# Customers

URL: https://docs.sparklayer.io/help/pulse/customers

Manage your book in Pulse: check each account's health score and segment, filter by health band, invite accounts and buyers, and review trade applications.

> **Pulse is in early access.** Request it for your sales team. [Request early access](https://feedback.sparklayer.io/get-started?choice=now). [Try the interactive demo](https://www.sparklayer.io/pulse/).

> **Quick summary**
>
> - **Customers** in Pulse lists every account you look after and how healthy each one is. It has 4 tabs: **Accounts**, **Buyers**, **Customer groups** and **Applications**.
> - The **Account health** card scores every account out of 100 and sorts them into bands: **Healthy** (75 to 100), **Stable** (50 to 74), **At risk** (30 to 49) and **Critical** (0 to 29). Click a band to see those accounts.
> - Add an account with **Add account**, invite a person to order for an existing account with **Invite a buyer**, and approve new accounts from the **Applications** tab.

Use **Customers** to find the accounts that need a call before they drift away, and to bring new accounts and buyers into your book.

New to Pulse? Start with [Pulse](https://docs.sparklayer.io/help/pulse.md) for how to open it and how the date range works.

## Accounts, buyers and customer groups

Pulse uses 3 words for 3 different things:

| Term | What it is | Example |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **Account** | A company you sell to. Orders, quotes, invoices and health belong to the account. | A garden centre |
| **Buyer** | A person who orders for an account. An account can have several. | The garden centre's purchasing manager |
| **Customer group** | The price lists and terms that a set of accounts share. Each account is in one group. | Your Trade group |

Customer groups are set up at **Customers > Groups** in the SparkLayer Dashboard ([open](https://app.sparklayer.io/customers/groups)), or **SparkLayer Wholesale > Customers > Customer groups** in the Shopify app, not in Pulse: see [Customer groups](https://docs.sparklayer.io/help/customers/customer-groups.md). A buyer is a [company user](https://docs.sparklayer.io/help/customers/company-users.md) on the account.

## The Customers screen

The 4 tiles at the top are **Active buyers** (accounts that ordered), **Orders**, **GMV** and **Avg order value**. They're the same as on [Orders](https://docs.sparklayer.io/help/pulse/orders.md#how-the-figures-are-worked-out), and follow the date range. Click a tile to see what makes it up. Below the tiles are the tabs. The **Applications** tab shows how many applications are still open, and so does the **Customers** badge in the sidebar.

### Accounts tab

| Part | What it shows / does |
| --- | --- |
| **Account health** card | How many accounts are scored, how much lifetime spend sits with **At risk** and **Critical** accounts, and a bar showing how many accounts are in each band and their share. Click a band in the bar to show only those accounts in the table. Click it again, or **Show all**, to show every account. |
| **Accounts** table | One row per account: **Account**, **Health**, **Segment**, **Group**, **Agent**, **Orders**, **Lifetime spend**, **Last order** and **Came via**. Click a row to open the account. The table covers each account's whole history: the date range doesn't change it. |
| **Account** | The company name, with its website and payment terms underneath. |
| **Health** | The account's score out of 100 and its band. Hover over it to see how the score was worked out. An account that hasn't ordered yet shows **Invited** instead. |
| **Segment** | Where the account is in its life with you (see [Segments](#segments)). Hover over it to see why. An account that hasn't ordered yet shows **no orders yet**. |
| **Group** and **Agent** | The account's customer group and the sales agent who looks after it. |
| **Last order** | How long ago the account last ordered and, if it has a regular rhythm, how often it usually orders (for example, **every \~21d**). |
| **Came via** | How the account joined: **ERP sync**, **Application**, **Added by you** or **Invited**. |
| Column headings | Click **Account**, **Health**, **Orders**, **Lifetime spend** or **Last order** to sort by it. **Account** sorts A to Z first and the others highest first. Click again to reverse the order. The table starts sorted by **Lifetime spend**, highest first. |
| **Segment** filter | Show one or more segments. Each shows how many accounts are in it. |
| **Health** filter | Show one band, or **All**. Each band shows its colour and how many accounts are in it. Picking a band hides accounts that haven't ordered yet. |
| Search | Type an account name, email or account number (**Search accounts…**). |
| **Add account** | A menu of the 3 ways an account joins your book (see [Add an account](#add-an-account)). |
| **Download CSV** | Saves every account the filters show, with its health score, segment and usual gap between orders. |

The table shows 20 accounts a page. If no accounts match your filters, click **Clear filters**: it clears the **Segment** and **Health** filters and the search.

