---
sourceDocument: Brazil Customer Relationship Management
sourceDocumentLink: https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/customer-relationship-management

 Release :

    - brazil

ft:locale :

    - en-US

ft:publication_title :

    - Brazil Customer Relationship Management

ft:clusterId :

    - crm

bundleId :

    - crm

workflow :

    - CRMI


---

# Customer data

# Customer data {#ariaid-title1}

Release version: Brazil  
Updated September 10, 2026  
![](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/portal-asset/ico-clock) 6 minutes to read
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This content was generated using new OpenAI-powered functionality. Results are provided on an as is basis and are not guaranteed to be accurate or complete.  

## Summary of Customer data

The customer data module in the ServiceNow CRM portfolio enables you to configure and manage essential customer records and financial entities, including accounts, contacts, consumers, households, and billing accounts.
This shared data model ensures that customer records created in one CRM product are instantly accessible across others without duplication, facilitating seamless collaboration among agents, sales teams, and technicians.
Show full answer Show less  

## Customer Data Entities

* **Account:** Represents customer or partner organizations, supporting hierarchical parent-child relationships to model legal or operational structures.
* **Contact:** Individual employees linked to an account, able to associate with multiple assets and service contracts, and access the Customer Service Portal.
* **Consumer:** Individual B2C customers operating independently of business accounts, interacting via self-service or assisted channels.
* **Household:** Groups of consumers sharing an address or products, managed under a head of household with consolidated visibility into cases and accounts.
* **Billing Account:** Financial entities managing payments and invoices, supporting multiple billing arrangements and hierarchical billing structures.

## Account Structure and Relationships

Customer data entities are interconnected through various relationship types that control data visibility, access, and management responsibilities:

* **Account Hierarchy:** Organizes accounts into parent-child structures, granting parent account administrators visibility and management rights across all child accounts.
* **Account Relationships:** Bi-directional links between accounts (e.g., partner and customer) that enable case management and asset viewing across accounts.
* **Contact Relationships:** Allow contacts to be associated with multiple accounts, enabling cross-account actions and access via the customer portal, with assignable responsibilities.
* **Account Teams:** Groups of employees and contacts assigned specific roles supporting an account, facilitating role-based access and actions.
* **Consumer Relationships:** Connect individual consumers to authorized representatives or agents who can manage cases on their behalf.
* **Household Relationships:** Link consumers within households, allowing a head of household and agents to manage cases collectively.
* **Asset Contact Relationships:** Assign assets to specific contacts to restrict asset visibility on the customer portal to only those contacts responsible.

## Key Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

* **Unified Customer View:** Shared data model eliminates duplication and manual data transfers, providing consistent customer information across CRM products.
* **Flexible Relationship Management:** Supports complex organizational and billing structures through hierarchical and bi-directional relationships.
* **Role-Based Access Control:** Enables precise control of data visibility and management responsibilities through account teams and contact roles.
* **Improved Customer Service:** Facilitates authorized representatives and agents managing cases on behalf of consumers and households, enhancing service delivery.
* **Asset Visibility Control:** Restricts asset access to assigned contacts, improving security and relevance of information presented on the customer portal.  
Configure and manage the core customer records, accounts, contacts, consumers, households, and billing accounts, that agents, sales teams, and technicians rely on across the CRM portfolio. Because customer data is shared across
all CRM products, a record created in one context is immediately available in another without duplication or manual transfer.

## Customer data entities {#crm-customer-data__section_z3k_yng_y3c}

Customer data in the CRM portfolio consists of information about the people and organizations your business serves, along with the financial entities that manage billing and payments. The following entities form the core of the customer data model.{#crm-customer-data__table_xvf_d5t_y3c__entry__3}

| Entity | What it represents | Key characteristics |
|-|-|-|
| Account | A customer or partner organization that your business serves or works with. | Functions as a customer account, partner account, or both. Supports hierarchical parent-child relationships across the organization. |
| Contact | An individual employee of an account who interacts with your service organization. | Belongs to one account. Can be associated with multiple assets and service contracts. Can log in to the Customer Service Portal. |
| Consumer | An individual customer in a B2C service model. | Operates independently of a business account. Interacts with the organization through self-service portals or assisted service channels. |
| Household | A group of consumers who share an address and common products or services. | Groups consumers under a designated head of household. Provides visibility into cases and account information for all members. |
| Billing account | A financial entity that manages payment and invoicing for services, separate from the customer relationship. | Allows multiple billing arrangements per customer and consolidated billing across customers. Supports parent-child hierarchies for complex billing structures. |
[Table 1. Customer data entities]

{#crm-customer-data__table_xvf_d5t_y3c}

## Account structure and relationships {#crm-customer-data__section_nxm_m5t_y3c}

Customer data entities are connected through a set of relationships that control visibility, access, and management responsibilities across the CRM portfolio. These relationships determine which users can see which records, who can
act on behalf of whom, and how organizational structures are represented in the system.  
The following table summarizes every relationship type available in the customer data model.{#crm-customer-data__table_y54_45t_y3c__entry__3}

