---
title: "Link Customer Profile to an External (Integrated) System"
slug: "link-customer-profile-to-an-external-integrated-system-2"
description: "It's possible to pull additional information about the Customer from the external system and include them in the Customer's Profile by linking them. Learn more."
updated: 2026-04-03T20:26:02Z
published: 2026-04-03T20:26:02Z
canonical: "help.gladly.com/link-customer-profile-to-an-external-integrated-system-2"
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.gladly.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Link Customer Profile to an External (Integrated) System

Suppose your company has integrated Gladly with external systems like Shopify, Magento, etc. In that case, it's possible to pull additional information about the Customer from the external system and include it in the Customer's Profile by linking it. This could be information like their order details and history (if pulled from an OMS), loyalty information, flight information, etc.

Customer Profiles linked to an external source/app appear with ![](https://cdn.us.document360.io/7047b671-c4f2-4df0-bb0a-b9b511fd2452/Images/Documentation/purple-link-icon.svg) next to their name. Hovering over the icon displays the external sources the Profile is connected to and pulling data from.

![](https://cdn.us.document360.io/7047b671-c4f2-4df0-bb0a-b9b511fd2452/Images/Documentation/purple-link-icon-integration-1.gif)

> [!NOTE]
> **How auto-linking works.**
> 
> See [Automatically Link Customer Data](https://help.gladly.com/docs/automatically-link-customer-data/) for details on how auto-linking of data from external sources and Gladly Customer Profiles work.

## Auto-Linking Customer data between Gladly and an external system

When adding a new Customer to Gladly by entering their email and/or phone number in the Customer Profile, Gladly can automatically match the entered information with an external system and pull all the information about the Customer to the Customer Profile. Administrators [manage and activate Auto-linking](https://help.gladly.com/docs/automatically-link-customer-data) on an integration's [configuration page](https://help.gladly.com/docs/edit-and-deactivate-integrations).

### Manually link and unlink Customer data from an external system

#### Link

Agents can manually link a Customer to an external system by clicking **Link to external customer** in the Customer Card.

![Interface element prompting user to add customer name and link to external customer.](https://cdn.us.document360.io/7047b671-c4f2-4df0-bb0a-b9b511fd2452/Images/Documentation/multi-source-link-to-external-system-2.png)

On the **Link Customer to External System**page, search external systems on the left side of the screen by using the Customer's email address and/or phone number.

1. Click the **Search In** field and select which external system to search (e.g., Shopify, BigCommerce, etc.). If you're unsure which system to search, select **All Unlinked External Systems**.
2. Search the chosen external system by entering the Customer's email address and/or phone number.
  - **Note –** If searching Shopify, the **Order Number** field appears allowing you to search for the Customer using an order number. Archived Shopify orders will not appear.
3. Click **Search**.
4. You're presented with possible matches (if any) from the external system you searched in that matched your search criteria.
5. The **Systems** column shows which external systems the Customer has matched with. Click which system and detail you want to link the Customer to. Depending on how the integration is configured (e.g., what data about the Customer is pulled into Gladly), the new Customer information from the newly linked source will appear in the Customer's Profile.
6. Click **Link**.

![Search interface showing possible matches for linking a customer to external systems.](https://cdn.us.document360.io/7047b671-c4f2-4df0-bb0a-b9b511fd2452/Images/Documentation/link-customer-manually.png)

#### **Unlink**

To unlink a Customer from an external system, click**Unlink Customer** by clicking![Three vertically aligned circles representing a menu or options interface.](https://cdn.us.document360.io/7047b671-c4f2-4df0-bb0a-b9b511fd2452/Images/Documentation/grey elipsis menu.png)in the Customer Card. If the Customer is linked to multiple systems, unlinking a Customer unlinks them from all external systems.

![Customer details with options to unlink or merge customers displayed in a user interface.](https://cdn.us.document360.io/7047b671-c4f2-4df0-bb0a-b9b511fd2452/Images/Documentation/unlink-customer-from-source-1.png)

Once unlinked, transaction information from the source will disappear from the Customer's Profile.

## External system search is not working

If your company has multiple external integrations from which Customer information is pulled, and you get the error "Sorry, search is not working right now" when **Search In** shows **All Unlinked External Systems**, this means one of the integrations is not working.

![Form for linking a customer to an external system with email and phone number fields.](https://cdn.us.document360.io/7047b671-c4f2-4df0-bb0a-b9b511fd2452/Images/Documentation/external-search-system-error.png)

- As an Agent, instead of **Search In**field showing *All Unlinked External System*, open the list and pick a specific integration to link the Customer information, and try again. If you continue to get errors, contact your Gladly Administrator.
- If you're an Administrator, you'll need to find which integration is not working. If you're getting the error for a particular integration, go to the Apps page and deactivate, then reactive the integration and try again.

> [!NOTE]
> **Use the Lookup Adaptor Debugger tool for linking issues**
> 
> Developer or Administrator roles have access to the debugger tool. Reach out to them if you have problems linking a Customer Profile in Gladly to an external source.
