Ask Dri about a customer: last purchase, how much they buy and credit

What you can ask about a customer

Dri answers about a customer in your portfolio by reading your company's ERP, in a single sentence about them. The topics, with one example each:

• how much they paid for a product: "how much did Bazar Modelo pay for AB10009?". Without the product code, she shows the last order and asks for the product;
• credit, limit and receivables: "what's Bazar Modelo's credit?", "does Bazar Modelo have an overdue boleto?", "open boletos for Bazar Modelo". For boletos in detail and duplicates, see Boletos, overdue receivables and the customer's credit through Dri;
• the payment terms, payment method and freight they usually use: "what payment terms does this customer usually use?". They come from invoiced orders, with the number of orders next to them;
• when they last bought: "when did Bazar Modelo last buy?";
• when they bought a product, and how much: "when did Bazar Modelo buy AB10371?", "how many times has Bazar Modelo bought AB10371?";
• how much they bought, average ticket, how often they buy and the monthly average: "how much has Bazar Modelo bought this year?", "how much do they buy per month?", "what's Bazar Modelo's average ticket?";
• what they buy most: "what does Bazar Modelo buy most?". You get the five products with the highest invoiced value, with the quantity next to them;
• everything together: "tell me about Bazar Modelo" builds an overview with activity, what they buy most, credit, terms and last purchase.

It is a lookup for the sales team. For questions about many customers at once (who stopped buying, who owes boletos across the whole portfolio), see Ask about my customer portfolio on WhatsApp. For the status or the copy of an order, like "customer X's last order", see Ask for an order's status on WhatsApp.

How to say which customer it is

Name the customer in the sentence itself, in one of these ways:

• by name: "what's Bazar Modelo's credit?";
• by CNPJ: "does CNPJ 12.345.678/0001-90 have an overdue boleto?";
• by the customer's code in the ERP, with the word "customer" before it: "what's customer 12345's last purchase?" or "customer code 12345".

A number on its own is not read as a customer code: with no customer in the conversation, "does 12345 have an overdue boleto?" gets "Which customer do you want to know about? Tell me the name or the CNPJ.". Write "customer 12345".

When the sentence names no customer and you have not just talked about one, she asks that same question. Reply with the name, the CNPJ or the code. When she does not find the customer in Vendria, she searches the ERP directly by name, CNPJ or code, and also finds those who have not been brought into Vendria yet. If you replied with the name and she asked again, the name did not match or matched too many people: send the CNPJ or "customer" followed by the code. The portfolio rule still applies to a customer found this way.

When the name does not match exactly

If the name you wrote does not match any record, but one comes close, Dri confirms before answering: "I didn't find that exact name", followed by "Did you mean" and the record's name, with the options "1. Yes, that's the one" and "2. No, it isn't". If you answer 2, she asks for a fuller name or the CNPJ.

When she finds the customer by legal name, and the record's name is different, the reply opens with a line "Found by legal name" saying which record has that legal name. For example: you ask about COMERCIAL MODELO LTDA and the reply comes with the name LOJA CENTRO 03, which is that record's name. It is not a change of customer: it is the same record, with both names.

If she finds no one, she repeats what you wrote ("I didn't find any customer of yours with" the name) and asks you to check or send the CNPJ.

When more than one customer has the name

With few candidates, Dri lists them numbered: "I found more than one customer of yours" with the name, "Which one?", and each option with what sets it apart from the others, such as the neighborhood, the city and the CNPJ. Reply with the number or with the name as it is in the list.

With many, the list would not fit, and she asks for what tells them apart: how many there are in each city and "Which city?" (or which state, or which neighborhood). You can reply with the place or send the CNPJ. When one of these lists has a "...and more" line, your customer may be among those that did not fit: the CNPJ settles it at once.

To leave the question without choosing, say "never mind". She replies "Okay, never mind.".

Carry on without repeating the name

After a reply about a customer, the next short question stays on the same customer: "and their last purchase?", "and the payment terms?". After a reply about how much they bought or what they buy most, just the period is also enough: "and this quarter?". This lasts for 15 minutes after the last reply about them. When Dri completes your sentence with something from the previous question, the reply opens with a line "Kept from the previous question" saying what she kept.

After a list of portfolio customers, you can point to one by position: "and the third one's credit?". This also lasts for 15 minutes, and only when the list showed the names. After a reply with just the count, there is no "third one": say the customer's name.

How to read the reply

Every reply with ERP data says where it came from, with a "Checked in the ERP" line and the date and time of the reading.