| Relationship type | What it connects | What it enables |
|-|-|-|
| Account hierarchy | Parent account to child accounts. | Represents the legal entity structure. Gives parent account administrators visibility and management access across all child accounts, contacts, cases, and assets. |
| Account relationship | Account to account or account to partner. | Creates bi-directional relationships between accounts. Allows partner accounts to manage cases and view assets on behalf of customer accounts. |
| Contact relationship | Contact to an account other than their own. | Associates a contact with additional accounts beyond their primary account. Enables the contact to view information and perform actions on behalf of associated accounts through the customer portal. |
| Account team | Employees and contacts to a specific account. | Assigns responsibility definitions (roles) to internal employees and customer contacts who support a particular account. Built using the responsibility definition framework. |
| Consumer relationship | Consumer to consumer. | Creates an authorized representative relationship between two consumers. The authorized representative can manage cases on behalf of the other consumer. |
| Consumer team | Agent to consumer. | Creates a relationship manager relationship between an agent and a consumer. The agent can access and manage all cases for that consumer. |
| Household relationship | Consumer to household. | Adds consumers as members of a household. A consumer can belong to multiple households with one designated as primary. Supports head of household and relationship manager roles. |
| Asset contact relationship | Asset to contact. | Assigns specific assets to one or more customer contacts. When enabled, restricts asset visibility on the customer portal to only the assigned contacts. |
[Table 2. Entity relationships]

{#crm-customer-data__table_y54_45t_y3c}

## Account hierarchy {#crm-customer-data__section_utt_14g_y3c}

Accounts can be organized into a parent-child hierarchy to reflect the legal or operational structure of a customer organization. A parent account provides visibility across all child accounts, allowing customer administrators to view
and manage cases, contacts, and assets at any level of the hierarchy.

Each account is assigned a unique account code, and the hierarchy is tracked through an account path that combines the account codes of each account in the chain. For example, a parent company with two regional subsidiaries produces
three account paths: the parent's own code, and a parent/child path for each subsidiary.

## Account relationships {#crm-customer-data__section_okw_4vt_y3c}

Account relationships create bi-directional links between accounts. Each relationship has a defined type (such as "Partner of") and an automatic reverse relationship on the target account (such as "Customer of"). These relationships
allow partner accounts to report and manage cases on behalf of customer accounts, view associated assets, and coordinate service delivery.

Account relationship types are defined by the administrator and can link a customer account to another customer account, a customer account to a partner, or a partner to a partner. Deleting a relationship record automatically deletes
the reverse relationship. Existing customer service cases that reference the relationship are not affected.

## Contact relationships {#crm-customer-data__section_zy5_yvt_y3c}

A contact belongs to one account, but contact relationships allow that contact to be associated with additional accounts. Through a contact relationship, a contact with the customer or customer administrator role can view information
and perform actions, such as creating or updating cases from the customer portal, on behalf of the associated accounts.

When creating a contact relationship, the available contacts include those from any related partner or account, as well as contacts from the account hierarchy. Each contact relationship includes a responsibility that defines the
contact's role for that account. Starting with the Zurich release, administrators can assign multiple responsibilities per account for a single contact.

## Account teams {#crm-customer-data__section_ivj_1wt_y3c}

Account teams bring together employees and customer contacts who fulfill specific roles in supporting a particular account. Teams are built using responsibility definitions, named roles that the administrator creates and assigns to
team members.

There are two types of responsibility definitions: one for employees (internal users) and one for contacts (external users). Once definitions are created, the customer service manager assigns them to specific users for each account.
Team members appear in the Account Team Members related list on the account record. An account team member assigned an account manager responsibility can view information and perform actions on behalf of the account through the customer
portal.

## Consumer relationships {#crm-customer-data__section_k2m_cwt_y3c}

Consumer relationships connect individual consumers to each other or to agents who manage their cases. Two types of consumer relationships are available:

* Consumer-to-consumer relationships use the authorized representative responsibility. A consumer with this relationship can manage cases on behalf of the other consumer, regardless of whether they share a household.
* Consumer team relationships use the relationship manager responsibility. An agent with this relationship can access and manage all cases for that consumer.
{#crm-customer-data__ul_kkb_dwt_y3c}

## Household relationships {#crm-customer-data__section_mwy_2wt_y3c}

A household groups consumers who share an address and common products or services. A consumer can belong to multiple households, with one designated as the primary household. Each household can have a designated head of household who
has access to all cases and information for the other household members.

Household relationships also support household teams, which are relationships between an agent and a household created using the relationship manager responsibility. Agents with this relationship can manage all cases for that
household. When a household is deleted, the system clears references and associations to the household but does not delete the associated consumers, cases, or work orders.

## Asset contact relationships {#crm-customer-data__section_qjl_h4g_y3c}

Asset contact relationships assign specific assets to one or more customer contacts who are responsible for managing those assets. By default, all account and partner contacts can see all assets related to an account. To restrict
visibility, administrators create asset contact relationships and enable the associated system property.

When enabled, asset visibility on the customer portal is limited to the assigned contacts: the My Assets list shows only assigned assets, and the Asset field on the Create Case form shows only assets for which the user is a contact.
Asset contacts can be selected from the account that owns the asset, the partner of that account, or any contacts added through contact relationships.
**Related topics**   

* [Data models](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=data-models&version=brazil&pubname=brazil-customer-service-management&ft:locale=en-US)
* [User management](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=user-management&version=brazil&pubname=brazil-customer-service-management&ft:locale=en-US)
* [Product data](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=product-data&version=brazil&pubname=brazil-customer-service-management&ft:locale=en-US)
* [Customer data](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=customer-data&version=brazil&pubname=brazil-customer-service-management&ft:locale=en-US)
* [Configure Service Model Foundation](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=configure-industry-data-model&version=brazil&pubname=brazil-customer-service-management&ft:locale=en-US)