--- title: "Link Customer Profile to an External (Integrated) System" slug: "link-customer-profile-to-an-external-integrated-system" 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: 2025-08-18T19:49:51Z published: 2025-08-18T19:49:51Z --- > ## 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 them in the Customer's Profile by linking them. 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 display a purple link icon. Hovering over ![](https://cdn.us.document360.io/7047b671-c4f2-4df0-bb0a-b9b511fd2452/Images/Documentation/purple-link-icon.svg) 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.gif) ## 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. 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 allows you to search for the Customer using an order number. [Archived Shopify orders](https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/checkout-settings/order-processing#set-up-automatic-order-archiving) 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. ![Search interface showing possible matches for customer Julie Chang in Gladly system.](https://cdn.us.document360.io/7047b671-c4f2-4df0-bb0a-b9b511fd2452/Images/Documentation/link_customer_manually.webp) 6. Click **Link**. #### **Unlink** To unlink a Customer from an external system, click![](https://cdn.us.document360.io/7047b671-c4f2-4df0-bb0a-b9b511fd2452/Images/Documentation/kebab-icon-vertical.svg)then select**Unlink Customer** from the Customer Card. If the Customer is linked to multiple systems, unlinking a Customer unlinks them from all external systems. ![Customer details including options to unlink or merge customers and total spent amount.](https://cdn.us.document360.io/7047b671-c4f2-4df0-bb0a-b9b511fd2452/Images/Documentation/unlink_customer.png) Once unlinked, transaction information from the source will disappear from the Customer's Profile. > [!WARNING] > Deleted Customer information keeps reappearing > > Customer details (e.g., phone number) deleted from Gladly will reappear if the Customer is linked to an external system (e.g., Shopify) with the same information. You must unlink the Customer's Profile from an external source to stop information from reappearing. ## 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**, one of the integrations is not working. ![Linking customer to external systems with email and phone number fields displayed.](https://cdn.us.document360.io/7047b671-c4f2-4df0-bb0a-b9b511fd2452/Images/Documentation/external_link_search.webp) - As an Agent, instead of the Search In field showing All Unlinked External System, open the list, 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](https://help.gladly.com/docs/add-new-integration#deactivate-an-integration), then reactivate the integration and try again. > [!NOTE] > Use the Lookup Adaptor Debugger tool for linking issues > > Developer and Administrator roles have access to the debugger tool. Contact them if you have problems linking a Customer Profile in Gladly to an external source. ## Customer exists in multiple external sytems A Customer can only be linked to one unique external record at any given time. For example, if a Customer has two email addresses in their Gladly Profile, and both email addresses have orders in two different external OMSes (e.g., two different Shopify stores), Gladly will only link and pull data from one store. As a solution, you can create a new Customer Profile using the second email address, which will allows orders to appear on the second email address, and use the [Pin and Relationship](https://help.gladly.com/docs/switch-between-profiles-of-related-customers) feature to link the two, related Profiles.