Why is a walk-in with only a mobile number in my Customers list — and how do records join?

A guest who gives a UK mobile and no email still gets a customer record. How it joins their email record later, what happens when two names share a number, texts to them, and deleting or downloading their data.

A guest who books, walks in, joins the waitlist or places a phone order with your team with a UK mobile number and no email gets a customer record of their own (a phone order joins the record when the name matches, the same way a booking does). It carries a Phone only pill in your Customers list and on their profile, and it keeps everything an email record keeps from a visit: their visits and no-shows, allergies and dietary notes from their bookings, your staff notes and tags. Before, a walk-in without an email never reached Customers at all.

Only a UK mobile makes a record. A landline, a foreign number, your own venue's number (if your team types it in for a walk-in) or a made-up stand-in such as 07777 777777 never does — a shared number would pile different people's visits onto one guest.

When the same person turns up with an email

When a booking arrives with an email and a mobile we already hold a phone-only record for, and the name is the same (first and last name both given, ignoring capitals and accents — a first name on its own never joins two records), the two records join on their own: the visits, notes and history from the phone-only record move onto the email record, and the number stays on it. Adding an email to a phone-only booking later (and choosing to update their record) does the same — or, if nobody has that email yet, the phone-only record simply becomes their email record.

If the name is different, nothing moves — the same goes when only a first name was given. Both records show Same person? at the top of the profile — for example "Chris Jones also uses 07700 900123." Click Join to put them together (it's a merge, so it asks you to confirm it's you, and needs the merge permission), or Not the same to keep them apart — you won't be asked about those two again. The same question appears when a booking on a known number arrives under a different name: Join puts that booking on this guest, Not the same leaves it off. A phone order your team takes on a known number under a different name asks too — for example "A phone order on 21 Oct 2026 for Sam Other used 07700 900555." Link puts that order (and what was spent) on this guest; Keep separate leaves it off, as someone else's. Nothing is joined until someone chooses. A typed-in wrong number never moves one guest's visits onto someone else's record.

Two numbers

A guest who uses two different mobiles has two records until you merge them: open one, click … then Merge with another profile, and type the other mobile number (or an email, to merge into an email record). Every number either record knew stays on the merged one.

Offers by text

When you take a booking or seat a walk-in with a mobile and no email, the form asks Offers by text? — Yes, No or Didn’t ask. Their answer is kept on their record with your name, just like the email question, and a guest who said yes can get your text campaigns (every text carries its own opt-out link). A yes to Offers by text? covers texts only: it never puts the guest on your marketing emails, even after their record joins an email record or you add their email. The answer only ever touches texts: on a guest who already has an email record, a yes keeps their email answer as it was; and a No stops marketing texts and nothing else — it never changes what the guest told you about emails, even when their phone record later joins their email record. Their profile says "Said no to offers by text" when that is their only answer. A guest who had said no to your emails stays off them after a yes to texts — a later online booking, order or gift card, a reminder about tickets they didn't finish buying, or merging their record with another doesn't put them back on; only a deliberate yes to emails given after their "no" does: the guest turning emails back on (the link in your emails, their preferences page or My account), the guest signing up for your news and confirming it from the email it sends, or you, when they tell you they want your emails — from their profile's … menu with Confirm consent to emails too. Your Yes to Offers by email or text? on a booking isn't one of those: for a customer who said no to your emails, it turns on texts only, and New booking and Walk-in say so beside the question when the customer's record shows that "no". A guest who said no and whose record was deleted stays a no — for their email, and for their mobile unless their answer was a yes to texts — whenever a record comes back (a guest who had said no to texts only stays a no to texts): a booking, an order, a gift card, joining your loyalty scheme, saving their details in My account, you adding them, adding their email to their phone record, or changing a record's email to theirs. Their profile, the customer list and their My account page say texts only. A guest who said yes by text can add your emails from the preferences link in any of your texts. If a guest replies STOP to your texts, that number gets no more marketing texts (their profile says so, naming the number); another number on the same record still can. A phone-only guest can't sign in to My account by text or join your loyalty scheme by phone — both need an email.

Downloading or deleting their data

From a phone-only guest's profile, the … menu's Download their data and Delete customer work as they do for anyone: the download holds their profile and every booking made with their number; deleting removes the record and blanks their name, number and notes on those bookings (payment records stay, without their details), blanks the name, number and delivery address on the phone orders taken on that number (the dishes and money stay; an order you chose Keep separate for is someone else's and is left alone), and removes texts waiting to go to them.

Related: How do I find and manage my customer list? · How do I merge two customer profiles or change an email? · How do I handle a customer's data request?