Customers

What a customer is

A customer is a person who calls your business, or someone a caller books for. Nobody types them in: Eli makes the customer when a caller gives their name for a booking or a message, and fills in their numbers and the detail your kind of business keeps: an auto shop keeps every car they mention, a home services company the property, a law office the matter. A restaurant or a salon keeps none. The list shows them under Details, and the column is there as soon as anyone has one; what Eli noted stays even if you later switch to another template.

A customer isn't a phone number. A family can share a home phone, and one person can call from their cell one day and from work the next, so a number can belong to several customers and a customer can have several numbers. A number someone called from is kept as one of theirs, even when they gave another as the best one to reach them.

When a number Eli has heard before calls again, Eli knows who it belongs to, but it never assumes. Before it books, takes a message, or talks about a visit, it asks: "Am I speaking with Terra?" when one person has that number, or "Who am I speaking with?" when several do. Only once the caller says they're that person does Eli use what's on file: it confirms the car, or whatever detail your business keeps, instead of asking for it, and knows which booking they mean. Someone else on that phone is a new caller to Eli, and hears nothing from anyone's file.

Which customers speak another language

Eli notes the language each call was in, from what the caller said. A call in a language other than English names it on Calls and on its page, and so does the customer who made it, in the list and on their page, so you know to call them back in Spanish. The next time they call, Eli greets them in Spanish. Nothing to set: it follows what they spoke last time.

When someone calls for someone else

A caller can book for someone else: "I'd like to book an oil change for my wife's car." Eli asks the wife's name and the caller's own, and books it under her name with her car. The number to call back is the caller's, since they're the one arranging it. On the call's page, the booking names her (press the name to open her page) and says whose number it is ("Ben's number"). On her page, the call shows under Calls as "Ben called for them".

A test call makes customers too, from the names and number you type, so a demo shows the same thing. Those customers say Test calls until a real call comes in for them.

Find a customer

1. Press Customers in the sidebar. Whoever called last is at the top. Each line shows the customer and their numbers, what Eli noted about them under Details (the cars at an auto shop), their last call, and how many calls are theirs. What needs doing, such as a message to return, is on Overview, not here.
2. To narrow the list, press a chip above it: All, one chip for each language your customers have spoken (Spanish, Vietnamese, and so on, shown only when someone spoke it), or Test calls. Each chip says how many customers are behind it.
3. Type in Search customers: a name, part of any of their numbers, or the detail ("Odyssey"). The chips' counts follow the search.

See everything about a customer

1. Press Customers in the sidebar, then press the customer.
2. The top of their page stays the same on every tab: their name, their numbers, how many calls are theirs, the detail your business keeps (their cars, at a shop), and Call, which rings their first number from your phone.
3. Pick a tab. Each one shows how many it holds:
   • Overview: what's Coming up, messages Waiting on you, and their Last call.
   • Calls: calls they made, calls someone made for them ("Ben called for them"), and calls from their numbers where the caller never said who they were, newest first, with what each was about and how it ended.
   • Bookings: what's Coming up, soonest first, and Earlier ones, including any that were cancelled. A booking says Reminder sent once a text reminder went out, and Confirmed once the customer replied that they're coming.
   • Messages: everything they left you, and whether you've called them back.
4. Press the date on a call, booking, or message to open the call it came from, with its transcript.

A call's page links to its customer too: press the name next to the number at the top of the call.

You can also ask Eli: "When is Terra coming in?" or "Has the guy with the Odyssey called before?"

Change a customer's name, numbers, or details

Eli fills a customer in from what callers say, so a name can come out wrong or a number can change.

1. Open the customer and press Edit at the top of their page.
2. Change the Name, their Numbers (press Add another number for one more, up to five, or the × beside a number to remove it), the details, one per line (Cars at a shop), and the Language Eli should expect from them.
3. Press Save. The header updates, and the next call from one of their numbers uses the new name and details.

Merge two customers who are the same person

When the same person ended up on file twice, say once from a call and once from a booking made for them, merge the two.

1. Open the one you want to get rid of and press the More button next to Edit, then Merge into another customer.
2. Type the name, number, or detail of the one to keep and press it in the list.
3. Read the line that says what moves: calls, bookings, messages, numbers, and details. Press Merge. You land on the customer that was kept; the other one is gone, and this can't be undone.

Both are also in the search box (Cmd+K) while a customer is open.