[RetailEdge Moderator]

There is not much that RetailEdge can do to prevent customer duplications in RetailEdge. Unlike inventory which only supports unique SKUs, the customer database can support multiple customers with the same name. So typically this is controlled by implementing procedures that will minimize the occurrence of duplicates.

One method of doing this might be when adding a customer to a sale always have the clerks look up the customer first before adding anyone. By default RetailEdge will perform this lookup for you by simply typing in the criteria you are looking for and pressing the Enter key. You should make this lookup as easy as possible to do. Everyone does this a little differently, but our lookup is set to lookup by CustID. The Customer IDs in our data are First Name Last Name or Company. So when someone wants to purchase something, we simply type in a first or last name or company and press enter. This way we instantly see if the Customer exists to prevent duplicates.

RetailEdge will also search by phone number regardless of the lookup criteria by placing the forward slash (/) in the Find Customer box followed by any portion of the phone number. This can minimize those awkward situations where you are supposed to remember the customers name but can't.

Even though you have implemented policies to prevent duplications some duplications are inevitable. Sometimes it is necessary to make global changes to your data and RetailEdge allows you to merge customers. This utility merges all instances (sales, open orders, etc.) of one customer into another customer. Global changes can be made by choosing Global Change from the Tools menu item and choosing the desired option.