Removing Customers

[debc166]

We have noticed that our database is full of a lot of inactive customers. Is there any kind of benefit to the sytem if we begin to remove these customers? Or has anyone noticed significant problems from cleaning out the database?

[brianp87]

I delete them. I remove license plate #'s before I do otherwise I just remove as needed.

[steven kiser]

Before i remove them i try to find out why they're inactive. Another issue i watch out for is i do a bit of work that carries extended warranties, Jasper is a good one to use as an example. Another point here is in the past i've gotten phone calls from customers that i haven't heard from in years and when i punched in their last name i get an order. Sometimes i hear "oh, you remember me" or things like that. Speaking for myself when i stop going to a business for one reason or another i sometimes find it difficult to return. When i do and get a "hi steve, what's up" i feel so much more comfortable.

People can be a bit weird at times and just need a little recognition to smooth things over. When i get a call from a customer that i haven't seen in a few years and i have the information in front of me i can say something along the lines of "you still driving that pontiac" or something along those lines to break the ice. Sometimes they've gone to other shops for one reason or another and are looking to return and i need to make them comfortable so they can.

Now, when i decide i'm through with a person and decide to delete them from my data base they're gone. when i hit the remove this customer button i picture a mushroom cloud and smile. I will look over orders for any that are still under a warranty, print them out, blacken out any information that isn't directly involved with the item. I blacken out my name, any labor charges, any parts that is out of warranty, etc. An example would be if i installed a Jasper transmission and it was still in warranty the order would be pretty much blacked out with the exception of the jasper part #, product #, mileage, and date. All labor is blacked out and all other attached parts. Do not want it to be used as a comparison point ever. I mail it to them certified along with a letter stating that this is the only copy since they've been removed from my system. If they lose this they're going to have one heck of a time getting any information they need.

[debc166]

I have run into a problem while trying to remove customers from the database. I was wondering if anyone else has run into this at all. This has so far only happened on a select few old customer files. When I try to delete the customer from the system I am getting an error message that reads:

error message.jpg (67.77 KiB) Viewed 7106 times

We are not having any server connection issues. Everything else in the programs works fine. Although, we have restarted everything as it says, just to make sure and the problem persists. Again, this has not been with every customer, it has only happened with 4 customer files. If anyone has any type of fix for this, please let me know. Thanks!

[timbre4]

This type of issue will require tech support intervention to see what's up with those specific records.

[rhillig]

We have had this issue - I did have tech support poke around & while they helped me delete the offending records - we were unable to figure out why it is happening. The only correlation I can come up with is that some of these customer records in the history tab have no customer information listed for earlier work orders. This has come from the vehicle being transferred either from our inventory or from another customer.

I have run into a problem while trying to remove customers from the database. I was wondering if anyone else has run into this at all. This has so far only happened on a select few old customer files. When I try to delete the customer from the system I am getting an error message that reads:

error message.jpg

We are not having any server connection issues. Everything else in the programs works fine. Although, we have restarted everything as it says, just to make sure and the problem persists. Again, this has not been with every customer, it has only happened with 4 customer files. If anyone has any type of fix for this, please let me know. Thanks!

[steven kiser]

Years ago i had an issue with ones that were never used after being transferred to mitchell from my old operations system.

[Honest Engine]

Before i remove them i try to find out why they're inactive. Another issue i watch out for is i do a bit of work that carries extended warranties, Jasper is a good one to use as an example. Another point here is in the past i've gotten phone calls from customers that i haven't heard from in years and when i punched in their last name i get an order. Sometimes i hear "oh, you remember me" or things like that. Speaking for myself when i stop going to a business for one reason or another i sometimes find it difficult to return. When i do and get a "hi steve, what's up" i feel so much more comfortable.

People can be a bit weird at times and just need a little recognition to smooth things over. When i get a call from a customer that i haven't seen in a few years and i have the information in front of me i can say something along the lines of "you still driving that pontiac" or something along those lines to break the ice. Sometimes they've gone to other shops for one reason or another and are looking to return and i need to make them comfortable so they can.

Now, when i decide i'm through with a person and decide to delete them from my data base they're gone. when i hit the remove this customer button i picture a mushroom cloud and smile. I will look over orders for any that are still under a warranty, print them out, blacken out any information that isn't directly involved with the item. I blacken out my name, any labor charges, any parts that is out of warranty, etc. An example would be if i installed a Jasper transmission and it was still in warranty the order would be pretty much blacked out with the exception of the jasper part #, product #, mileage, and date. All labor is blacked out and all other attached parts. Do not want it to be used as a comparison point ever. I mail it to them certified along with a letter stating that this is the only copy since they've been removed from my system. If they lose this they're going to have one heck of a time getting any information they need.

Agree. I don't see the value in deleting someone's record permanently, especially where I'm located in a small community. Even people that you don't see for awhile have a way of turning back up, and it's good to have that referencing ability (especially if your memory is like mine is).

[debc166]

This goes back to my previous question, regarding the error message above that I was receiving. I have found that all of the customers I am unable to remove have a last visit date of 8/10/05. I believe this is around the time when we did switch software programs. I have not yet called tech support on this, however, I decided to play around with the customers to see if I could find what was wrong. On one of the customers, I created a new invoice, which updated the customers last in date to todays date. I was then able to delete the customer without any problems. Is there any way to update the customer's last in date without having to create new invoices for them?

[ricmorin]

Good detective work. Likely some weird artifact from the import process. If it were me I'd just leave them in there. The records are not causing any harm. If you must remove them, looks like a one-at-a-time process.

[timbre4]

That's correct. It is the actual invoice activity that updates this internal value.

It doesn't generally occur unless a database conversion has taken place. It has to put something in that field and probably defaults to the databse conversion date.