Customers

You can get to this part of the system when you first log in by clicking the Register icon on the far left of the blue Admin Toolbar.

Customer Functions in the Register

The first thing you have the option of doing is adding the customer to the transaction by either searching for the one you want, as shown below, and clicking on their name in the drop-list that comes up, or by clicking the blue + button and creating a new Customer entry for them in the system. Customers can check out anonymously, but if their name is in the Register, they will benefit from gaining Reward Points and coupons, and it will be easier for you to work with returns they might make or gift cards they might purchase. NOTE: To look up Quotes, Account Balance, Layaways, Special Orders, Work Orders, Transaction History, and Items Purchased, the customer's name will need to be loaded into the Register.

If you click to create a New Customer, you'll see a blank version of the sample Customer below. If you click on the Customer's name, you'll see their information in a panel like the one below. For more information on how to create Customers and work with Customer data, click here.

1. Customer Information - Enter general information about the customer such as Name, Phone numbers, Email, Company, and Address.
   1a. Driver License - (Not Pictured Above) There is a field you can store driver's license numbers for your customers just below the phone numbers, if needed. You can also use the Image Upload button to upload a photo of a driver's license. Please Note: It is illegal to keep permanent records of anyone's ID without their consent, so please be sure you have that before saving anyone's ID with this function. It may be possible that your state has specific laws regarding this practice, so please check with your local chamber of commerce on the legality of this practice before using it.
   
   
   
   
2. Photo - If you want to add a photo of the customer, you can click on the silhouette graphic and you'll be able to Browse your computer for an image file. This image will display in the Register.
3. Customer Stats - The Rain system keeps detailed statistics about all of your customers, and looking in this area can be enlightening about a customer's shopping history.
4. Account Balance - If a Customer Owes money to the store or has a Customer Credit, it will display here. If they have a balance they owe, you can click on the Pay button to take the payment into the Register. If you want to follow their recent transactions and see how they have come to have the balance they currently do, you can click the View button (more below). If you want to manually adjust the balance, click Edit. You'll need to put in a Reason for the adjustment. A balance owed will go in as a normal number, for example, 212, but a credit balance needs to be entered as a negative number, such as -212. After you click Update, you must click Save at the bottom of the panel for your changes to take effect. Prior to saving, you may not see the update you just made, so to confirm the changes, you may need to reopen the Edit Customer panel.
   
   
   
   When you click the View button, you'll see the full history of the customer's On Account balance, with line items for every change made. You can hover your mouse over the Note icons to see reasons for manual changes.
   
   
5. Other Information -  For Customer Notes, any notes you put in this area will pop up on screen whenever you load the Customer into the Register. If you miss it there when it pops up, the Customer Notes will also be accessible by clicking any of the Customer Actions buttons in the upper right of the Register.
   
   
6. Custom Customer Data Fields - If you go in the blue Admin Toolbar to the Gear-Shaped Button > Settings > POS Settings > Customer, you are able to add custom fields to collect and use information for your customers. For more information on how to create these custom fields, click here. In this example, custom fields for Hobbies (text area field), Fax Number (phone number field), Outdoor Interest (a custom-named drop-list), and Most Recent Class (a custom-named date field).
7. More Custom Customer Data Fields - Another example is at the bottom of the panel. For this sample company, a drop-list field for Club Membership was created. These custom field are in place for each customer, and the data for them is searchable. 
8. Start Transaction - You can click the Start Transaction button to immediately open the Register and automatically load the customer.
9. Merge Customers - From time to time you may get duplicate customers in the system. This usually happens due to spelling mistakes or different email addresses being used. To correct this, find the one that has the proper email address and click to open the Edit Customer panel. Click the Merge Customers button at the bottom, and search for the duplicate name. Please note that if there is only one duplicate, you will see only one such name in your search, but if there are multiples, you may need to either Merge or Delete some copies. Once it's complete, there will only be one customer under that name, with all transactions from both.

