Manually add customers

Hello Zenners,

I have a small shop with about 15 products in 4 categories. This shop is aimed at a few local schools. I want to set up one account for each school, and then remove the ability to create new accounts.

Should I create these accounts with the normal procedure, and then remove the "create account" stuff from the login page? Or is there a better way to acheive this? If I later on want to add another school/customer, I have to add back the account creation page?

I looked through the admin section, but there doesn't seem to be a way to manually create accounts/customers there.

Thank you for any hints/tips/cluebaits.

/Johan

There is no way to add a customer through the admin at this time

it is best to add them manually through the create account page

Hi mate
I'm also a supplier to the school market, however in Australia.
What do you supply to schools?

Merlinpa1969:

There is no way to add a customer through the admin at this time

This is definitely a feature I would like to see implemented.

just for curiosity sake, WHY,
is it any easier to type the information in on the admin side as opposed to the catalog side?

Remember that you already have a domain name - yourshop.com. So if worst comes to worst, you can create the client's account using [email protected]. That way, the account will be there (with order history) when they're ready for self-service. In the meantime, you get the benefits of being able to use the cart to process an order. Use Master Password (or Encrypted Master Password) so that you won't have to remember the password you assign them.

Good luck,
Scott

Merlinpa1969:

just for curiosity sake, WHY,
is it any easier to type the information in on the admin side as opposed to the catalog side?

It's not that it's easier to type in the information on the admin side rather than the catalog side.

Let's say for example I wanted to restrict who can purchase from my store. That means I don't want random visitors creating accounts. To get an account, a customer contacts me, provides me with their details, and I then create the account for them.

Since I manage everything in my store from the admin side - including editing and deleting customers - I would also like to be able to add customers from the admin side. It would be odd and somewhat inefficient to be adding customers on the frontend and managing everything else from the backend.

Also, if I were to create accounts from the frontend, that would mean I have to leave the account creation page enabled/active which in turn means anyone can access it. Even if I don't provide a link to the account creation page (which I wouldn't), if someone knows the site is running off Zen Cart (which isn't hard to figure out) they could easily go directly to that page and create themselves an account.

Another thing to consider is, if I were to develop an e-commerce site for someone other than myself using Zen Cart (where they wanted to restrict customers as in the example above), I'm sure they would like to be able to manage everything from the admin side as well. It would be difficult to explain why you need to create accounts from the frontend and manage everything else from the backend.

I would like to see this to. I have many customers from other sources, ie: Amazon, Yahoo, etc. and I just want to add their email address to the database so that they will get my newsletters.

Is there a way to do this now? I just need to add email addresses only, not names and such.

I think the add customer feature would be great and I don't think it would be that hard to code into the admin.

Might check the downloads section for a subscription addition.

When you say subscription addition, I don't want to add any subscription data, I just need to insert email addresses into the database and flag those addresses as accepting the newsletter.

Can someone provide me with the proper SQL code to do this and then I can handle that on my own?

Thanks!

davemehta:

When you say subscription addition, I don't want to add any subscription data, I just need to insert email addresses into the database and flag those addresses as accepting the newsletter.

Can someone provide me with the proper SQL code to do this and then I can handle that on my own?

Thanks!
That's why you want the subscription addon.
By default, Zen Cart doesn't merely track email addresses for newsletters. It flags customer records as being part of newsletters. As such, you need to create complete customer records in order to subscribe them to the newsletter.
Or, you can use the Newsletter Subscribe addon which alters this behaviour by adding an additional table to track the email addresses specifically.

i wrote a contribution to manually add a customer through the admin. it has recently been activated and is available in the download section, should it still be desired.

aerodynamic hippo:

i wrote a contribution to manually add a customer through the admin. it has recently been activated and is available in the download section, should it still be desired.

Wish I had known this earlier! I ended up doing it myself (: I'll test out your contribution when I get a chance.

aerodynamic hippo:

i wrote a contribution to manually add a customer through the admin. it has recently been activated and is available in the download section, should it still be desired.

:clap: Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Merlinpa1969:

just for curiosity sake, WHY,
is it any easier to type the information in on the admin side as opposed to the catalog side?

One advantage of doing it through this mod in admin is that you can choose whether or not to send the welcome email.

Another is that it just gives an easier workflow for the store administrator.

I think also that one of the folks who wanted this had turned off user registration and wanted the only mechanism to be registration by admin. :shrug:

the whole reason I wrote it was because I needed it for a client who wanted to only sell to current customers - their store is behind the login, and registration is turned off. Thus, if they want to add someone, its easier if they can enter it on the admin side, than having to turn on registration, put the user info in as if they were the customer, then go back and turn registration back off (which also opens up the slim possibility that someone else could visit and register on the site in that time).

so the short answer is, ease of use. :)

Is the Add Customers mod compatible with 1.2.6?

Yep, it is compatible with 1.2.6.

As it didn't overwrite anything I just installed it and it works fine. Doesn't appear to send the welcome e-mail but I'm not worried about that.

Great mod. Thanks for taking the time.

Jacque

I stand corrected, it isn't adding the new person to the database.

They show up on the Admin side but not in the database.

Any suggestions?