Delete a Customer

Updated 6 months ago by Jackson Stone

Introduction
How to Delete Customers
- Through an Import
- Through the API
Common Uses & Questions
What’s Next

Deleted customers cannot be recovered. Once they're gone, they're gone forever, so make sure you really don't need that information anymore before you delete anything.

Complexity:

Audience: Loan Servicer or Collector, Developers, Accounting, Loan Servicing/Collections Managers, Compliance, Data

Introduction

The number of customers in your account factors into how much you're charged, so most companies using LMS will want to delete unused customers after their loans are closed. In this article, we'll show you how to delete customers through the LMS UI, the API, or an import. Before we get into specifics, though, we should emphasize what this actually does.

In LMS, loans and customers are separate entities: You can create a customer without a loan, or a loan without a customer. This also means you can link a single loan to multiple customers, and a single customer to multiple loans. Deleting a customer, then, won't delete any loans that they're linked to, or any of the payment history, notes, or documents saved to the loan. (To get rid of that information, you'd want to Delete a Loan.)

Instead, deleting a customer will get rid of the record of that specific person. This includes everything that is saved to at the customer level: personal and contact information, employers and references, payment profiles, notes, documents, and communication history.

A Quick Note on Legal Compliance. Depending on where you and your customers are located, you might have to comply with several laws or regulations that govern how you store customer data. For example, small-dollar lenders in the US must comply with the Small-Dollar Payments rule, which requires them to keep loan records for three years after the loan is closed. At the same time, borrowers in some states are protected by laws like the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), which require lenders to delete customer data upon request.

We recommend that you and your compliance team research which laws apply to you and develop a clear workflow so agents know precisely when they should delete customers and loans.

How to Delete Customers

Deleting a customer account can be accomplished through the API for a single account, or through a .csv file import for any number of accounts. For either method, you'll need the customer ID. This can be found by navigating to Users > Customer in LMS and searching the specific customer.

The customer ID is listed in a column on the Customer Manager page. From there, you can delete them with either an import or the API.

Through an Import

Customers are added and deleted through the same import, and it follows the same basic process as other imports. Navigate to Settings > Company > Import > Instructions & Samples, and select 'Information' within the customer section. This page explains what each field means and gives you a sample file. Our article Import CSV Templates also contains a sample file, and a file with a row of example data.

Once you open the file, the top row should remain unchanged. (The system uses these headers to identify what the rest of the information in the file is.) The only other information you'll need in the file are the 'action' and 'customerId' columns. The 'action' will be 'remove', and the 'customerId' is the number we found from the Customer Manager. Leave the other cells in Row 2 and down empty, but don't change the any of the headers in Row 1.

With the file ready, navigate to Settings > Company > Import > Upload & History and drag and drop the file into LMS. From that point, follow the steps laid out in the Import Process as you validate, ingest, and verify the data.

Through the API

Once you have the customer ID, you can use send a DELETE request to the customer endpoint, which contains that customer's ID. For example, if their ID is 111, you'd send it here:

https://loanpro.simnang.com/api/public/api/1/odata.svc/Customers(111)

Change '111' to the ID of the specific customer you're deleting, and it should work for you. Since this is a DELETE request, you won't need to include a payload body—just set the method to DELETE. A 200 response means the customer is gone forever.

Common Uses & Questions

Here's some information for specific roles at your company:

Loan Servicer or Collector Use

Make sure that an account should be deleted before you do anything in the software. Although we can restore deleted loans, deleted customer data cannot be recovered. Once a customer is gone, they're gone.

Developer Use

If you're deleting customers through the API, you should check out the Delete Customer request on ReadMe.

Once your compliance and management teams have figured out exactly when they want to delete customers, we recommend using automation to enable that plan. Tools like Rules Applied or Trigger-Based Notifications can specify certain criteria, and have the system automatically make changes or notify you when a loan meets those criteria.

These tools use the Clojure language, so they will require a bit of technical understanding. Clojure's not terribly difficult to understand, though, and we have some articles explaining how it works, like Clojure 101 and Rules Applied – Basics. Alternatively, you can contact a Success Specialist, who'll enlist our own Solutions Architects to write the Clojure rules for you.

Accounting Use

The number of customers in your account factors into the amount you pay for LMS. The exact amount will vary depending on your service level, so you should check your contract for details. The Billable Account Details page in the software shows exactly how many loans and customers you're being charged for.

Loan Servicing/Collections Managers Use

You obviously don't want agents deleting the wrong customers, so we recommend using roles to limit that power to specific users. We also recommend codifying your company's policies on when to delete loans and customers, and then using Rules Applied or Trigger-Based Notifications to bake those policies into your operations.

Compliance Use

There are many federal, state, and provincial regulations governing how long lenders must retain customer and loan information, and when they must delete it. Some of these laws, like the California Consumer Protection Act (CCPA), require lenders from other states to comply if their customers are California residents.

We recommend that you research these laws and figure out exactly when you should delete loan or customer information, and then develop an automated workflow to enable that plan. Using tools like Rules Applied or Trigger-Based Notifications, you can specify certain criteria and have the system automatically make changes or notify you when a loan meets those criteria. These tools use Clojure, a programming language, so they will require a bit of technical understanding. If you don't have that expertise in your company, contact a Success Specialist, and they can enlist our own Solutions Architects to write the Clojure rules for you.

Data Use

Customers and Loans are saved independently. Deleting a customer won't delete a loan, and deleting a loan won't delete a customer.

The main database table for customer information is customer_entity.

Can deleted customer information be recovered? No, it cannot. Deleted loan information can be restored, but once a customer is deleted, they're gone forever.

What’s Next

If you're using imports to delete customers, you should start by reading The Import Process.
You can find more about the API request to delete a customer on our ReadMe.
You might also be interested in learning how to Delete a Loan.