Member Attributes

Overview

The Member Attributes screen is used to view and manage the demographic fields and other attributes that relate to your Members. The platform includes a wide range of default "System" Attributes applicable to most client loyalty programs. In addition, you can create custom Attributes in order to meet your specific business requirements.

The Marigold  Loyalty platform supports a wide range of options and properties related to Member Attributes, such as different data types, the use of pre-defined values, the use of a default value, and organizing Attributes into Categories. You can made Attributes read-only, required, or static. You can also create Calculated Attributes, that are populated based on a formula or function.

Access

To access the Member Attributes screen, select Program from the Main Navigation Menu, then select Member Attributes from the Sub-Category menu.

Marigold Artificial Intelligence

The member profile can capture and manage Marigold AI scores related to likelihood to purchase and the optimal offer value needed to incentivize the next purchase. In future releases, Marigold AI capability will help programs optimize offer targeting to improve member engagement, reduce over-discounting, and improve program margins.

Features

The Member Attributes screen provides the following features related to managing your Member Attributes:

Searching and Sorting

Search

The search feature allows you to search for a specified text string anywhere within the following Member Attribute fields: Name, Internal Name, Data Type, Source, or Category name.

  1. Optionally, in the search field near the top of Member Attributes screen, enter the desired text string.

  2. Press Enter, or click the search button (magnifying glass icon).

  3. The Member Attributes screen is refreshed to show only the Member Attributes that meet your search criteria.

  4. To remove all search criteria, click the remove button ("X" icon).

Sort

The "Sort" drop-down menu allows you to sort the Member Attributes on a variety of different fields. To sort the list of Member Attributes, select the desired sort option from this menu.  

  • Name (default)

  • Created Date

  • Updated Date

Navigation

Once you've found the desired Attribute, you can navigate to the following other screens:

Create a New Attribute

To create a new Attribute:

  1. Enter the Display Name value for the new Attribute.

  2. From the drop-down menu, select the data type:

  • Boolean: Used for fields that allow only two possible values, such as yes / no or true / false. 

  • Date: Used to store a calendar date.

  • Decimal: Used to store numeric data, with both a precision (total number of digits) and a scale (number of digits to the right of the decimal point). 

  • Email: Used to store a Member's email address. This attribute is used to contact Members when sending Email Messages. 

  • Integer: Used to store numeric data (with no decimals). 

  • Phone: Used to store a Member's mobile phone number. This attribute is used to contact Members when sending SMS Text Messages.

  • String: Used to store text. 

  • DateTime: Used for values that contain both date and time components. 

  • URL: Used to store website URLs.

  • Table: Used to store a result set. 

  • List of String: Used to store multiple string values in the same field. 

  1. Click create to display the Edit Member Attribute pop-up window.

  2. The "Name" field is populated with the value you entered above; optionally edit this value.

  3. The Internal Name is automatically populated based on the Display Name value. This field is uneditable by default. To edit the Internal Name, check edit internal name. A confirmation dialog box is displayed; click ok. Edit the Internal Name value.

  4. In the "Description" field, optionally enter a description of the Attribute.

  5. The "Type" menu is populated with the data type you selected above; optionally edit this value.

  6. The "Domain" field allows you to define a set of valid values that will be accepted in this Attribute. Optionally enter one or more values (separated by commas) in this field.

  7. Optionally, in the "Default Value" field, enter a default value for this Attribute. 

  8. Optionally, click into the "Categories" field and select a Category to assign to this Attribute. Member Attribute Categories are used to organize Attributes into groups. Repeat this step as needed.

  9. Optionally, click into the "Tags" field and select a tag value to assign to this field. Repeat this step as needed. 

  10. Check calculated if this attribute is a Calculated Attribute. See below for more details on Calculated Attributes.  

  11. Click save. 

To make your new Attribute available, it must have a Status of Published, and you must deploy metadata; see below for details.

Create a New Subscription Field

Subscription Fields are a special type of Attribute used to manage a consumer's eligibility to be contacted in a marketing campaign. To create a new Subscription Field:

  1. Enter the Display Name value for the new Subscription Field.

  2. From the drop-down menu, select Boolean.

  3. Click create to display the Edit Member Attribute pop-up window.

  4. The "Name" field is populated with the value you entered above; optionally edit this value.

  5. The Internal Name is automatically populated based on the Display Name value. This field is uneditable by default. To edit the Internal Name, check edit internal name. A confirmation dialog box is displayed; click ok. Edit the Internal Name value.

  6. In the "Description" field, optionally enter a description of the Subscription Field.

  7. The "Domain" field allows you to define a set of valid values that will be accepted in this Subscription Field. Optionally enter one or more values (separated by commas) in this field.

  8. Optionally, in the "Default Value" field, enter a default value for this Attribute.

  9. Click into the "Categories" field, and select "Message Subscriptions" from the list of Member Attribute Categories. "Message Subscriptions" is a special Category reserved for Subscription Fields. 

