# 5. Customers

The \*\*Customers\*\* tab is your business's customer base (shared across the stores of the same business).

# Introduction

The **Customers** tab is your business's customer base (shared across the stores of the same business).

# 5.1 View and manage customers

1. The list shows name, contact, number of appointments and last visit, with **search**, **sorting**,
   **store filter** and pagination.
2. **New customer:** click **New** and fill in name + phone and/or email (at least one) and optionally
   the address.
3. **Edit/Delete:** via the buttons on the customer's row.

A customer is **created automatically** whenever you save an appointment with a phone/email.

> 📸 **`05-customers-list.png`** — Customers list with search and store filter.
![Customers](images/05-customers-list.png)

# 5.2 Duplicates and merging

When the system detects a likely **duplicate** (same phone/email in different records), it shows a
badge. Click it to open the **merge** page and choose, field by field, which values to keep. The
appointments of the removed record move to the kept one.

> 📸 **`05-merge.png`** — Merging two customers (field-by-field choice).
![Merge customers](images/05-merge.png)

# 5.3 Anonymization (GDPR)

To honour the **right to erasure**, use **Anonymize** on the customer's row: the personal data (name,
contacts, address and notes) is irreversibly scrubbed, but the appointments and statistics remain
(without identifying the person). The customer is flagged as anonymized.

> 📸 **`05-anonymize.png`** — The anonymize button and the confirmation prompt.
![Anonymize](images/05-anonymize.png)

# 5.4 Tips & troubleshooting

- **Customer with no contact:** a customer must have **phone or email** (at least one). With no
  contact, the appointment still saves, but the customer isn't created/linked and gets no
  notifications.
- **Phone numbers:** stored in international format (E.164). Use the country selector in the phone field
  to get the right dial code.
- **Customers aren't shared across businesses** — each business has its own base.

> 💡 **Scenario:** a customer booked online with their email and later called and booked by phone. The
> system detects the **duplicate** (same name/contact in different records) and shows the badge — do a
> **merge** (5.2) to keep one unified history.

---
**Next:** [Messages & notifications](06-messages.md).