You may wish to create a segment of customers using some very specific parameters; it's easy to use standard segmentation filters in Vital Statistics to find customers with a high propensity to spend, or to attend frequently, or to buy multiple tickets. But how do you create a segment based on their personal attributes, when the filters may not be quite right for your aims?

For example, you may wish to create a segment of customers who are "super fans" of a particular genre, e.g. Opera. Using standard filters, such as searching for specific events, event bands or event classifications, you can simply find all customers who've attended operatic performances. But what if you've identified a group of customers who you think are more than just opera fans - they're "super-fans" - and you want to create a segment of these customers, but you can't create segments by searching for individual customers?

Simple: you use customised Classification Codes to identify specific customers and then building segments using those codes.

First of all, you need to create the customised Classification Codes and apply them to the relevant customers. Start by logging into your Vital Statistics account; hover over "Tools" in the menu bar, then hover over "Search for", and finally click on "Customer".

First, search for the customer(s) you want to segment. You can search by name, email address, postcode and/or Customer Number, and click "Search". In this case, we're looking at some Hammonds.

All customers who fit the search term(s) will appear. Click on the Customer Number of the customer required.

You'll be taken into the Customer's record. Scroll down to the bottom, where it says "Classifications".

Some customers will already have some Classification Codes applied to them, at the point of transaction at the venue's box office. Other's won't have anything. Click on "Manage Coding Sets", and a box will open. This is where you can create new Sets and Codes. The Set is the overall group identifier, with one or more Codes forming that set (for example: Set = Genre, and Codes = Classical Music, Theatre, Panto, Community etc, or Set = Orchestra, and Codes = BBC SSO, BBC SO, BBC CO, BBC NOW, RSNO, SCO, LPO, RPO etc).

Click on "Create new set".

Give the Set a name, and click "OK".

The Set will appear, and you will now be able to add sub-Codes to the Set. Click on "Add New Code".

Give your Code a name, and click "OK".

Repeat adding Codes until you have as many as you need, click "Save Changes" and close the box.

Now, go back to the bottom of the Customer Page; under Classification, you can now choose to apply Sets/Codes. You can give a customer more than one Set/Code if you want.

First, choose your Set.

Then choose the Code you wish to apply to this customer, and then click "Add".

The customer page will re-load, and you'll see the Set/Code has now been applied. If you want to remove it, click the red "x".

Now it's time to create the Segment. First, hover over "Tools" in your menu bar, then "Search For", then click on "Segments". Click "New Segment".

Give your Segment a name (and a description if you wish), and save it into an appropriate Folder. Then - remaining in the "Include In Selection" tab, click on "New Criteria".

Because we want to filter customers based on their personal attributes, and NOT on their ticketing history, you need to tick the "Do Not Filter by Ticketing History" option at the top. This will then take you directly to the "Filter by Customer's Attributes" tab.

To filter by the Set/Codes you applied to your specific customers, choose the first filter option, and in the drop-down choose "Classified Customers". The next drop-down along will default to "Equals" - leave this as "Equals", then click on the "..." box at the far right.

This will open up a search box: you can click "Search" to see every single Code available (including those applied at a Box-office level), or use the "Search for" box to search by name. In this example, I've searched by partial name. Click "Search".

All possible results that fit the search terms will appear. Click the tick box next to the one(s) you wish to filter customers by, and click "Insert Selected". Then click "Save".

The search terms box will close, and the segment filter will show what you've selected. Click "Save and Count", and it will update to show you how many customers fit your filter terms (i.e. how many customers are in this example classed as being "Opera super fans". Finally, click "Back".

You will be taken back to the segment Edit page. You can add further criteria if you wish, or if you have finished filtering, click "Save and Close".

You will then be at the segment's header page. It will show you a selection of customers included in the segment - click into their records to confirm that they meet the criteria required to be included in the segment.

You can now use the Segment you've created for mailings, analysis, business performance etc.