  10. Optionally, click into the "Tags" field and select a tag value to assign to this field. Repeat this step as needed. 

  11. Check calculated if this is a Calculated Attribute. See below for more details on Calculated Attributes.

  12. Click save.

To make your new Subscription Field available, it must have a Status of Published, and you must deploy metadata; see below for details.

View or Edit an Attribute

To view or edit the details of an Attribute:

  1. Search and / or sort the Member Attribute screen as described above.

  2. Click the desired Attribute. The Member Attribute Details screen is displayed.

Enable Attribute as a Subscription Setting for Push Campaign

This capability is applicable to any client who has a custom attribute for SMS. The outcome is that a member can subscribe to push notifications based on the customer’s custom attribute.

Configure the custom member attribute

For email and SMS messages, you must configure the Message Subscriptions category for the custom member attribute in order for the attribute to be available in the Message Subscription list for Push Messages.

  1. Go to Programs > Member Attributes to add or edit a custom member attribute.

  2. Under Edit Member Attribute, add Message Subscriptions under Categories. Click Save when done.                     

  3. Note thatMembers can only view items marked Published. Anything designated as Draft or Archive will not be visible. 

Configure message subscription attributes for push

  1. Navigate to Admin > Access > Client Applications in the marketing console.

  2. Click into either the Default record or the custom Client Application record used by program's mobile app(s).

  3. Click on Edit to edit the Message Subscription Attributes. So long as you have configured your category, you will see your custom attribute in the Member Attribute drop-down.

  4. Select and add your new attribute from the drop-down, such as Suspend Push or Suspend Email, e.g.

  5. Click Save.

Deploy program metadata

Important: Prior to performing the steps below, you should click on Compare Versions to compare differences to ensure you are not deploying some feature that is not ready to go live.

  • Go to Programs > Deployments and click Validate Current Metadata. 
  • After validating, you will deploy by clicking on Deploy New Version.  

Deploy Attribute Metadata

After you've created or edited a Member Attribute, you must deploy metadata.

  1. Within the Loyalty navigation menu, select Program > Deployments.

  2. Click deploy new version. The "New Program Version" pop-up window is displayed.

  3. In the "Version" field, enter a deployment version. The best practice is to increment the previous version number, which is displayed in the Program Versions log.

  4. In the "Note" field, enter a description of this version.

  5. Click create & deploy metadata.

  6. A confirmation dialog box is displayed; click confirm.

  7. If the deployment was successful, you'll see a message that says, "Metadata has been deployed."

  8. Click close.

Calculated Attributes

A Calculated Attribute is a special type of Member Attribute whose value is dynamically derived instead of being directly specified. The Calculated Attribute value holds the result of the expression as it was last computed.

At a minimum, a Calculated Attributed is defined by the following:

  • A name

  • A data type

  • An expression for deriving the attribute value

  • A Time-to-Live (TTL) value that indicates how long the calculated value is considered valid before it can be re-calculated

  • A computation mode defining when the attribute value should be computed

Loyalty supports the use of Groovy for writing Calculated Attribute expressions. Groovy is a scripting language that integrates with Java. You must have a solid understanding of the Groovy language in order to write Calculated Attribute expressions. Within the Groovy expression, Calculated Attributes can use any Profile attribute and / or any Activity attribute that's defined within the Loyalty database. In addition, the platform supports the use of pre-defined functions to make the scripting easier.

To create a Calculated Attribute, check calculated when defining the new Attribute properties. Then navigate to the Member Attribute Details screen to configure the details of the calculation. 

The platform supports two different methods of refreshing the values in a Calculated Attributes. These methods (called "computation modes") are On-demand and Scheduled.  

On-demand

On-demand computation happens when some event or caller needs to display the value in the Calculated Attribute for an individual. This caller could be, for example, a mobile app, a website, an API call, or a user within the platform's interface.

When this call occurs, the platform checks the Time-to-Live value for the Calculated Attribute for the referenced Member. If the current time is beyond the TTL range, the platform will recalculate the value in the Calculated Attribute. Conversely, if the current time is still within the TTL range, the platform will simply show the existing "cached" value.

Scheduled

Scheduled computation occurs based on a Scheduled Job. When the Job executes, it will recalculate the values in the Calculated Attribute for every customer record in the database.

Scheduled Jobs are created by the Loyalty Services team. If you need a new Scheduled Job for a Calculated Attribute, you must submit a request to the Services team. Within the request, include the following:

  • Scheduled Job type is "Calculated Attribute"

  • The recurring schedule frequency and interval (for example, "every day at midnight, Central Standard Time").

  • The name of the Calculated Attribute you want refreshed.

Once the Scheduled Job is created and published, it will execute at the designated frequency to recalculate the Calculated Attribute.