How to add a customer

A customer is the record at the center of everything that you do in Lychee. Presentations, appointments, orders, and follow-ups all connect to the customer record. This guide tells you how to add a new customer. It shows the details that you can record and who can see them.

Permissions

Permissions control what you can see and do with customers. Permissions are different for each person. They depend on what your business gives you. You might have one of these levels of access:

You can only search customers.
You can add and update customers.
You can manage every customer in the business.

Thus, some of the information on this page may not match what you see.

Two permissions are important for this guide:

Adding customers lets you create new records. This guide is about this permission. If you do not see a way to add a customer, you do not have this permission yet. Ask your administrator.
Managing customers lets a person see every customer, whatever the visibility is. It also lets that person change the visibility of a customer. Most sales associates do not have this permission.

Adding a customer

Start a new customer. You can add a customer from the customers area. You can also create a customer immediately from most places that ask you to choose a customer. Thus, a person who is not in Lychee yet does not stop your work.
Enter their name. First and last name are always required. If a customer gives you only one name, enter a dash (-) in the other field. When you know the missing name, update the field.
Add contact details. (Optional) Enter an email and a phone number. Lychee compares these details with every customer in your business, not only the customers that you can see. This prevents duplicate customers. If the email or phone is already on file, Lychee shows a warning. Lychee shows this warning also when you do not have access to the existing customer.
Complete any other fields. Your business decides which other details to record and which details are required. Your administrators set which fields show when you add a customer. Examples are a birthday, a mailing address, and preferred brands. Your administrators also set which fields you must complete before you can save. Thus, your form may ask for more than a name. It may also look different from the form of another store. Complete the fields that you can. You can add optional details later.
Save. The history of the customer in Lychee starts here. The details that you entered may match a customer who is already on file. That customer may come from your point-of-sale system or another system, or a colleague may have added them. In that case, Lychee connects you to that existing customer and does not create a duplicate.

The record can be new or it can be an existing record. In both cases, you can now see and work with the customer. The default visibility of your business automatically sets who can see the customer from now on. The next section explains visibility. If the customer existed before, you may not see their whole history. Your permissions and the visibility of the customer control how much of their past you can see.

Who can see a customer: visibility

Each customer has a visibility setting. This setting controls which of your colleagues can see and work with the customer:

All: Everyone at your business can see this customer.
Restricted: Only you and the specific colleagues or teams that the customer is shared with can see the customer.
Private: Only you can see this customer.

As a sales associate, you do not set the visibility. A new customer automatically gets the default visibility of your business. This default is often Restricted. Your administrators choose the default in settings. If a customer needs a different visibility, ask a person who can manage customers to change it.

Two more facts about visibility:

Managing customers overrides visibility. A person who can manage customers sees every record, whatever this setting is. Thus, Restricted and Private limit your colleagues, but they do not limit people with that permission.
Some customers may be hidden from you. Your business can hide imported customers. Imported customers are records that come from other systems. If your business hides them, you may not see them, even when their visibility is All.

After you add the customer

When the customer exists, you can do these things, if your permissions allow them:

Record a presentation.
Add notes. You can keep sensitive notes private.
Apply a badge.
Add the customer to a segment.

Each interaction that you record from now on adds to the history of the customer. This history makes Lychee useful.