CustomerFlow supports the full survey cycle: identify the relevant customers, send multilingual invitations, collect responses through a branded web form, and evaluate the results directly in Dynamics 365 Business Central. The solution is designed for companies that want a structured, repeatable process for ISO 9001:2015 customer satisfaction measurement.
Good to know
CustomerFlow consists of two parts: the Business Central extension and a small external PHP web application that hosts the survey form and API. The Business Central app manages the business process; the web application handles the public survey link, branding, and secure response collection.
Prerequisite
Before users can answer surveys online, the CustomerFlow web component must be installed and configured, and the Business Central setup must contain the correct Survey Web Form URL and Web API Key.
Install the extension directly from Microsoft AppSource within Dynamics 365 Business Central.
Use Alt+Q to open Tell Me and search for Extension Marketplace.
Search for the app, open the marketplace entry and choose Get it now.
Follow the standard Dynamics 365 Business Central prompts.
Important: Allow HttpClient Requests
Because this app requires internet access to communicate with external web services, you must allow it to make HTTP requests. Depending on your version of Business Central, you may be able to check the box for Allow HttpClient Requests directly during the installation dialog. Otherwise, you must manually enable it afterwards by going to the Extension Management page, selecting CustomerFlow, and choosing Configure.
After installation, open the CustomerFlow setup page in Business Central and connect the extension to your survey web server.
Use Alt+Q in Dynamics 365 Business Central and search for Customer Satisfaction Survey Setup. This page contains the complete configuration for numbering, language fallback, and web integration.
In the Web Form area, fill in the integration values from the CustomerFlow web application:
| Field | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Survey Web Form URL | The public survey URL, for example https://survey.yourcompany.com/survey. This link is inserted into the survey email. |
| Web API Key | The API key generated by the web application admin panel. It secures communication between Business Central and the web server. |
| Last Response Poll | Shows when Business Central last checked the web server for completed responses. |
The setup page provides several actions to validate and automate the integration:
| Action | What it does |
|---|---|
| Email Templates | Opens the multilingual email template list for survey invitations. |
| Test Connection | Calls the web API and verifies that the server and API key are configured correctly. The company name is sent as well and can initialize the branding on the web server. |
| Setup Queue Job | Creates a Job Queue Entry that processes the integration queue and polls for completed responses every 5 minutes. |
| Poll Responses Now | Immediately checks the web server for completed responses and imports them interactively. |
| Queue Entries | Shows the technical queue used for register, close, reopen, delete, and polling operations. |
CustomerFlow is organized around survey campaigns. Each campaign defines an evaluation period and contains the individual customer entries that will be contacted.
Open Customer Satisfaction Survey, create a new record, add a meaningful description, and define the evaluation period. By default, many teams use the previous calendar year.
Use Populate Entries to automatically find customers with posted sales invoices in the selected period. CustomerFlow calculates invoice amount, credit memo amount, and contact information from recent invoice activity.
Check email addresses, language codes, and contact persons. Add or remove entries if needed before sending.
Use Send Survey Emails to register each token on the web server and send the invitation email with the personalized survey link and PDF attachment.
Customers answer the survey in the browser. Completed responses are imported automatically through the queue job or manually via Poll Responses Now.
Use the Survey FactBox, survey entries, and customer FactBox to review response rate, average score, and detailed ratings.
CustomerFlow uses a fixed questionnaire with eight rating questions and one comment field. This ensures a consistent evaluation basis across all campaigns.
| Question | Answer type |
|---|---|
| Overall satisfaction with our cooperation | 1-5 stars |
| Quality of products / services | 1-5 stars |
| Delivery reliability and adherence to deadlines | 1-5 stars |
| Availability and response time | 1-5 stars |
| Friendliness and competence of our staff | 1-5 stars |
| Value for money | 1-5 stars |
| Complaint and claims handling | 1-5 stars |
| Likelihood of recommending us | 1-5 stars |
| Additional comments and suggestions | Free text |
CustomerFlow includes ready-to-use templates in German and English. Templates are maintained directly in Business Central with an integrated HTML editor.
Each template consists of a Language Code, an email Subject, and a rich HTML body. The HTML body is edited through the built-in TinyMCE editor, which supports placeholder insertion for dynamic values.
If a customer's language does not have a dedicated template, CustomerFlow falls back to the Default Language Code from the setup page.
