Customer merge algorithm - merge based on card?

Questions
1

Step 1. Order O1 is created on Square POS and paid using a previously unknown credit card P1 and without assigning any customer profile.

Comment: I believe this will create a customer “instant profile” C1

Step 2. Order O2 is created on Square POS, paid using the same card P1 and is also assigned a customer email.

Question: Will Square’s deterministic duplicate profile detection merge the old instant profile with the newly created customer profile C2 and associate it with the card P1?

Step 3: Order O3 is created on Square POS, paid using the same card P1 but is not assigned to any customer.

Question: Will Square detect, based on the card number P1, that this order belongs to customer profile C2 and associate O3 with customer profile C2?

Thanks in advance @sjosey , @szisman

2

While I think I know the answers, I will take this offline and touch base with our customers team to ensure I give the correct information. I’ll follow up as soon as I have a confirmed conclusion.

3

Here’s what I found:

  1. Yes, instant profile will be created
  2. No, we do not do auto-merging. You would not have access to the instant profile in POS or dashboard as far as I’m aware, so I think you’d need to create a new customer with an email
  3. Given 2, it would belong to the instant profile from 1.
4

:frowning: not the answer I was hoping for but I do appreciate you researching this and answering my questions. Thanks very much @sjosey

5

a followup question… is there any documentation of the conditions under which profiles are merged and the timeframe for each (merged as a periodic background process vs. triggered by events). Thanks.

6

What do you mean by periodic background process? As mentioned above, we do not do auto-merging, so the only time a merge will occur is if a merchant manually executes a merge on two customers.

7

Ok, I think I got confused reading szisman’s response to another question and thought there was a possibility of auto-merge of profiles - quote “It is possible we would merge customers with Customer Cards that have matching phones or emails” (from: Trying to understand the Customers API - #2 by szisman). But from your answer it’s completely clear to me now that there is absolutely no auto-merge done by Square so there’s no background process involved. Thanks for clarifying.

8

Hi @satish I spoke with @szisman and I was incorrect, my apologies. Per this Square article: Manage Your Customer Directory Online | Square Support Center - US, we do try to auto-merge profiles if enough of the information is the same on two profiles.

9

Thank you so much for digging into this and helping me understand this better. Have a good day.