Manage Customer Segments

4 Manage Customer Segments

Customer segments are groups of customers divided based on common characteristics in order to market to each group effectively and appropriately. Customer segment types and customer segments can be defined in Merchandising; however it is used for reporting purposes only.

Customer segment types and customer segments are maintained through the download/upload process. This functionality is accessed from the main Merchandising task list under Foundation Data > Download Foundation Data and Foundation Data > Upload Foundation Data.

To add, update, or remove customer segment information, select the template type of Price and Cost from the Download Data screen and then the Customer Segment template. Click the Download button and when prompted, choose to either open the .ods file that is generated or save the file and open it separately in the spreadsheet application of your choice.

Add a Customer Segment

To add a new customer segment, start in the Customer Segment Types tab, and, in a blank line in the template, select the action type of Create. Next enter a unique segment type identifier (up to 6 characters) and the description for the customer segment type in the primary language (as defined in the Merchandising system options) of up to 120 characters. Optionally, you can also enter the address, phone, fax, website or jurisdiction of the competitor in the subsequent columns.

Next, if you wish to add translations for the customer segment type in languages other than the primary language, this can be done in the Customer Segment Type Trans tab. Navigate to a blank row and select the action type of Create and the language in which the translated description will be entered. Then, enter the customer segment type for which the translation applies. Finally, enter the translated description. The translated description can also be up to 120 characters long. This is an optional step.

Next, the customer segments that belong in this customer segment type can be added. To do this, move to the Customer Segments tab in the spreadsheet. Again, navigate to a blank row in the sheet and select an action type of Create. Enter the first segment (up to 10 digits), and the segment's description. The segment description should be in the primary language (as defined in the Merchandising system options) and can be up to 120 characters. Then enter the segment type to which the segment is being added.

Lastly, if you wish to add translations for the customer segment in languages other than the primary language, this can be done in the Customer Segment Translations tab. Navigate to a blank row and select the action type of Create and the language in which the translated description will be entered. Then, enter the customer segment for which the translation applies. Finally, enter the translated description. The translated description can also be up to 120 characters long. This is an optional step.

Update a Customer Segment

If you would like to update any customer segment descriptions or translations, a similar process will be followed as that described above for creating new customer segments. First, download the spreadsheet, and then navigate to the tab where you would like to make your updates.

The following columns can be updated in each tab:

Customer Segment Types - Customer Segment Type Description
Customer Segment Type Trans - Customer Segment Type Description
Customer Segments - Customer Segment Description
Customer Segment Translations - Customer Segment Description

In the tab where you are going to make your updates, select the action type of Update, and then correct the value in the spreadsheet.

Deleting a Customer Segment

If you wish to delete a customer segment type, update the action column to select Delete in each of the tabs where it occurs. Customer segments can be deleted in a similar manner.

Uploading Changes

For all actions defined above, once all the updates have been made to the data in the spreadsheet, save the file and close it. Then, return to the Merchandising screens and select Foundation Data > Upload Foundation Data from the main task list. In this screen, select the template type Price and Cost and the template Customer Segments. This will generate a process description automatically, but this can be updated if desired. Lastly, select the Browse button and navigate to the directory where you saved the updated spreadsheet.

To review the status of the upload and check whether any errors occurred, select the Foundation Data > Review Status task from the main task list.