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POS Linked and Unlinked Customer Accounts: It's all about the email.
The email address is the universal identifier that is used to link a customer account to your POS when they sign up in your online store or app. Since your POS may have forty John Smiths in the system, we identify this specific user by their email address because it is unique. Our platform will search the POS for the email they enter at sign up to see if an account already exists. We "link" that customer account to the already existing POS account if it does.
If the email doesn't exist in the POS, the Run Free Platform creates a new account. You can quickly tell this on both the customer list and the customer view by looking at the account number field. If the field has a string of numbers/letters in it, it's an account created in your POS. If it's blank or n/a, it's an account created by Run Free when the user signed up because the platform couldn't find a matching email address in your POS.
Keep in mind, in the latter scenario, when Run Free creates a new customer account, that account information is only sent to the POS if an order is placed by that customer. In other words, if Hank Scorpio has never shopped with you before and creates an account in your online store but doesn't purchase anything, his customer record will only exist on the Run Free side. Once he makes a purchase, Run Free will push that account to the POS and sync them going forward.
Importing POS Accounts: When the email is blank in the POS
Let's say a customer contacts you because their in-store purchases aren't showing up in their rewards app. You look at their account on the Run Free Platform and see a blank (or n/a) POS ID field, signifying it's an unlinked account. You also look in the POS and see you don't have an email address on file from this customer's purchase history in-store. This is the perfect time to import/link the customer's POS account.
Add the Customer's email address (the same one they used to sign up for your app/online store) to their account in the POS.
On the Customers Page in Run Free, tap the import button to pop the search modal.
Enter the Customer's email or name exactly as it appears in the POS. Tap the import button next to the correct account to import/link the POS account.
As long the emails match (i.e. the customer's email address in their account in your POS and their email address in their online store/app account are the same), doing so will automatically import the customer account number and link the Run Free account to the POS customer account.
Once the account is linked, during Run Free's next loyalty points sync cycle (within 24 hours), the platform will collect in-store purchase records from the POS and apply the proper point count to the customer.
Please Note: The Run Free platform will only apply loyalty points to orders from the date the customer signed up for an online store/app account (or the date you launched your Run Free Loyalty program if they signed up prior).
Merging Customer Accounts: When a blank (or n/a) Run Free Platform Account and POS Linked Customer Account exist in Run Free
In this example, a customer may have two accounts in Run Free with the same email. One unlinked platform account from when they signed up for the online store BEFORE you entered an email address for them in the POS in-store. The second is likely a POS account imported at a previous date or with a variation in the email address.
Combing these accounts is a simple process with a few steps:
Merge the accounts in your POS: You'll see two accounts for the same customer IF they purchased with you online before. One account will have online orders listed, while the other will be in-store. If you only see one account, it's likely they created an online account but never made a purchase. In that case, you can skip this step.
Merge the accounts in Run Free: On the Customer List Page, select the two accounts you'd like to merge. The modal will display both accounts; use the dropdown to select the primary (i.e. the one you want to act as their final account after the merge). Any "blank" field on the primary will be filled with any content like content from the secondary. This includes points, miles, birthdays, photos, etc. It will all be moved over if an item doesn't already exist. Any purchases on the secondary account will also be transferred to the primary.
Note, this does not work for ADMIN accounts (you and your employees' accounts in Run Free). If one of the accounts is an admin user, the merge tool will display a warning and cancel the action. The permissions transfer for an admin account can be tricky, so contact us in the chat, and we can open a ticket to merge these accounts using Run Free wizardry on the back end.