Central Customer Lookup
Important! When using central customer lookup, only the centrals database is checked; if the customer is not found in the centrals database, the local database is not checked. The one exception to this rule is if the centrals database is unavailable (down). In that case, the local database will be checked; however, partial matches will not be returned, only complete matches of the entered string (case-insensitive).
Basic Steps for Central Customer Lookup
- Configure the Centrals Server in Admin Console > Installation Defaults.
- Enable Central Customer Lookup in Admin Console > Node Preferences > Transactions > Centrals.
- When looking up customers at POS, only the centrals database will be checked.
Central Customer Lookup Preferences
To use central customer lookup, you must enable the option in RP Prism preferences (Admin Console > Transactions > Centrals). Select the "Enabled" check box and edit the other central gift card preferences.
| Preference | Description |
|---|---|
| Enable | If selected, central customer lookup will be used at POS. The local database will not be checked. |
| Max Results | The maximum number of results that should be returned at one time by the centrals server. For example, depending on the search criteria, a large number of results could be returned. By default, the first 100 matches will be returned. |
Central Customer Lookup Rules
Prism uses different rules for customer lookup depending on whether centrals is enabled and whether the user is in the Customer Lookup area or the POS area. When a user looks up a customer in the Customer Lookup area or at POS, the user selects a lookup field (e.g. Full Name), enters lookup criteria (e.g. "Bob") and selects an operator (e.g. CONTAINS, EQUALS, DOES NOT EQUAL, IS EMPTY, IS NOT EMPTY) from a drop-down. At POS, users can select a lookup field (e.g. Customer ID) but don't have the option of selecting an operator.
With centrals enabled searches are always done using a CONTAINS query. However, users will see the entry "EQUALS" in the drop-down.
When Centrals is disabled (the default), for Customer Lookup (in the Customers area) the drop-down for Operators is enabled and users can select an operator. In the POS area, when looking up a customer to enter the customer on a transaction, the lookup always uses the EQUALS operator.
Note: CONTAINS is not available for fields like Customer ID that store integers. Under the hood, the lookup will always search for an exact match (EQUALS query).
The following table summarizes the customer lookup search rules:
| Customer Lookup with Centrals Enabled | |
| CONTAINS | When Centrals are enabled and there is a connection to the server, in the Customer Lookup area the operator reads EQUALS and cannot be modified; however, the query that is done is a CONTAINS query The search rules are: Case insensitive Partial matches No wildcard characters (Note: When Centrals is enabled but offline, the operator is hard-coded to EQUALS. The search rules are no wildcards, exact matches only and case sensitive |
| POS Customer Lookup with Centrals Enabled | |
| CONTAINS | When Centrals are enabled and there is a connection to the server, in the POS area the operator reads EQUALS and cannot be modified; however, the query that is done is a CONTAINS query. The search rules are: Case insensitive Partial matches No wildcard characters (Note: When Centrals is enabled but offline, POS searches are case insensitive, no partial matches, and wildcard characters allowed) |
| Customer Lookup with Centrals Disabled | |
| EQUALS | Case Sensitive Exact Match No Wildcard Characters |
| DOES NOT EQUAL | Case Sensitive Exact Match No Wildcard Characters |
| CONTAINS | Case Insensitive Partial Match No Wildcard Characters |
| IS EMPTY | |
| IS NOT EMPTY | |
| POS Customer Lookup with Centrals Disabled | |
| EQUALS | In the POS area, the operator is hard-coded to EQUALS and the search rules are: Case insensitive Wildcard lookup |
Customer Share Type and Central Customer Lookup
The setting of the Customer Share Type field in the customer record can affect which customers are returned in the search results. If the Customer Share Type is set to Local and the customer is the same subsidiary as the user, the record will be returned; customers in different subsidiaries are not returned. If the Customer Share Type is set to Global, it doesn't matter if the customer is in the same subsidiary or not, the record will be returned.
When Centrals is Enabled but Offline
The lack of partial matches and wildcards mean you will need to be more specific in your search criteria. For example, normally entering "worth" would find entries like "Woodsworth" and "Worthington" (because of partial match behavior). However, when the centrals server is down, only "Worth" would be found ("worth" or "WORTH" because case-insensitive).
Note: When centrals are enabled but the server is down, when looking up a customer you will see a yellow toast message to warn you about the situation.
Changing Lookup Criteria
By default, the Customer Search dialog displays the First Name and Last Name fields (Full Name). If you need to use different look up criteria, touch or click the down arrow. A list of customer lookup fields is displayed. Select the desired field. The text entry fields changes to the selection.
Creating New Customer from Customer Lookup
If you are unable to locate the customer's record using the Customer Lookup dialog, you can touch or click the Create Customer button to create a new record.
Navigating the List of Results
If a large number of results are returned, you can use the navigation buttons at the bottom of the grid to move between the pages of results. When you find the desired record, touch or click the Select Customer button.