Every entry is either public or internal. This is the most consequential thing about an entry, because it decides what a customer sees.
- Public — visible to the requester in a self-service portal as well as to staff. This is the default.
- Internal — staff only. Must never be shown in a portal.
The defaults favour disclosure — so check your portal
An entry written without specifying otherwise is public. That is the right default, since most entries are meant to be seen — but it means an internal note has to be marked internal deliberately, at the moment it is written, usually by somebody in a hurry.
Equally, a timeline read without filtering includes internal entries. That is right for the staff view and wrong for a portal.
Put together, these mean a portal page that simply displays the timeline will show internal notes to customers.
What to check
- Audit any customer-facing page that shows a timeline and confirm it filters to public entries only. Do this before you go live, not after somebody complains.
- Make sure the staff interface shows visibility unmistakably. Somebody writing a blunt internal note needs to see that it is internal before they save it.
- Never rely on hiding entries in the browser. If an entry reaches the page it has been disclosed, whatever the page does with it afterwards.
Guidance for staff
The simplest rule that works: assume the customer will read it, unless you have deliberately marked it internal. The failure mode is then an over-cautious note rather than an embarrassing one.