### Buyers tab

| Part | What it shows / does |
| --- | --- |
| **Buyers** table | One row per person: **Name**, **Account**, **Email**, **Role**, **Since** and **Status** (**Active**, or **Invited** until they accept). Each account's main contact is listed as **Primary buyer**. Click the account to open it. |
| **Invite a buyer** | Invites a new person to order for one of your accounts. See [Invite a buyer](#invite-a-buyer). |
| **Download CSV** | Saves the list of buyers. |

### Customer groups tab

| Part | What it shows / does |
| --- | --- |
| **Customer groups** table | One row per group: **Group**, **Price lists**, **Who it's for**, **Accounts**, **Orders** and **GMV**. Orders and GMV follow the date range. Click an account to open it. |
| **Pricing** | Opens [Pricing](https://docs.sparklayer.io/help/pulse/pricing.md), which compares how each group performs. |
| **Download CSV** | Saves the table, with a count of accounts in each group. |

### Applications tab

| Part | What it shows / does |
| --- | --- |
| **Trade applications** | Every application from your storefront's application form, newest first, with how many are still to contact. Each shows the company, its status (**New**, **In review**, **Approved** or **Declined**), the contact, their trade and when they applied. With none, it says **No applications yet.** |
| **Contact** | Adds a task to your [Task List](https://docs.sparklayer.io/help/pulse/task-list.md) to call the applicant today, and moves a **New** application to **In review**. |
| **Review** | Opens the application, where you can approve or decline it. |

Applications come from a trade application form on your storefront: see [Forms](https://docs.sparklayer.io/help/forms.md). 

## Find the accounts that need attention

1. In Pulse, click **Customers** in the sidebar. The **Accounts** tab opens.
2. In the **Account health** card, click **At risk** or **Critical**. The table shows only those accounts.
3. Hover over an account's health score to see which part of the score is low.
4. Click the account to open it, then call them, plan a visit or start an order.

**More detail**

You can also choose a band from the **Health** filter, and combine it with the **Segment** filter and the search box: the card, the filter counts and the table always count the same accounts. Click **Show all** to clear the band. For the account panel, see [An account](https://docs.sparklayer.io/help/pulse/records.md#an-account); for accounts that are late with a reorder, see [Reorder radar](https://docs.sparklayer.io/help/pulse/reorder-radar.md).

## Add an account

1. On the **Accounts** tab, click **Add account**.
2. Choose how the account joins your book:
   - **Invite an account**: add the company and its first buyer yourself.
   - **Review applications**: go to the **Applications** tab to approve an account that applied through your storefront. The menu shows how many are open.
   - **ERP sync**: nothing to do. It's marked **automatic**: accounts synced from your other systems appear on their own, and the menu shows where they sync from and when they last synced. 
3. For **Invite an account**, the **Add a buyer** form opens. Enter the buyer's **First name**, **Last name** and **Email**, and the **Company** name, then click **Add buyer**.

**More detail**

All 4 fields are needed. The buyer gets the same invite email as a customer you add in Sales Agent mode, and the account appears in your book straight away with **Came via** set to **Invited**. If they already have an account on your store, they can sign in with it. It has no health score until it orders. See [Order for a customer](https://docs.sparklayer.io/help/sales-ordering/order-for-a-customer.md).

## Invite a buyer

1. Click the **Buyers** tab, then **Invite a buyer**.
2. Choose the **Account** they'll order for.
3. Enter their **First name**, **Last name** and **Email**.
4. Choose their **Role**: **Buyer** (the default), **Primary buyer**, **Finance contact** or **Store manager**.
5. Click **Send invite**.

They get an invite to sign in and order for that account, and show on the **Buyers** tab as **Invited** until they accept. You can also invite a buyer from an account: on its **Overview** tab, click **Invite a buyer** in the **Buyers** card, and the account is chosen for you.

The 4 roles map to the roles company users have: see [Roles](https://docs.sparklayer.io/help/customers/company-users.md#roles).

