Creating & Managing Customers

Individual or Company: Which to Choose

Every customer in Helm is set up as either an Individual or a Company, and the choice decides what the record can hold.

• Individual: a single person buying from you, such as a shopper on your web store. The record is built around their name and contact details.

• Company: a business account, such as a wholesale buyer or trade customer. As well as the company's own details, it can hold Company Contacts, so you can keep the buyer, the accounts team and the warehouse manager on one record.

Example: a gift shop that orders stock from you every month is a Company, with its owner and its buyer added as contacts. Someone who bought a single mug through your Shopify store is an Individual.

If you set someone up as an Individual and later find they are trading as a business, you can switch the record over without starting again (see the FAQ below).

Before You Start

• An email address is required for every customer. Have it ready, whether you are adding one customer or a thousand.

• For a single customer, you only need their name (or company name) and email. Everything else can be added afterwards.

• For a bulk import, prepare your list as a .csv, .xls or .xlsx file. Downloading Helm's template first is the quickest way to get the columns right.

How to Create a Customer in Helm

Adding an Individual

1. Go to Customers in the left-hand menu.

2. Click Create Customer and choose Individual.

3. Fill in the required fields:

   1. First name

   2. Last name

   3. Email

4. Add a Phone number if you have one, and use Upload under Contact photo if you want a picture on the record.

5. Click Create Customer.

Adding a Company

1. Go to Customers and click Create Customer.

2. Choose Company.

3. Fill in the required fields:

   1. Company

   2. Email

4. Add a Phone number if you have one, and upload a logo under Contact photo if you want one.

5. Click Create Customer.

6. Open the new record and add the people you deal with under Company Contacts (see below).

Importing Customers in Bulk

Use an import when you are moving customers over from another system, or onboarding a large trade list in one go.

1. Go to Settings > Company Settings > Import.

2. In Import type, choose Customer.

3. Click download customer import template to get a file with the correct columns.

4. Fill in one row per customer, using the columns in the table below.

5. Drag your file into Import customer data, or click browse to choose it.

6. If you have imported with this layout before and saved the mapping, pick it from Selected map so Helm matches your columns automatically.

7. Click Continue, match your columns to Helm's fields if asked, and confirm the import.

Inside a Customer Record

Click any customer in the list to open their record. The tiles across the top give you an at-a-glance view of the relationship: Orders, Average Order Total, Total Spend, Return Value and Return Ratio.

Below that, the record is split into sections:

• Orders: every order linked to this customer, with its status, date, shipping address, value and quantity.

• Company Contacts (companies only): the people you deal with at the business. Click + to open Add Company Contact, enter their First name, Last name and Email (plus a Title and Phone number if useful), then click Save Changes. Use the ... menu next to a contact to Edit or Archive them.

• Custom Fields: extra information specific to your business, such as an account number or a delivery instruction.

• Internal Notes: click + to leave a note for your team, such as preferences, special handling or account history.

• Customer Details: the name, email and phone number on the account. To change them, open the ... menu and choose Edit Details on an individual, or click the pencil icon on a company.

• Address Details: every saved address, with the date it was last used. Click + to add another.

• Tags: type a tag into Enter Tag Name Here and click + to add it.

Managing Customers in Bulk

When you need to tidy up a large list, select customers using the tick boxes on the Customers list. An action bar appears at the bottom of the screen with three options:

• Merge Customers: combine duplicate records into one. Select two or more customers, click Merge Customers, choose the Main Customer to keep, and click Continue. All orders from the selected customers move onto the main customer.

• Archive Customers: move customers you no longer trade with out of your active list while keeping their records and order history.

• Tags: choose Add Tags or Remove Tags to update several customers at once, such as tagging every trade account as "Wholesale".

To see customers you have archived, click the archive icon next to Filters and choose Archived Customers.

To narrow the list down, use Filters, which lets you filter by Customer Email, Country, Customer Tags and Last Ordered Date, with more options under More Filters. Filters you use often can be kept under Saved Filters.

Example: Setting Up a New Trade Account

1. Harbour Home Ltd, a homeware shop, opens a trade account with you.

2. You create a Company customer named "Harbour Home Ltd" with their accounts email.

3. In Company Contacts, you add their buyer, Priya Shah, with the title "Buyer", and their warehouse lead, Tom Reed.

4. You add their delivery address under Address Details, and tag the account "Wholesale".

5. In Internal Notes, you record "Deliveries to rear goods entrance, before 2pm".

6. When their first orders come in, they appear under Orders on the record, and the summary tiles start to fill in.

Best Practices & Notes

Search Before You Create

Search the Customers list for the email address before adding someone new. If duplicates have already crept in, use Merge Customers to bring them back into a single record with all their orders.

Agree Your Tags as a Team

Tags only help with filtering and reporting if everyone uses the same ones. Settle on a short list (for example "Wholesale", "VIP", "Do Not Contact") and stick to it.

Use Imports for Moving Systems

When migrating from another platform, use the import template rather than adding customers by hand. Save your column mapping the first time so later imports line up automatically.

FAQ

Can I change an Individual into a Company?

Yes. Open the customer, click the ... menu in Customer Details and choose Change Customer Type to "Company".

What happens to an archived customer's orders?

They stay on the record. Archiving only takes the customer out of your active list, and you can still find them under Archived Customers.

Can I add tags to lots of customers from a spreadsheet?

Yes. In Settings > Company Settings > Import, choose the Customer Tag import type.

If you are unsure whether a customer should be set up as an individual or a company, or an import has not come through as expected, contact the Helm support team.