• One part per ERP base. When your company has more than one base, each one comes in its own section, because the same customer has a different limit, payment terms and last purchase in each. To see only one, say the store's name in the sentence: the reply notes that the other stores were left out.
• The period is written out. With no period in the sentence, how much they bought and what they buy most cover the last 12 months, counted from the invoice. The lookup measures 3, 6 or 12 months; if you ask for another period, it uses the closest one and says so.
• Credit comes with the receivables. The available limit comes together with the open receivables, the overdue ones and those due in the next 7 days. If you said "boleto", the reply counts only the boletos and warns when a base does not allow separating them from other receivables. A yes-or-no question ("is there an overdue boleto?") opens with the yes or the no.
• The last purchase brings the date and the order number in the ERP, and right below, when there is one, the last order confirmed in Vendria in each store, with payment terms and freight. The order amount does not appear. The payment terms and freight reply also includes this Vendria block, because the ERP only counts what has already been invoiced.
• "No invoice" or "no purchase recorded" in the period refer to the period checked, and the reply itself reminds you: "This is about the period checked. There may be an older purchase.".

When she cannot answer

Each refusal says whose gap it is, and what to do changes with the sentence:

• "That customer isn't in your portfolio, so I can't give you their commercial data.": sellers and sales reps only look up customers in their own portfolio. Administrators and the company owner look up the organization's. If the customer should be yours, talk to the store's administrator.
• "I found this customer here in Vendria, but they're not registered in the ERP, so I don't have their commercial history.": either the customer's record in Vendria has no CNPJ, which is how Dri looks them up in the ERP, or no base of your company's ERP knows that CNPJ. Check the CNPJ on the customer's record: with it correct in the record and in the ERP, the lookup starts working.
• The sentence ending in "doesn't answer this kind of lookup. It's not a matter of updating.": that store's ERP does not do this reading. It is not a network failure, and repeating does not help.
• The sentence starting with "The lookup exists in the ERP here, but the version of the integration installed": the ERP does the reading, but the store's integration is from an earlier version and needs to be updated. Repeating does not help.
• "This store's ERP doesn't expose that data, so I have no way to look it up.", or "this base's ERP doesn't expose that data." in one of the sections: that base's connection does not do this reading, without saying why. Repeating does not help either.
• "I couldn't reach the ERP right now to fetch that data. Try again in a few minutes?": the ERP did not respond at that moment. Here trying again helps.
• "Last purchase: the order has no issue date.": the ERP recorded the order without the issue date. When the ERP recorded the order number, it comes right below, and with it you can check in the ERP.
• "has no purchase recorded in the ERP": that is what the ERP answered, and the reply says so: "This is what the ERP answered, not a lookup failure.".

What she does not do yet

• She does not understand every way of asking. General phrasings such as "purchase history", "latest purchases" or "what they bought" may not be recognized. Ask one topic at a time, with the words from the examples above: "last purchase", "what they buy most", "how much they bought".
• She does not build a restock suggestion from what the customer usually buys, nor redo an old ERP order as a new quote. Ask what they buy most and send the items to the quote. To repeat a Vendria quote, see Duplicate and revise a quote.
• She does not give the amount of the last purchase. She shows the date and the order number.

Common questions

Dri said she has no access to the customer's history. Why? Almost always it is the sentence that was not recognized as a question about a customer. Rephrase it with a single topic and the customer in the sentence: "when did Bazar Modelo last buy?" or "what does Bazar Modelo buy most?".

I asked about one name and the reply came with another. Did it pick the wrong customer? Check the "Found by legal name" line at the top of the reply: it says the name you wrote is that record's legal name. If that line is not there and the customer is not yours, send the CNPJ.

I sent just the customer's number and Dri asked which customer. Why? A bare number could be an order, a product or a quantity, so she does not read it as a customer code. Write "customer 12345".

Why does the reply come split in two parts? Because your company has more than one base in the ERP, and each one keeps the customer's credit, payment terms and purchases separately.

I asked for "this year" and got "in the last 12 months". Is that right? Yes. The lookup measures windows of 3, 6 or 12 months counted from today, and "this year" is read as the last 12 months.

Can I ask about a customer who is not in my portfolio? If you are a seller or sales rep, no: Dri replies that the customer is not in your portfolio, without saying anything about them. Administrators and the company owner can look up any customer in the organization.

Where do I see the customer's record on screen? On their record, in Customers. See A customer's record straight from the ERP.