## Review a trade application

1. Click the **Applications** tab.
2. To follow up first, click **Contact**: Pulse adds a task to call the applicant today.
3. Click **Review** to open the application, with the applicant's answers and how the ranges they asked about sell.
4. Click **Approve & invite** to create the account and email the contact an invite, or **Decline**.

**More detail**

To show you're working on an application, click **Mark in review**. A declined application can be reopened with **Reopen**. Once approved, the account opens, and appears on the **Accounts** tab with **Came via** set to **Application**. The application panel is described in [A trade application](https://docs.sparklayer.io/help/pulse/records.md#a-trade-application).

## How account health is scored

Each account is scored out of 100 on its own order history, from 3 parts:

| Part | Points | How it's scored |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **Cadence** | Up to 40 | How long it's been since the last order, against the account's usual gap between orders. Full points while they're within their usual gap, falling evenly to none once it's been 2.5 times their usual gap. An account without a regular rhythm yet is scored on days since its last order (see below). |
| **Spend trend** | Up to 30 | Spend in the last 90 days against the 90 days before. 30 if it's up by 10% or more, 23 if it's within 10% either way, 12 if it's down by more than 10%, 4 if they've spent nothing in the last 90 days, and 0 with no spend in 180 days. |
| **Engagement** | Up to 30 | How many orders the account has placed: 30 for 20 or more, 24 for 8 to 19, 16 for 3 to 7, 10 for 2 and 4 for 1. |

An account without a regular rhythm scores **Cadence** on days since its last order:

| Days since last order | Points |
| --- | --- |
| Up to 30 | 40 |
| 31 to 60 | 34 |
| 61 to 90 | 26 |
| 91 to 180 | 16 |
| 181 to 365 | 8 |
| More than 365 | 0 |

The total puts the account in a band:

| Band | Score |
| --- | --- |
| **Healthy** | 75 to 100 |
| **Stable** | 50 to 74 |
| **At risk** | 30 to 49 |
| **Critical** | 0 to 29 |

An account's usual gap is the average number of days between its orders, worked out once it has at least 3 orders. Accounts that have been invited but haven't ordered yet aren't scored. Health only uses orders placed through your storefront: see [Where the figures come from](https://docs.sparklayer.io/help/pulse.md#where-the-figures-come-from).

On an account's **Overview** tab, the **Health** card shows the score, the part that's holding it back most, and **How it's calculated** for the full working.

## Segments

An account's segment shows where it is in its life with you, using the same fixed day counts for every account. Pulse checks the rules in this order, and the first that fits is the segment:

| Segment | Means |
| --- | --- |
| **New** | Became a customer in the last 90 days, counted from its **Customer since** date. Accounts that haven't ordered yet are **New** too. |
| **Dormant** | No orders for more than 90 days. |
| **One-off** | A single order, placed in the last 90 days, by an account that's been a customer for longer than that. |
| **At risk** | Repeat orders, but last ordered between 61 and 90 days ago. |
| **Champions** | 8 or more orders, and ordered in the last 60 days. |
| **Loyal** | 2 to 7 orders, and ordered in the last 60 days. |

## FAQs

**Why is an account's health different from its segment?**

They measure different things. Health compares the account with its own rhythm and spend, so a customer who always orders every few months can be **Healthy**. Segments use the same fixed day counts for every account.

**Why don't the band counts add up to all my accounts?**

Invited accounts with no orders have no score, so they're in no band. The card also counts only the accounts left by the **Segment** filter and the search box.

**Why does the New segment include accounts that haven't ordered?**

An account is **New** for its first 90 days as a customer, whether or not it has ordered. Accounts you've invited count from the day you invited them, so they show in the **New** count until they're 90 days old.

**Can I move an account to another customer group from Pulse?**

No. Customer groups are managed at **Customers > Groups** in the SparkLayer Dashboard ([open](https://app.sparklayer.io/customers/groups)), or **SparkLayer Wholesale > Customers > Customer groups** in the Shopify app: see [Customer groups](https://docs.sparklayer.io/help/customers/customer-groups.md). [Pricing](https://docs.sparklayer.io/help/pulse/pricing.md) shows accounts that might belong in a different group.