Adding a New Customer
How to Create a Pet Owner Account for a New Customer
The video above shows how to add a new customer prior to the launch of the Astro Marketing Suite. The main difference between what you see in the video and how it works now is where the Add Customer button is located. There used to be a header menu titled New Customer, that menu is now called Customers and it also contains your Customer List (which used to be located under the Reports menu).
Adding a New Customer
From your Astro Homescreen there are several ways to Add a New Customer and create them a Pet Owner Account on your Store's Astro Account.
Click on either the New Customer icon or the Check Out shopping cart from the homescreen.
If you are no longer on the Homescreen you can use either the Check Out or Customers menu option from your header menu.
Clicking Customers or New Customer is the more direct approach. If you are in the process of checking out your new customer selecting Check Out will also give you the option to add a new customer Pet Owner account before beginning the transaction.
(We are showing the administrator screen, but the process for a cashier is identical.)
Clicking on Customers will take you to your current list of My Astro Customers. There you will find a red button that will allow you to Add a Customer.
Clicking on Checkout from either the Header Menu or on the Check Out shopping cart on the Homescreen will bring you to the following screen that will also present you with an Add Customer button.
Clicking on the Add Customer button from either view will take you to the New Astro Pet Owner Account creator.
If you had clicked on the blue New Customer icon from your Homescreen it would have taken you directly to this page.
From here you can fill in the required fields along with any additional contact information fields that you wish to collect for your customer.
Pet Owner Information Fields
Pet Owner First Name - This field is required. It can be one name, or in instances where you have a couple from the same household that wish to share a single account it can contain multiple names.
Pet Owner Last Name - This field is required. It can be one name, or in instances where you have a couple from the same household that wish to share a single account it can contain multiple names.
Internal Customer ID - This is an optional field and is only visible as an option on Astro Accounts where the retailer has requested it. You can request that we turn this field on for you by emailing us at support@astroloyalty.com. If your POS assigns an ID# to your customer accounts and you want to be able to use that number in Astro to lookup your customer's Astro Pet Owner Account then you can add that number here. If we helped you convert from another kind of loyalty tracking software to Astro and that software used customer IDs then those IDs would have been added to this field when we uploaded your data.
Pet Owner Mobile Phone - This is an optional field. If your customer wants to opt in to receive SMS Text from you about promotions you are running at your store then make sure to collect their mobile phone number and add it to this field. Their phone number can also be used to quickly look up their account during checkout. You can add a phone number to this field as a lookup tool without them opting in for SMS Text.
If your customer wants to opt in for SMS Text make sure to check the box to send them an Opt In Text.
Pet Owner Email - This is an optional field. If your customer wants to utilize the Free Customer Mobile App then they need a valid email address associated with their Pet Owner account. This email address will become their username on the App just like your email address is your username on your Astro Account. They can use the App to follow along with their Frequent Buyer Cards, check the Offers you are enrolled in for the month, check their Points progress, view their past purchases and redemptions, edit their account information, and receive Push Notifications from you. They can also choose to opt in to receive mass email Campaigns from you as well.
If you collect an email address from your customer make sure to also check the box to send them the Welcome Email. The Welcome email will include information on how to download and register their mobile app and how to either opt in or out of mass email messages.
You and your staff (who have Admin access) are the ONLY people with permission to email, text, or send push notifications to your customers. NO one else has permission to do so. This includes Astro, your brand manufacturers, your brand reps, your distributors, etc. This is all covered in our Data Secrecy Policy. I cannot stress enough how seriously we take this. We are not in the business to alienate you or your customers. We are here to help you communicate with your customers, build your business and help you compete with big box, online and aggressive corporate retail chains.
Some frequent buyer programs also ask for an email address or a home address at the time of redemption. Astro will prompt you to add any info to a customer's account that is required by the brand manufacturer at the time of redemption. This information is not permitted to be used by your brand manufacturers or any of their partners to contact your customers. We have contracts in place that strongly enforce this.
Welcome Email
If you would like to Preview the Welcome Email before sending it you can click on the corresponding button.
The email will add your customer's name to the header ex. "Greetings, Betty Smith." and your store's name to the body of the email, ex. "Midtown Pet Supply". There is a link to verify their email address (green arrow) and links to download the mobile app (red arrow). If the customer does not want to be a part of your mailing list they can click the "unsubscribe" link in the footer of the email (red box). A link to unsubscribe will be included in the footer of all of the emails you send via Astro, this is a legal requirement.
