatives and field survey teams qualify prospective clients in Users → Leads, converting a won lead into a paying customer takes a single click:

1. Open Users → Leads and select the qualified lead.
2. Review the prospect's contact details, physical address, and site survey notes.
3. Click Convert to Customer on the lead detail card.
4. Nukta pre-populates the customer creation form with the lead's name, phone number, email, and service location.
5. Select the client's agreed internet package and assign their serving MikroTik router.
6. Click Save Customer.

The prospect is upgraded to an active customer, the lead status changes to Converted, and all historical sales notes are preserved in the customer's permanent record. If a customer with that phone number already exists, Nukta links the lead directly to prevent duplicate account creation.

Method 4: Bulk customer import

When migrating from a legacy billing platform or onboarding an entire residential estate from an Excel spreadsheet:

1. In the Customers directory, click the Actions dropdown and select Import Customers.
2. Download the standardized CSV/Excel import template.
3. Prepare your spreadsheet following these rules:
   • Preserve the header row without altering column titles.
   • Ensure mobile phone numbers include international country codes.
   • Ensure usernames are unique and contain no spaces or special characters.
   • Match the package name column exactly to packages already created in Finance → Packages.
4. Upload your completed spreadsheet to launch the validation preview.
5. Review the row-by-row validation report. If formatting errors exist (e.g., missing router name or duplicate phone number), Nukta flags the specific rows so you can fix them before committing.
6. Click Run Import. Nukta creates and provisions the accounts in a single batch.

Validation rules and common errors

To protect network stability and billing integrity, Nukta enforces uniqueness checks on customer creation:

• Phone Number Already in Use: Every mobile number must be unique within your ISP workspace to ensure payment reconciliation routes to the correct account. If a conflict occurs, search the customer directory to verify if the client previously registered under a different name.
• Username Conflict: Usernames must be globally unique across your workspace. If an entered username is taken, append a number or neighborhood identifier (e.g., john_k2 instead of john).
• Incompatible Package Selected: If a plan does not appear in the package selector, verify under Finance → Packages that the plan's service type matches the customer's connection type (Hotspot vs. PPPoE) and that its status is set to Live.
• Router Unreachable During Device Binding: When binding a device by MAC address, ensure the designated MikroTik router is online and active in your dashboard so Nukta can register the authorization without delay.