Get Started with Square Customer Directory
Square’s free Customer Directory is a contact management tool where you can store customer information, view how they interact with your business, and engage with them.
There are several ways you can add a customer profile to your Customer Directory:
When sales are made in person through Point of Sale, Square Online, or Square Invoices.
They’re also automatically added when booking services with you via Square Appointments and are participating in your Square Loyalty program.
You’re also able to manually add or import customers to your directory in bulk.
If a customer pays with cash, check or another form of tender that isn’t a payment card, you can still associate their payment with a new or existing customer profile.
Directory
Your Customer Directory allows you to create, import, or export your customer list from your online Square Dashboard. Square helps your directory grow by creating Instant Profiles from card sales that contain a customer’s basic information. You can then add information customers choose to share with you, for example, their email address or phone number, to enhance these profiles on your own.
Note: Within the customer list in your Square App, you can view customers' email and phone numbers, without the need to view their profiles.
Customer profiles include the following sections:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Edit Customer | Allows you to add and update personal information for the selected profile. |
| ••• | Click the three-dotted icon (•••) at the bottom of the profile to Add Note, Add Card, Merge with another Customer, Upload File, Send Message, Delete Customer, and more. |
| Personal Information | Save and view a customer’s name and other information the customer chooses to provide, including contact information, along with their address, birthday, and any information from custom fields. |
| Marketing | Displays subscribed or non-subscribed email status. |
| Cards on File | Securely store a customer’s payment card information for future payments. |
| Loyalty | If you’re using Square Loyalty, you’ll be able to view a customer’s status and activity, along with the ability to adjust stars, manage linked cards, and update their loyalty phone number. |
| Invoices | Draft, outstanding, or paid invoices. You can also create or view invoices for that customer. |
| Notes | Add timestamped notes and set reminders for yourself. |
| Files | Upload files and photos to your customer’s profile to keep any relevant documents in one place. Only upload files you have the rights to use. Files cannot be larger than 20MB. Supported file types: .pdf .gif .jpg .jpeg .png. |
| Buyer Summary | View customer details, including their average spend, total visits, and frequency. |
| Coupons and Rewards | View and manually expire any coupons and rewards associated with a customer. |
| Appointments | If you’re using Square Appointments, you’ll be able to view upcoming and past appointments, along with the ability to book future appointments for a client. |
| Activity | View the customer’s activity at your business, including purchases, Feedback sent about your business, Square Loyalty activity earned, and Square Marketing campaigns received. |
| Additional Information | Includes information on when and how this customer profile was created. |
Within each customer profile, you will find cards, or sections, that contain related information. For example, you may have a section in a customer’s profile for Loyalty, which would contain information related to that customer’s participation in your loyalty program. Or maybe a customer has several coupons, and those will now be organized under a coupon card.
Learn how to manage your customer directory online.
Customer Directory Filters
Your Customer Directory has filtering options that allow you to view customer information in greater detail. Filters you can apply range from items purchased, sales channel, payment frequencies, locations visited, and more. To apply filters and view specific data:
Go to Customers > Directory tab on your online Square Dashboard.
Select Filters.
Once your filters are applied, click View Customers to see the customers that fall within the criteria set by your filters.
Once you have a new list of customers, click Save as group and create a Group Name to save the filters as a Smart Group.
If you use Square Marketing, you can send email or text message campaigns to that group of customers.
Note: You can apply filters through both your online Square Dashboard and your Point of Sale app. However, not all filters are available through your app at this time. A more comprehensive list of customer filters is available through your online Square Dashboard.
Directory Groups
You can easily save sets of customers as Groups to keep track of them.
Manual Groups
Create a Manual Group to hand-select a list of customers according to your needs. Manual Groups come in handy when importing customers in bulk or quickly adding a new customer from a sale. Manual Groups will only change if you add or subtract customers, unlike Smart Groups.
To create a Manual Group:
Visit the Customers tab of your online Square Dashboard.
Click Create Group.
Select Manual Group > Next.
Manually select customers and click Next.
Name your group then click the Create Group button.
Smart Groups
Smart Groups continuously update on their own based on your customer’s activities and the filters you put in place. Smart Groups can be created by both you and your customer’s interactions with your business. You can create a custom Smart Group or use a suggested template to make a Smart Group.
To create a Custom Smart Group:
Log on to your online Square Dashboard > Customers.
Click on the Directory tab and select Create Group.
Select Smart Group > Next.