The invitation email typically contains:
| Placeholder | Replaced by |
|---|---|
| {CustomerName} | The customer name |
| {CustomerNo} | The customer number |
| {ContactName} | The selected contact person |
| {EmailAddress} | The recipient email address |
| {BatchDescription} | The survey campaign description |
| {PeriodStart} | The evaluation period start date |
| {PeriodEnd} | The evaluation period end date |
| {SurveyLink} | The personal survey URL including token |
Best practice
Keep the email wording short and personal. Explain why the customer is receiving the survey, how long it takes, and what you do with the feedback. This usually improves the response rate.
Each customer in a campaign is represented by a survey entry. This entry tracks the invitation status, dates, average score, and the individual answers.
Contacts can be selected directly from the customer's linked company contacts in Business Central.
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Created | The entry exists but no invitation has been sent yet. |
| Sent | The email has been sent and the token is active on the web server. |
| Completed | A response has been recorded, either from the web form or manually in Business Central. |
| Cancelled | The entry was intentionally stopped and should no longer be answered. |
| Action | What it does |
|---|---|
| Resend Email | Re-sends the invitation to selected entries, regardless of their current status. |
| Record Response | Marks the entry as completed and stores the current values on the response fields. Use this when the customer answered by phone, mail, or during a personal conversation. |
| Reopen | Changes a completed entry back to an editable state and reopens the corresponding token on the web server. |
| Cancel | Stops the entry and closes the corresponding token so the customer can no longer submit the survey. |
Manual response entry
The entry card allows direct maintenance of Q1-Q9 while the survey is still editable. This is useful when feedback is collected outside the web form. The average score is then calculated from the answered rating questions.
The CustomerFlow web component is the public-facing part of the solution. It receives survey tokens from Business Central, renders the branded form, and returns completed responses through a secure API.
The survey form is opened through a personal token link. Customers do not need a Business Central login.
The web application contains an admin area for maintaining the public survey experience and web integration settings.
| Integration step | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Register survey token | When an invitation is sent, Business Central registers the token and campaign metadata on the web server. |
| Poll completed responses | The queue job retrieves completed surveys from the web API. |
| Mark as fetched | After import, the response is marked as fetched to avoid duplicate import. |
| Close token | Completed or cancelled entries can be closed on the web server. |
| Reopen token | A completed survey can be reopened when a correction is needed. |
| Delete token | If an entry is removed in Business Central, the corresponding web survey can be deleted as well. |
CustomerFlow keeps the evaluation close to the operational data. Results are visible on the survey itself, on individual entries, and on the customer card.
The survey card shows a compact KPI view:
This gives quality management an immediate overview of campaign progress and participation.
On the customer card, the latest survey result can be displayed with:
This lets sales or account managers see recent satisfaction feedback without opening the full survey history.
The Average Score is calculated from the answered rating questions Q1-Q8. Unanswered rating questions are ignored rather than counted as zero. This helps preserve a fair average when a customer answers only part of the questionnaire.
CustomerFlow works best when the process is treated as a recurring quality workflow rather than a one-time mailing action.
Permissions
Users need permission to access the CustomerFlow pages and the related customer, contact, and email functionality in Business Central. In practice, this is typically handled through the delivered CustomerFlow permission set and the normal email permissions used in your tenant.
Yes. The public questionnaire and the API run in the CustomerFlow web application. Business Central alone does not host the public survey form.
Yes. Survey entries can be completed directly in Business Central and then marked as responded. This is useful for phone interviews, trade fair conversations, or paper forms.
The queue job is designed to poll the web server every 5 minutes. You can also trigger an immediate import with Poll Responses Now.
Yes. Use the Reopen action on the survey entry card. CustomerFlow reopens the entry in Business Central and sends a reopen request to the web server.
CustomerFlow uses an internal queue for integration steps such as token registration, close, reopen, and delete. If a direct call fails, the request is queued for retry later.
The delivered templates and web application support German and English. The Business Central setup also contains a default language fallback for cases where no exact template match exists.
Yes. The product is designed to support a standardized and documented customer satisfaction process, including repeatable questionnaires, response tracking, and result analysis in Business Central.
Whether you have technical questions, need guidance during your rollout, or want to share feature requests — our dedicated Dynamics 365 Business Central team is ready to assist you. Drop us a message, and we'll ensure you get the absolute most out of our apps.