Create customer groups and filters
About customer groups and filters
In your Customer Directory, you can set up groups to organise your customer profiles. For example, you could set up a group for your regular customers.
Filters make it easy to search groups and analyse your customers within Customer Directory. Segmenting your customer database also allows you to communicate with and market to a target group. It also provides you insights into customer trends.
You can segment your customers by different channels with channel filters, such as in-store, online, third-party apps, subscriptions, invoices and more.
Before you begin
You have two options for creating customer groups and filters:
Square Dashboard
Square POS app
While you can filter customers in the Square POS app, your filter options and criteria are not as extensive as what's available in the Square Dashboard.
If you want to filter by custom criteria that are not part of Square's default filters, you need to create custom fields for your customer profiles. Learn to create custom fields in your Customer Directory.
Changes you make will be reflected automatically across all your customers, anywhere you access Square.
Understand customer group filters
Instant Profiles are customer profiles that are automatically created after 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 consent to receive marketing emails from your business.
If you’ve collected customer email addresses through Square from sending digital receipts, invoices, appointments or loyalty, the customer can’t 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.
- 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 about Square Marketing pricing.
These are 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 group criteria. Two smart groups are included by default in your directory: regulars and lapsed customers. Using filters, you can create customer groups that meet the criteria of your choosing.
View and apply filters
Sign in to Square Dashboard and go to Customers > Customer directory.
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Apply filters for the customer details and see how many customers match the criteria, as well as what percentage of your customer base.
Click + Add filter to add additional filters to get more specific about the customers in this group. For example, customers who made a purchase six months ago and are members of your loyalty programme.
Click Apply once you've added all filters.
Once you have your new list of customers, click Save as group.
Name your smart group, then click Create group.
If you use Square Email Marketing, you can send email or text message campaigns to that group of customers by clicking Send campaign.
To go back to view all customers, click Group: All customers.
Create a customer group
Manual group
Create a manual group to hand-select a list of customers according to your needs. Manual groups are useful when importing customers in bulk or quickly adding a new customer from a sale. Manual groups only change if you add or subtract customers, unlike smart groups.
To create a manual group:
Sign in to Square Dashboard and go to Customers > Customer directory.
Click + Create group.
Select Manual group > Next.
Manually select customers and click Next.
Name your group then click the Create group button.
Smart group
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 smart group:
Sign in to Square Dashboard and go to Customers > Customer directory.
Click + Create Group.
Select Smart group > Next.
Select Custom smart group or select from the suggested templates, then click Next.
Apply any relevant filters 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 or text message campaigns to that group of customers by clicking Send Campaign. You can also access groups you create in the Customer Directory when creating a campaign via Square Marketing.
To edit the rules, select the group in your directory > click Actions > Edit Group > make edits to settings > Save.
Create a channel filter
Sign in to Square Dashboard and go to Customers > Customer directory.
Click + Create group.
Click Smart group > Next.
Click Custom smart group > Next.
Click Channel to define the customers in your group. Click Next.
Customise the channel details and add any additional filters. Click Next.
Name your smart group and click Create group.
You can click Send campaign to send an email or text message marketing campaign to your newly created audience.