Delete a customer? Or better way?

I sent out a mail blast informing customers of a product issue... some of the older accounts are bouncing. No surprise, but what's the best way of dealing with them so I'm not wasting resources or ruining my deliverability stats? Is it safe enough to just remove the customer account belonging to that email address? I mean, if their email is no longer valid... I really have no further use for them lol

I don't know how that would interact/interfere with orders though. Of course I don't want to lose order info.

In the admin of the store you'll find a link for the customers. Find/select the customers that are no longer active and hit the 'delete' button.

I don't think this removes any orders they may have made, but it does delete their account and email addresses - I'm pretty sure of that.

The simple fact that there is a button to delete a customer is suggesting to me that this is a 'safe' method. Other (manual) methods are quite likely to cause the problem that you fear.

Tip: If in doubt you could create a new customer, and place an order, then delete the customer and observe what happens to the order. This would certainly be my approach if no one comes up with a more definitive answer.

Cheers
RodG

Thanks. Didn't even think to check for a "delete" button lol. I was just going to bulk delete from the DB. I checked what that button does and yeah, it involves several tables (none of which are orders) so best to just use the button.

Suggestion to admin: it would be nice to have a status such that the customer is still there, but the system is aware that the email is not valid. That would preclude it from mail-outs, but also alert the customer if/when they do log in to change/confirm their email. While I'm not too worried about it since these customers haven't logged in since 2011, I suppose there could be a scenario (tax audit?) where they want to log in and now their account is gone.

s_mack:

Thanks. Didn't even think to check for a "delete" button lol. I was just going to bulk delete from the DB. I checked what that button does and yeah, it involves several tables (none of which are orders) so best to just use the button.

Suggestion to admin: it would be nice to have a status such that the customer is still there, but the system is aware that the email is not valid. That would preclude it from mail-outs, but also alert the customer if/when they do log in to change/confirm their email. While I'm not too worried about it since these customers haven't logged in since 2011, I suppose there could be a scenario (tax audit?) where they want to log in and now their account is gone.Have you tried "Unsubscribe" them from the newsletter.
That way when you bulk email customers you can select ONLY "subscribed" customers

I'm sure I could make that work... it isn't really a newsletter and I keep that separate.

s_mack:

I'm sure I could make that work... it isn't really a newsletter and I keep that separate.

Well, regardless of newsletter or say product updates, the mail system offers groups to which emails can be sent... Notice that in a default install every message indicates that a user can respond to be removed from future emails. If such a response were sent, then something would have to be done to prevent them from receiving future emails. In this case the same may be true, but somewhat reverse... Also just because their email is no longer valid doesn't necessarily mean that they don't visit the site or for that matter even make a purchase... That's where the last login date can come to play... The other thing is that though the order history wouldn't be affected for the store owner, it would obviously for the customer... Even if they recreated an account at that point, they would no longer be able to reach their history without the storeowner jumping through hoops.

s_mack:

I'm sure I could make that work... it isn't really a newsletter and I keep that separate.

However you send emails is not the point.
This is a field in the customers details that can be used to determine whether to send emails to that customer or not.

If you use an external email service then you simply export the email addresses that are tagged as "subscribed"

Any emails that bounce, you "unsubscribe" that customer from further emails.

I never delete customers. I need a full history of website interactions.

The default subscription methodology for zen is too simplistic for my needs. But... now that I think about it, I suppose I can make better use of the query builder to fine tune it to my needs. There are some messages I have to send out ignoring people's subscription preferences. The law (at least here) has my back on that, as all transactional and account-specific emails are exempt. So I can build queries that do, or don't, ignore the newsletter preference as needed.

I deleted the accounts, but I have backups so I can put them back in if I decide to. I can just restore my DB for everything prior to 2012.

Thanks for the insights, etc.