Create customer relationships

concept australia Updated Sep 10, 2026 1 min read c_CustomerServiceRelationships.md

The Customer Service Management application provides the ability to establish different types of relationships between partners, customers, and contacts.

These relationships make account and asset management easy and flexible. The following table describes the available customer relationships.

Note: To use this functionality, you must have sn_crm_foundation_data_manager or sn_crm_foundation_admin role.

Relationship	Description	Benefit
Bi-directional account relationship	Create a relationship between:- A partner account and a customer account. Two customer accounts. A bi-directional account relationship is created using a defined account relationship type.	An account relationship enables partner account contacts with the partner role or the partner administrator role to create and manage cases for their partner account.
Account hierarchy	Create a parent-child relationship between accounts.	An account hierarchy enables an account contact with the customer administrator role to manage the child accounts.
Contact relationship	Add a contact from a third account to either of the accounts in an account relationship.	A contact relationship enables a contact with the customer role or customer administrator role to manage the account for which the contact relationship has been established.

Relationship

Description

Benefit

Bi-directional account relationship

Create a relationship between:- A partner account and a customer account.

Two customer accounts.

A bi-directional account relationship is created using a defined account relationship type.

An account relationship enables partner account contacts with the partner role or the partner administrator role to create and manage cases for their partner account.

Account hierarchy

Create a parent-child relationship between accounts.

An account hierarchy enables an account contact with the customer administrator role to manage the child accounts.

Contact relationship

Add a contact from a third account to either of the accounts in an account relationship.

A contact relationship enables a contact with the customer role or customer administrator role to manage the account for which the contact relationship has been established.

73 lines · 2.1 KB Wrap lines

---
title: Create customer relationships
description: The Customer Service Management application provides the ability to establish different types of relationships between partners, customers, and contacts.
locale: en-US
canonical_url: https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/australia/customer-service-management/c\_CustomerServiceRelationships.html
release: australia
topic_type: concept
last_updated: "2026-09-10"
reading_time_minutes: 1
breadcrumb: [Configure accounts and contacts, Customer data, Set up your environment, Configure, Customer Service Management]
---

# Create customer relationships

The Customer Service Management application provides the ability to establish different types of relationships between partners, customers, and contacts.

These relationships make account and asset management easy and flexible. The following table describes the available customer relationships.

**Note:** To use this functionality, you must have sn\_crm\_foundation\_data\_manager or sn\_crm\_foundation\_admin role.

<table id="table_rn3_acct_rel_types"><thead><tr><th>

Relationship

</th><th>

Description

</th><th>

Benefit

</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>

Bi-directional account relationship

</td><td>

Create a relationship between:-   A partner account and a customer account.
-   Two customer accounts.

A bi-directional account relationship is created using a defined account relationship type.

</td><td>

An account relationship enables partner account contacts with the partner role or the partner administrator role to create and manage cases for their partner account.

</td></tr><tr><td>

Account hierarchy

</td><td>

Create a parent-child relationship between accounts.

</td><td>

An account hierarchy enables an account contact with the customer administrator role to manage the child accounts.

</td></tr><tr><td>

Contact relationship

</td><td>

Add a contact from a third account to either of the accounts in an account relationship.

</td><td>

A contact relationship enables a contact with the customer role or customer administrator role to manage the account for which the contact relationship has been established.

</td></tr></tbody>
</table>