Select Custom Smart Group > Next.
Choose the first filter to apply to the Smart Group then click Next.
Add additional filter details if needed and click Next.
Name your group then click the Create Group button.
Using Square Email Marketing, you can Send email or text message campaigns to that group of customers. You can also access groups you create in Directory when creating a campaign via Square Marketing.
To create a Smart Group using a suggested template:
Log on to your online Square Dashboard > Customers.
Click on the Directory tab and select Create Group.
Select Smart Group > Next.
Select a suggested template > Next.
Edit the filters, remove the filters, add new filter details or filters, then click Next.
Edit the name of your group if needed then click the Create Group button.
Customer Groups at a Glance
Instant Profiles are customer profiles that are automatically created following a transaction. If a customer’s name is collected from their payment card and a matching profile doesn’t already exist within your directory, Square will create an Instant Profile. Future purchases made with that card will update the customer’s profile with new transaction details and other activity with your business.
Instant Profiles appear in the Instant Profile group in your Directory and can be filtered by using the creation source filter and selecting _Instant Profile (via payment).
A subscribed customer is a customer that has provided explicit consent to receive marketing emails from your business.
If you’ve collected customer email addresses through Square from (but not limited to) sending digital receipts, Invoices, Appointments or Loyalty — the customer cannot receive Square Marketing email campaigns unless:
- You’ve separately collected and recorded the customer’s explicit consent,
- You’ve manually imported an existing database of customers who have consented to receiving marketing emails from your business, or
- Your customer has used one of Square’s customer information collection tools.
- Subscribers to Square Marketing are billed based on the number of customers that exist in their Subscribed Customers group. Learn more about Square Marketing pricing.
Categories used to automatically group your customers based on their visit frequency or engagement with your business. Smart Groups are dynamic, and the list of customers within them may change over time as customers meet the criteria for the group. Two smart groups are included by default in your Customer Directory: Regulars and Lapsed customers. Using filters, you can create customised Smart Groups that meet the criteria of your choosing.
Now that you have an understanding of how profiles work, learn how to manage customer profiles in your directory.
Feedback
Square Feedback allows your customers to privately message your business with feedback about their experiences— right from their receipts. The Feedback section of your online Square Dashboard will allow you to have direct communication with customers to resolve any issues privately, right through the digital receipt.
Learn how to get started with Square Feedback and best practices for Square Feedback
Insights
Insights can help you better understand your customer's behaviors through their payments. By having reporting and analytics software, you can uncover these insights to continue doing what’s working and to inform future business decisions.
Learn how how to use Customer Insights.
Settings
Create custom fields to collect and store new information on a customer’s profile. Changes you make will be reflected automatically across all your customers, anywhere you access Square. All information you collect can be exported and some fields can be searched and filtered.
You can also configure the display order of fields on your customer profile, by dragging and dropping fields into your desired order.
Learn how to create custom fields in your customer directory.
Instant Profiles are customer profiles that are automatically created following a transaction. If a customer’s name is collected from their payment card and a matching profile doesn’t already exist within your directory, Square will create an Instant Profile. Future purchases made with that card will update the customer’s profile with new transaction details and other activities with your business.
Toggle on “Collect feedback from your digital receipts” to allow your customers to share their feedback directly with you. You can also select which lcoation to enable feeback on.
Learn how to get started with Square Feedback.
You can add additional emails to receive an email notification each time a customer provides feedback.
- Hosted Sign-up Page: Copy and paste this link anywhere online to invite customers to join your mailing list. After clicking, your customers will be sent to a dedicated landing page to sign up, and collected names and email addresses will be added to your Directory.
- Embedded Sign-up Form: Copy and paste this code into your website to embed a form for collecting email addresses. Collected email addresses will be added to your Directory.
Learn how to get started with customer information collection.
Download, print, and store the Customer’s Signed Authorisation Form. You need your customer’s signed authorisation to save their card and protect you from chargeback liability. Have your customer fill out and sign this form, then store it securely in accordance with PCI-DSS and data privacy requirements.
Customer Directory Permissions
When using Advanced Access, you can assign roles and permissions to your team members so they can take action in your Customer Directory. Actions your team members can take range from creating customer profiles, merging duplicate profiles in bulk, and more.
By default, customer contact info such as email address, physical address, and phone number will be turned on for your team by default if you have assigned custom permission sets. You can give your team the ability to view and edit this information by enabling this permission with Advanced Access.