Manage Customer Groups and Filters
Directory Filters
Filters make it easy to search, group and analyse your customers within Customer Directory. Segmenting your customer database also allows you to communicate with and market to a target group, as well as providing you with insights into customer trends. You can filter customers by purchase criteria (items purchased, amount spent, location, etc.), customer criteria (creation source, feedback, groups, etc.) or booking criteria for appointments sellers (booking dates or booked with).
If you’ve created visible, custom fields with the field types of Toggle or Selection, they will automatically be added to the list of filters in your directory.
To view and apply filters:
Log on to your online Square Dashboard> Customers.
Click on the Directory tab and select Filters.
Apply filters for the customer details and see how many customers match the criteria, as well as what percentage of your customer base.
Click Apply to see which customers fall into the filter criteria you have selected.
Once you have your new list of customers, click Save as group and name your Smart group.
Click the Create group button.
If you use Square Marketing, you can send email campaigns to that group of customers by clicking Send campaign.
For example, you can select Loyalty and Hasn’t Visited filters to see which loyalty participants haven’t returned to your business in a certain time period, select which customers have booked with a certain employee, or filter by Email Subscribers to see which customers will receive email promotions. This filtering and saving of customers creates a Smart Group that can be targeted using a Square Marketing email campaign. Smart Groups automatically update based on the filter criteria that you have chosen, meaning customers move in and out of that Smart Group as they meet the criteria. Read more about Smart Groups below. Note: You can apply filters through both your online Square Dashboard, your Point of Sale app or the Audience Creation section of Square Marketing. However, not all filters are available through your POS 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 customers’ activities and the filters you put in place. Smart Groups can be created by both you and your customers’ 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 Marketing, you can send email campaigns to that group of customers by clicking Send Campaign. 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.
Examples of prebuilt Smart Groups include:
Lapsed: Customers who have visited your business three or more times, but have not returned in six to eight weeks.
Regulars: Customers who have visited your business two to three times and have visited within the last six to eight weeks.
Smart Group rules may also vary depending on your business type. You can view the rule sets for each business type below.
Business Type | Regular | Lapsed |
---|---|---|
Charities & Education | 3+ visits, last visit < 8 wks ago | 3+ visits, last visit >= 8 wks ago |
Contractors, Repair, Leisure | 2+ visits, last visit < 6 wks ago | 3+ visits, last visit >=6 wks ago |
Food Related | 3+ visits, last visit < 8 wks ago | 3+ visits, last visit >= 8 wks ago |
Health & Beauty | 3+ visits, last visit < 6 wks ago | 3+ visits, last visit >= 6 wks ago |
Health Services | 3+ visits, last visit < 8 wks ago | 3+ visits, last visit >= 8 wks ago |
Individuals | 3+ visits, last visit < 8 wks ago | 3+ visits, last visit >= 8 wks ago |
Retail | 3+ visits, last visit < 8 wks ago | 3+ visits, last visit >= 8 wks ago |
Services | 3+ visits, last visit < 8 wks ago | 3+ visits, last visit >= 8 wks ago |
Transportation | 2+ visits, last visit < 6 wks ago | 3+ visits, last visit >= 6 wks ago |
Note: To edit the rules for Lapsed and Regulars, select the group in your directory > click Actions > Edit Group > make edits to settings > Save.
Other pre-built smart groups available:
All customers: Customers who have visited your business more than once in the last 12 months.
Loyalty Enrollees: Customers who have enrolled in your Loyalty programme.
Email Subscribers and Text Subscribers: Customers that have provided their email address or phone number can be included in email or text message promotions with Square Marketing. For customers with phone numbers, customers must have opted in to receive text message marketing notifications.
Using Groups and Filters with Square Marketing
Smart groups can also be used with Square Marketing. You can manage and filter your customers to organise and group them for targeted email and text message marketing campaigns directly via the Square Marketing dashboard. You can also track customer trends, apply discounts or identify them based on an automated campaign. Square Marketing allows you to send automated campaigns to specific smart groups – for example, when a new customer is added to the ‘Email Subscriber’ group, you can send them a discount automatically.
While viewing a group in your Customer Directory, select Send Campaign. You can also select the group during the Audience step when creating a Square Marketing campaign.
Note: In order to be included in your marketing communications, customers in your directory will need to have a public email address (i.e. the email address was actually entered into the customer’s profile) that has not bounced or been manually unsubscribed. Customers with a private email address (i.e. not visible) and have made 1 or more payments in the last 12 months with your business will also be included in these filters.
When a customer’s email address is unsubscribed or bounces, the email address will not be removed from your directory, but it will no longer be included in your Marketing filters and smart groups.
You can also use information from your Directory to create automatic discounts for buyers at your business from your Square Point of Sale App or on your online Square Dashboard. Learn how to create discounts for Customer Groups.
Assigning Customer Directory Permissions
With Square’s Team Management subscription, 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, viewing and updating customer groups and more. You can learn more about getting started with Team Management in our Support Centre.
By default, customer contact info such as email address, physical address and phone number will be viewable for team members with assigned permissions. You can give your team the ability to edit this information by assigning custom permission sets.