We have a couple of different types of customers, the main two are (NEW) customers, or VIP customers.
Identifying new customers
While businesses may have different definitions of " New", being able to identify new customers at a glance is super handy. Especially if they require a different approach from your regular customers.
We will recognise a customer as NEW if:
- You have just added them as a new customer.
- They have never had a Completed appointment with you before.
- A customer will still be counted as (NEW) if they Confirmed bookings that haven't been completed.
When a customer is new, you will see a tag added to their appointments, as well as in their customer record:
- From the Customers tab:
- From the Calendar sidebar:
- When you look at an appointment in the Calendar you will see a (NEW) tag displayed next to their name:
Update the customer from new to returning
The customer will be updated to Returning when:
- They have a booking marked as Completed in the calendar.
- The Book next button is used to make a new appointment for them (from a previous appointment). This applies to desktop, mobile and the iOS app.
- The Book next button is used from the calendar sidebar.
If you would like to record a customer as returning, or have slightly different requirements for recognising (NEW) customers, then you can update their status manually too.
From the Customer's record
You can manually update their Customer type to reflect whether or not they are still new:
- Head to the Customers tab.
- Select the customer's record and click Edit in the top right corner:
- On the Details page, update their Customer type to Returning:
- Click Save to update their status (which will remove the NEW identifier from their appointments).
From an existing appointment
If the customer has had an appointment before, but is still showing up as (NEW) in the calendar, you can update their Customer type from the booking.
- Click on the appointment in the calendar and choose Edit:
- Next to the customer's name, click the Edit customer link:
- Update the Customer type field to Returning:
- Click Update to apply. The (NEW) status will be removed from the appointment/customer.
When adding a new appointment:
You can also set a customer as New or Returning when you add an appointment for them.
- Add a new appointment to the calendar.
- Start adding a new customer name in the First/Last name box:
-
We will automatically check to see if there is an existing customer with that name. If no customer is found the customer will automatically be registered as a New customer.
-
If the Customer is new to Timely, but not to the business, you can click on the New Customer field and select Returning from the list instead:
- Click Save to add the appointment and create a new customer record.
When a customer books online, we will automatically check to see if they have an existing customer record. If their details don't match an existing record, then a new customer will be created that will be set to "New".
-
Mark a customer as a VIP
In Timely, you also have the option to mark a customer as a VIP.
- This is perfect if you'd like to separate one sort of customer from another e.g. frequent flyers, high spenders or perhaps customers on all inclusive membership or monthly payment schemes.
- To mark as customer as a VIP:
- Head to the Customers tab and search for their record:
- Or, open their record in the calendar sidebar:
- Click Edit on their customer record:
- Go to the More info tab:
- Click the Is VIP? button:
- Click Save to update their record.
Once a customer is flagged as VIP, a star icon will appear on their record and appointments:
Customer record
Appointment
Calendar sidebar
Tip: When running the Customer list report, check the <strong">VIP Only box to view a list of your VIP customers.
To view the number of new customers within a specified period, the Executive Summary report will show the number of new customers alongside total customers.