Once you have the Customer loaded, you can see a lot of useful information about them in the upper bar, as pictured below. You'll see 1) Contact Information (the small button of a figure with an 'x' will remove the current Customer and let you search for another), 2) Rewards program info and Customer Balance (credit balance in green numbers or balance owed in red), and 3) Customer Actions. In order as shown below, the Customer Actions are Quotes, Customer Notes, Work Orders, Reward Coupons, Rentals, Layaways, Special Orders, and Rent to Own. Any of the icons highlighted have entries that are active in the system for the Customer. Clicking on any of the Customer Actions icons will open the Customer Actions panel, showing you all current activities for the customer.

Here is a breakdown of the various Customer Actions currently usable in the Register (see image below):

1. Quotes - A Quote is a permanently saved transaction and is used to either print and give to a customer for a requested quote, or just to permanently save a set of items that have been loaded into the Register for later purchase. To create a Quote, load the item(s) needed into the Register along with the Customer, open the Customer Actions panel and click the + for Quotes. From then on, that Quote will be accessible here whenever the Customer is loaded into the Register. You can open a saved Quote by clicking the Load button, you can also Print it at any time, or Delete it as needed. (See image below for each of these functions)
2. Customer Notes - If you open the Customer (by clicking on the name in the Register) you can add Notes that will display in this panel. This area is useful for reminders, such as club membership, birthdays, etc.
3. Account Balance - If the Customer has a balance, it will display here; numbers like those pictured below are for a Balance Owed, and a negative number represents a Credit Balance. Clicking on the balance will add it to the Register as a line item, either to be paid or as a credit to whatever is being purchased. NOTE: If the Customer has a credit balance larger than the transaction total, we highly recommend NOT adding the credit to the Register in this way. Instead, use On Account as a payment method, which will allow you to use only the part of the credit balance needed. If it is loaded as a line item and exceeds the transaction total, you will owe the customer change.
4. Reward Coupons - If the Customer has any Reward Coupons that are available for use, they will appear here. You can click on the coupon to add it to the Register, and it will appear as a Discount. Clicking the % button in the Register will show you details about the Reward Coupon.
5. Layaways - Any active Layaways for the Customer will be listed. You can start a new one by clicking the +. The Customer can make a payment if you click the Pay button, and that payment will go into the register as a line item with any late fees accrued, or the customer can pay off the entire Layaway if you click the Pick Up button. You can learn more about how to work with Layaways by clicking here.
6. Special Orders - If a Customer wants you to order them an item from one of your Vendors, you can click the + to create a Special Order. Please note that if you are not using our Purchase Order system, you will NOT want to use Special Orders, since each must be associated with a Purchase Order and then received in order to be picked up from the Register. You can view any active Special Order for the Customer by clicking on the Order Number, and once it has been received, you can click the Pick Up button to add the item to the Register. Click here to learn more about how to process Special Orders.
7. Work Orders - If the customers have any Work Orders that are in process or ready to be picked up, they will appear in this area. You can click on the Work Order listing to add it to the Register. Click here to learn more about Work Orders.
8. Search - The Search module for the Customer Actions is robust, and allows you to search for specific transaction or items, just enter a Transaction ID (or scan a receipt barcode) or enter keywords for products or scan a product barcode label. The list will filter down to display only the items that match the search.
9. Transactions - A list of the customer's Transactions is in this area, with the most recent at the top. You can click on any of them to view the transaction details.
10. Rentals - If the Customer has any Rentals that are currently Out or Overdue, they will be listed here. Rentals that are Out will display that in green, and Overdue Rentals will display in red, either can be adjusted by clicking the Edit button to alter the terms of the Rental. You can click the Return button to complete payment on the Rental. The Rental will be loaded into the Register as a line item and can be paid for in the normal way. To learn more about how to work with our Rentals system, click here. The Rentals module is available for all clients on our Plus service package for Point of Sale.
11. Rent to Own - Any active Rent to Own / Rent to Rent items the customer may have will be listed here. You can click on the Rent to Own Number to open the full details of the contract in a panel, or you can click the Pay button if the customer wants to make their payment in the Register.