Add new customers to your Customer Directory
About adding new customers to your directory
Square Customer Directory is a comprehensive contact management tool that enables you to store and edit customer information, track their interactions with your business, and engage with them. Every time you add an existing customer to your sale, you can view details of their previous visits, preferences, frequently purchased items, and personalized notes to enhance their experience.
Before you begin
You have three options for adding customers to your Customer Directory from both your Square Dashboard and Square POS app:
Add a customer directly from your Customer directory
Add a customer during a sale
Add a customer after a sale
You can also bulk import customers from Square Dashboard only.
When you add, update, or delete a customer profile, the change will reflect in both your Square Dashboard and Square POS apps.
Instant customer profiles
Customer profiles that are created automatically after a transaction, service booked through appointments, or enrollment in loyalty are called Instant Profiles. 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.
Add a customer
You can add a customer to a sale to track their purchase history and see trends. A customer is automatically opted into email marketing if you manually input their email into their profile. Customers are also automatically added to your Customer Directory if they book services with your business using Square Appointments, enroll in your Square Loyalty program, or are charged with Square Invoices.
Option 1: Add a customer directly to your Customer Directory
- Sign in to Square Dashboard and go to Customers > Customer directory > Directory.
- Click Create and enter your new customer’s information.
- Click Save.
Option 2: Add a new customer during a sale
You can create a new customer and add them to a sale from the current sale section of your Checkout screen just before taking a payment.
- Start a new sale from Square Virtual Terminal.
- Click Add a customer > Create customer.
- Enter your new customer’s information.
- Click Save and complete the transaction.
First, make sure you enable customer management by tapping ≡ More > Settings > Checkout > Customer management so you can add customers during the checkout process.
- Start a new sale from Square app.
- Tap Add customer or tap Actions > Customer.
- Tap the (+) icon and enter your new customer’s information.
- Tap Save and complete the transaction.
Option 3: Add a new customer after a sale
If you've completed a sale but didn't add a customer to it, you can still add your customer's contact information afterward.
- Sign in to Square Dashboard and go to Orders & payments (or Invoices & payments or Payments) > Transactions.
- Click on the selected transaction.
- Click ••• > Add Customer.
- Click Create New Customer and enter your new customer’s information.
- Click Save.
First, make sure you enable customer management by tapping ≡ More > Settings > Checkout > Customer management so you can add customers after the checkout process.
If you’ve completed a sale and haven’t yet tapped New Sale, you can still add your customer’s contact information.
- From the receipts screen, tap Add Customer.
- Tap Create Customer and enter your customer’s information.
- Tap Save.
Bulk import customers
If you want to upload and manage multiple customer profiles at once, you can use the bulk import tool to make bulk additions or changes to your Customer Directory using a spreadsheet. The import tool is only available on Square Dashboard. You'll be unable to subscribe previously unsubscribed customers into email marketing using the import tool.
Sign in to Square Dashboard and go to Customers > Customer directory > Directory.
Click Import/Export > Import customers.
Click either Download template or Next (if you already have a spreadsheet ready).
Upload your file and click Next.
Review and assign the fields, then click Import.
The import process can take up to a few minutes to complete. You can view a summary of the imported customer profiles after the process is completed with the following details:
Imported: New customer profiles that were created in the directory.
Matched to existing customers: Customers in these rows matched existing customer profiles. If your import file had any additional information about them, it'll be added to their profiles.
Failed: Customers in these rows were not processed due to an error. Click Fix and reimport to download a file that lists out the errors.