Customer Field Definitions

In addition to the Customer profile information you capture for your Customer database, your system can also allow you to manage your Customers ability to use the system for managing their own Appointments. Here are a list and definition of additional Customer profile fields so you understand how they further customize your scheduling system.

The Account field is used for Customer account numbers, membership numbers, or any other unique identifier you use for your Customers.

If you would like the account number to display next to the Customer's name on the Appointment grid:

If any data is entered into the Alert field, a red exclamation point will display next to the Customer's name on the Appointment grid. You can then roll your cursor over it to see the data you had entered in the Alert field.

The purpose of this field is to quickly alert you to any key information about a particular Customer. Examples might be a Customer with a high no-show rate, who is a late payer, or had a check bounce. It could be an alert about a Customer who is difficult to deal with.

If this field is set to "no" for a Customer, that person will not be allowed to log into the Customer View portion of the system. If they try to log in, the system will display a message saying they are not authorized to log in.

One way of using this field is to turn on the preference to require Customers to be "approved" before being able to log in and make Appointments (preference #1 Only allow customers to log in and make appointments after you set their "allow to log in" status to "yes" in the Customers section of Settings). So, when a Customer registers, normally they can log in immediately and can create Appointments. But, if you have this preference set to "yes", the system will not allow them to log in until you change their Allow To Log In value to yes.

This field can also be used to disallow certain Customers from making Appointments. An example would be if a Customer has an overdue balance and you want to prevent them from making Appointments until their balance is paid. You would set their Allow To Log In field to no to temporarily stop them from accessing the Customer View.

The Assigned To field can be used if you would like to assign Customers to Staff Members.

One important preference related to this field restricts a Customer from booking Appointments with Staff Members other than the one to whom they are assigned (preference #9. Only allow customers to make appointments with the staff member to whom they are assigned in the Customer View section of Settings). If this is set to "yes," when the Customer logs into the Customer View they will not be able to select a Staff Member; their assigned Staff Member will be preselected for them.

Two preferences in the Staff Members section of Settings (preferences #1 Allow limited access staff members to see customers assigned to other staff members and #2 Allow limited access staff members to see unassigned customers) deal with controlling if Staff Members can view Customers assigned to other Staff Members and if they can view unassigned Customers.

If the Customers of your organization are businesses and you prefer to access their data by company name as opposed to a person's name, you can turn on preference #2 In the customer drop-down lists, have it show the company name (employer) as opposed to the customer first and last name in the Customers section of Settings. By turning on this preference, you Customers will be listed by their business name (Company Name) in the Select Customer drop-down list when making Appointments.

Even if you don't turn on this preference, you can still use the Company field as part of the data you keep on your Customers.

Company name can be leveraged for Carrier or other Employer information in Appointments or displayed on the calendar.

The system generates a unique number for every Customer created. This is how the system identifies the Customer profile. If you have a need for having access to this unique number, enabling this field allows for that.

This field is not editable; you cannot change the unique number assigned to the Customer.

When you first create an account, the system automatically creates three statuses: New, Active, and Inactive. You can add as many Customer statuses as you like via the Lists > Customer Status Types section of Site Administration.

You can edit the name of the three default statuses, and, while it is possible to delete one of these three, it is not recommended, because parts of the system rely on these types.

As an example, the system can be configured to hide Customers whose status is Inactive from the Customer drop-down field when making a new Appointment. If you attempt to use the Inactive status type to mean something else in your account, it could impact the list of Customers available for the Appointment scheduling process.

Note: To hide inactive Customers, go to the Settings page, click Customers , and locate/change the setting of #4 Hide inactive Customers.

The Customer Type field is completely user-defined. You can make the values for this field anything you like. When it displays in Site Administration, it displays as a drop-down list. To create the values for this drop-down list, click on the Lists tab. Next, click on the Customer Type link on the left side of the page. Examples of Customer Types might be "VIP" and "Regular customer". Or, for a physical therapy business, they might be: "Work-related injury" and "sports injury."

To create a new Customer Type, click the Add New Customer Type button from this page. Enter the name in the description field and Save.

One way to use this information is in a report. For the Customer Report, you can filter by Customer Type, so you can run a report showing all Customers of a certain type.

The Gender field is a drop-down list that includes 2 options: Male and Female.

The Lead ID Types or Heard Via Types field is used to track how Customers found out about you or your business. This field displays to the user as a drop-down list. You can add as many entries to this drop-down list as you like. To do so, click on the Lists tab, then, click on the Heard Via? Types link on the left navigation.

You can also run a Customer Report filtered by the Heard Via? Type field. This would allow you to see which Customers found you by which type.

The Okay To E-mail field, along with the Okay to Mail, Okay to Call, and Okay to Contact fields are informational-only. There are no system processes that factor in this information. For example, if you have the Okay to E-mail field set to "no" for a Customer and you send out a mass e-mail (via the Customer Reports E-mail feature), it does not refer to the Okay to E-mail field. All of these field types are yes/no selections, not free text fields.

The Signup Date is the registration date for the Customer. If you create the Customer in Site Administration, their Signup Date is the date you created them. If you are using the Customer View part of the system and a Customer registers, the date they register is recorded as their Signup Date. This cannot be edited.

Any of the default fields can be changed to a field name of your choice. To do so, click on the Settings tab > Customer Fields/Terms, and change the Display Name of the field you would like to modify. Please be aware that some fields like First/Last Name, Address, City, etc are specifically formatted in other areas of the system like reports and receipts. We recommend using the fields that are not generally tied together when customizing the Customer Fields/Terms section of preferences.

If you need additional fields outside of the ones listed, please contact our technical support department.