Saving the New Pet Owner Account
Once you have at least the First Name and Last Name fields filled in you will be able to save your customer's information by clicking the green Save Pet Owner button. Astro will not let you save and generate the Pet Owner account until those fields are completed.
If you added a Mobile Phone Number and/or an Email Address and also checked the boxes to send a SMS Opt In Text and/or the Welcome Email then your green Save Pet Owner button will become a Save Pet Owner - Send button. Notice below the Save button now also says Send and shows both a SMS Text Icon and an Email Icon.
Once you click your green Save Pet Owner or Save Pet Owner - Send button you will be taken to the following screen where you can add the customer's Home Address and your customer's Pet Information - Pet Name, Pet Type, Pet Age and Birth Month. These fields are all optional and can be edited after the account is generated.
Some frequent buyer programs ask for a home address at the time of redemption. Astro will prompt you to add any missing required info at the time of redemption.
Adding your customers' pet information is optional but many of our retailers users like to have this information on hand to personalize their customers' experience. Collecting your customers' pet information will now help you to send them targeted campaigns based on the species and age of their pets, and fun Happy Birthday promotions that they can redeem during their pet's birth month.
If your customer has more than one pet there will be a way to add their additional pets once the Pet Owner Account is fully generated. Under the checkout screen you will be able to click on their email address to bring up the Pet Owner Edit Pop-up to add this and any additional information you need to.
Once you have finished select Finished to save the new Pet Owner Account and add them to your Astro Loyalty customer database.
Customer Check Out Screen
This will immediately take you to this customer's Checkout Screen.
Below the customer's name you will see their email address. If there was no email added to the account it will say "No Email on File". Clicking on either the email address or the "No Email on File" alert will open up the Pet Owner Edit pop-up.
You can resend the SMS Opt In Text or the Welcome Email from this pop-up. You can also add additional Pets and edit your customer's contact information and name. Make sure to click Save Pet Owner if you made any changes.
If you are trying to convert their Pet Owner Account to a Breeder Account follow this link for more information.
Below the email address you will see 5 icons. From left to right they are: SMS Text, Email, Mobile App, Pet Information, and Custom Tags. The color of these icons represents their current status. If you mouse over an icon you will see more details pertaining to the customer's status regarding this icon in a text bubble.
Red - The customer does not have it, is not participating, or has opted out.
Yellow - The customer has the required information saved on their account but has not yet opted in. ie, they have a mobile phone number or an email address on their account but they have not responded to the opt in text or welcome email.
Green - The customer has fully opted in or they have these fields fully filled in.
Below the icons, if you asked us to turn it on for you, you will see our internal Astro ID. This is a different number than your internal Customer ID. The Astro ID is used by us to keep track of the Pet Owner accounts you add to Astro. These numbers are 100% unique to each Pet Owner Account. If you want to see this information on your customers' checkout screens email us at support@astroloyalty.com so we can turn that on for you.
Related Articles
Converting a Pet Owner Account to an Employee Account
How to Convert a Pet Owner account to an Employee Account You must be enrolled in an Employee Feeder program in order to see the Employee account options. Converting via Checkout: 1. Go to Checkout. 2. Lookup their account and select. Or create a ...Upload an Existing Customer List for New Astro Retailers
This article is for onboarding new retailer's customers. Uploading customer lists is done when a retailer first joins Astro and has a blank account. We can only upload one list, so make sure the list has the correct customer's information to the best ...Checking Out Customers
How to Checkout a Customer in Astro You will use this interface to check out customers in person and add their active (un-redeemed) paper cards into Astro when you are first getting started. In order to Checkout a customer in Astro, they must first ...How to Convert Pet Owner to Breeder Account | Customers
You must be enrolled in a Breeder program in order to see some of the account options. How does a Breeder Program function on Astro? When you add a customer to Astro they are automatically designated as a PetOwner. Only customers who are designated ...Overview | Sharing the Love Pet Adoption Programs
Sharing the Love | Adoption Programs & Bundles From the moment Astro was just an idea scribbled on a napkin we had a vision that someday we would be able to create a platform that would help members of the pet industry orchestrate positive ...