Notes on a customer
Notes on a customer record are private — never shown to the customer and never sent to them. Use them for access details, contact preferences and anything that helps your staff. A customer can still request a copy under data protection law, so record facts rather than opinions. Notes about the pet belong on the animal record instead.
Notes on a customer record are how everything you know about a customer that isn't a field ends up somewhere your whole team can see it. They're on the customer's page, under their contact details.
Customer notes are private
The page says so directly: these notes are NOT shown to the customer. They don't appear in the portal and they don't go on anything the customer receives. They're for you and your staff.
What's worth writing down
- How they prefer to be contacted, and when not to ring.
- Access details — the gate code, which door, where to park.
- Anything about payment that your staff should know before the awkward conversation.
- Context that makes someone easier to deal with. "Prefers the quiet slot first thing" saves everyone a bad morning.
Write it as if it will be read out
Private doesn't mean unaccountable. Under UK data protection law a customer can ask for a copy of what you hold about them, and these notes are part of it. Record facts and things that help you look after their animal — not opinions about the person. A good test: would you be comfortable if they read it back to you?
Notes about the animal go on the animal
An animal's record has its own Behaviour Notes and General Notes, and that's where anything about the pet belongs — how it is to handle, what it doesn't like, what worked last time. It follows the animal if it's ever transferred to a different owner, and it's where staff look before starting work.
Notes on a single visit
For something that only applies to one appointment, use the notes on the booking itself rather than the customer record. Bookings also have a separate option for whether notes appear on invoices, so you can keep internal comments internal.
Keep them current
A note nobody has updated in three years is worse than no note, because people act on it. When something changes — a new address, a dog that's grown out of a problem — edit the note rather than adding a second one underneath.