2008 Procedure 6 Customer Types and Customer Categories
Customer Types
Customer Types allow you to classify your customers based on their default green fee such as resident, senior or annual passholder.
Adding a Customer Type
If you add a new Customer Type, you must load it into the fee matrix.
1) Log into Fore! Reservations.
2) File | Setup | Customer Types.
3) Click on the first open line in the grid and type in the new customer type.
4) Place a check in the Active checkbox.
5) Enter priority to control Wait List sort order.
6) Click the OK button to close the customer type screen.
Changing a Customer Type
1) Log into Fore! Reservations.
2) File | Setup | Customer Types.
3) Click on the customer type to rename and type the new name over the old name.
4) Click the OK button. The software may monopolize the computer for some time while it cascades the changes throughout the customer list, during which your mouse may show the busy hourglass.
Merging a Customer Type
When a customer type is no longer useful, you can deactivate it by unchecking the active flag. A more absolute solution is to merge one customer type into another as follows:
1) Log into Fore! Reservations.
2) File | Setup | Customer Types.
3) Click the selector to the left of the customer type to merge from.
4) Click the selector to the left of the customer type to merge to.
5) Click the Merge button and click yes at the confirmation dialog box.
6) Click the OK button to close the customer type window.
Customer Type Merge Example
Customer type merge can be very useful for facilities with annual members or player passes. To manage such a scenario, do the following:
1) For each membership type, create two customer types, one called Member 2007 and the other Member 2008.
2) Uncheck Member 2008 active checkbox so it cannot be assigned to a customer.
3) Create a customer type called Public - for all those who are not members.
4) Create a customer type called Past Member with active unchecked - public player who at one time purchased a membership.
5) In the fee matrix, associate the member green fees to the Member 2007 and the Member 2008 customer types and associate the public green fees to the Public customer type and the Past Member customer type.
6) Toward the end of 2007, activate the Member 2008 customer type. If members take advantage of early pay discounts and pay their 2008 membership, the Member 2008 is now available. Thus, your current members are both Member 2007 and Member 2008.
At the close of business on December 31, 2007, or the end of your season, do the following:
7) Merge customer type Member 2007 to Past Member. However, when presented with the confirmation dialog box, answer No: This keeps the Member 2007 customer type in the system and transfers these customers to Past Member customer type. Thus the customer type maintains its fee relationship in the fee matrix.
8) Change the Member 2007 customer type name to Member 2008 and deactivate it until late 2008. The Past Member customer type can now be used for target marketing to encourage past members to renew their membership.
Fees on Customer Types Screen
The Fees section at the bottom of the Customer Types screen defines the fee used when a reservation is booked and (with the Fore! Sell option) when payment is taken. Fees are controlled by two criteria: customer type and course. Customer type is the current customer type selected and course name is loaded with all the courses defined in the course screen. Changing the default fee type pull-down menu changes the default for any new criteria added. Fees can also be set by course in the course screen or in the Fees screen.
Fee is charged in dollars and cents per golfer for this fee rate entry. In the reservation screen, it is only displayed for information purposes so you can easily see the present amount charged for the fee type. Since fee changes take effect immediately, courses should be set up to handle seasonal changes.
To set a fee, click on a customer type. All courses will then be loaded in the fees section. Click the pulldown menu arrow in the fee column next to the corresponding course name and select the fee to be used when payment is taken for a reservation. In the example below, the fee for a Daily Fee customer type to play on the Shoulder WE Twilight course is set to the WE - Summer Twilight GF fee of $35.00.
Customer Categories
Customer Categories enable facilities to refine mail merge selections or to further distinguish their customers. You can also use customer categories to help you manage your membership billing. The Billing Wizard allows you to separate your customers across billing classes so it is easier for you to charge common fees. However, they are not used in reporting or in defining default green fees, where customer types are used. This is a benefit since you can add and modify categories without concern of affecting green fees. Additionally, you can configure the security level for customer categories. This option allows only those with a specified security level to change that category in a customer profile. Also, customer categories are not limited to one per customer as are customer types.
Customer Category Set Up
1) Log into Fore! Reservations.
2) File | Setup | Customer Types.
3) Click on the Categories button.
4) Click on the blank line and type in a new category. Check the Active column checkbox to make it an active category.
5) The Order column controls the order displayed when selecting.
6) Continue to enter additional Categories or when finished, click the OK button to go back to the customer type window.
Merging Customer Categories
1) Log into Fore! Reservations.
2) Open the customer type screen by selecting the File | Setup | Customer Types menu item.
3) Click on the Categories button.
4) Click the selector to the left of the customer category to merge from.
5) Click the selector to the left of the customer category to merge to.
6) Click the Merge button. Review the confirmation dialog box and click Yes if correct.
7) Click the OK button to return to the customer type screen.
Customer Category Choices
1) Log into Fore! Reservations.
2) Open the Customer screen by selecting the View | Customers menu item.
3) Select an existing customer and click the Change button, or for a new customer select the New button.
4) In the customer profile, click on the Details tab.
5) Click the category checkboxes that apply to this customer.
6) Click OK to save the changes.
7) Continue with each customer you desire to define categories.
Customer Categories in Mail Merge
The power of customer categories is refining customers selected for the Billing Wizard, e-marketing and mail merge. Procedure 31, Procedure 33 or Procedure 34 are examples of using Microsoft Word mail merge. Typical examples are mailings to members or to a particular selection of postal codes so that only nearby customers are chosen. Regardless of the filter, customer categories give you more choices in refining your target mailing. Categories enable facilities to construct specific customer lists and to have one customer included in multiple lists.
When using Microsoft Word mail merge, you are able to select the category as a field on the filter records tab. To select only those customers in the Men‟s League, for example, select Men‟s League Category from the Field pull-down menu. Then select the Equal to in the Comparison column and type in a -1 in the Compare to column. The -1 translates to "true" in the query language, selecting everyone in this category
