Customer Capture

What’s on this page?

Customer capture enables associates to create new customer profiles easily.

Customer profiles can be created in 3 different ways:

  • Associate Entry - the store associate uses their iPhone or iPad to record customer information
  • Send to Customer - customer entry form is sent to the customer by SMS which they can complete on their device of choice
  • Customer Entry - the store associate hands over their iPhone or iPad to the customer for them to fill out their information

Tapping on the plus next to Customers on the Advisors screen will bring up the three options.

Customer Data

Tulip supports the ability for retailers to collect the following types of optional customer data:

  • First Name
  • Last Name
  • Primary Phone Number, including country code
  • Secondary Phone Number, including country code
  • Primary Email
  • Secondary Email
  • Address Line 1
  • Address Line 2
  • City
  • Postal Code
  • Country
  • Birthday
  • SMS Communication Opt-In
  • Email Communication Opt-In
  • Phone Communication Opt-In
  • Mail Communication Opt-In
  • Preferences
  • Notes
  • Communication history (SMS, Email, Phone Log)
  • Important Dates
  • Customer Signature

Note: Country codes are required for phone and SMS text message functionality.

The following data is not created or captured within Tulip Clienteling but can be made available in customer data and customer profiles:

  • Purchase History
  • Wishlist
  • Loyalty Tiers
  • Gender

Customer Capture Form

Tulip allows retailers to customize the structure and presentation of the form that is used to create a new customer. The out of the box form enables retailers to capture a customer’s Name, Birthday, Phone Number, Email Address, and Physical Address. Note Fields such as address, phone, and email type are not required fields but retailers can configure them to be so.

Retailers can work with Tulip to add additional custom attributes on the form, such as gender. Any customer records (including the customer attributes) created within Tulip Clienteling can be synced back to a retailer’s CRM to ensure that the CRM remains the system of record.

For GDPR compliance, the retailer decides what they wish to include on the form from the list of possible data fields. Tulip does not determine what is mandatory for GDPR compliance. The rules are dependent on context, and it is the Data Controller’s responsibility.

If the store associate wishes to send the Create Customer Form to the customer so that the customer can fill in the details at their convenience, they can do so by asking the customer to scan a QR code on the associate’s device, or by sending the form to the customer’s phone using their phone number (as shown below). The QR codes can’t be sent to the customer. The only way to send the URL is through SMS.

Note: The link sent via SMS is single-use only and is valid for 24 hours.

On the Send to Customer menu, you can send a QR code as well as enter your phone number. The send button is at the bottom in black.

In addition to capturing personal data, retailers can also work with Tulip to configure the customer capture form to capture marketing/profiling opt-in statuses, along with a digital signature as a proof of consent.

The form is customisable with a signature section at the bottom which can be cleared.

Email, Phone, and Address Validation

Tulip Clienteling enables retailers to capture customer records cleanly and accurately by providing the flexibility for retailers to define their own email, phone, and address validation rules. With validation rules, retailers can ensure that the customer data that associates capture through Tulip Clienteling can be cleanly imported to their CRM (typically the official system of record).

In addition to specifying whether Email, Phone, and Address are required fields or not, the retailers can also specify rules to validate these fields.

Full Regex validations can be applied to these 3 fields. For example:

  • Email: Email must contain the recipient as well as a full domain (recipient@domain.com).
  • Phone: Phone number only contains digits (0-9) and must be 9 digits long (within North America).
  • Address Fields: Street Address only contains numbers and letters; City only consists of English characters; Zip Code consists of numbers only.

Opt In (GDPR)

In addition to capturing personal data, retailers can also capture a retailer’s marketing/profiling opt-in statuses, along with a digital signature as a proof of consent. The digital signature is valuable in European countries under GDPR where all businesses are required to retain a proof of customer opt-in when sending marketing communication.

A section in Customer Capture where the following details can be entered: your name, your contact details, your address, your birthday.

Additionally a signature can be provided.

Since GDPR mandates the customer opt-in audit trail, Tulip creates a date-stamped record within the customer profile (via Notes) in order to comply with the GDPR regulations.

The Notes window provides a detailed list of actions of the customer in order.

Updating Opt-In Preferences under GDPR

If a customer wishes to update their opt-in preferences, out of the box functionality provides the ability for customers to do so in-store only. Associates can access the Communication Opt-In Preferences feature and pass the Tulip-enabled device to the customer to update their communication opt-in preferences and provide an updated signature using the retailer’s device.

Tulip creates a date-stamped record within the customer profile (via Notes) to record updated customer communication preferences.

Pending Customer Records

Whenever the customer records are created using the Customer Entry form (on the associate’s device or on the customer’s own device), the records are held in a “pending” status awaiting confirmation. The list of pending customers is a global list of all customers captured through any of the retailer’s store locations. The associate can verify the completeness and authenticity of the data before accepting it and sending it to CRM.

Tulip notifies the associate if duplicate records exist, and provides tools to consolidate the two records, delete the latest entry, or merge the two customer records together as needed.

If the customer profile appears to have incomplete or inaccurate data, associates also have the option to discard the pending customer record.

The image shows the pending customers menu in a list.

Tapping on the customer in the previous screen shows a new screen with details of that customer such as their email, phone number and birthday. A list of dupicate entries is also listed. On the bottom left there is a Add new Customer button, and on the bottom right, there is a Update Customer button.

Available Configurations

Retailers can configure customer capture in the following ways:

FieldConfigurable Options
Customer Capture Form
  • Define additional retailer-specific fields to include on the form
  • Define the types of phone numbers to capture (such as Home, Mobile)
  • Define validation rules and expected format for fields included on the form
  • Define if a field on the form is required or notUpdate legal text on the customer capture form
Opt In Record
  • Specify if associates can view customer opt-in records within Notes
    • Send to Customer
  • Configure the template text that is sent along with the link to the form
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