Trigger: Customer Is In Segment

Use this trigger in a dialog activity to begin or continue the activity for each customer who belongs to one or more customer segments that you specify.

Once a day, this trigger checks the specified customer segments to determine which customers are in the segments on that day. Those customers proceed through the dialog activity. We can then automate follow-up marketing actions for these customers, such as sending an email or text message, or issuing a coupon. We can set the trigger to run every day or one time only. The following are some typical scenarios for using the Customer Is In Segment trigger:

• Scenario 1: Send a bulk email message to all customers in a segment and then follow up

• Scenario 2: Send a bulk text message (SMS) to all customers in a segment

Scenario 1: Send a bulk email message to all customers in a segment and then follow up

In this example, we want the dialog activity to automatically send a bulk email message to all customers in a segment on a certain day. Then, at a later date, we want the dialog activity to follow up with additional marketing actions based on how customers respond to the initial email message. Here is an example of how the dialog activity works in this scenario:

• On the start date for the dialog activity, check who belongs to the Registered customers segment. Then send an email message to each customer in the segment about the Red Tag Week Sale.

• Wait for four days; then, check each customer's purchase history to determine if the customer placed an order since the activity start date.

  • For customers who placed an order, do nothing further.

  • For customers who did not place an order, send those customers a second email message as a reminder that there are only three days left in the sale.

The dialog activity looks like this:

For the previous example to work correctly:

• The Customer Is In Segment trigger must have the Frequency of check for customers in segment field set to One time only; otherwise, registered customers will receive email messages every day the activity is active.

• The start date for the dialog activity must be the day that we want the first email message sent. You do not need to specify an end date because the dialog activity will end automatically after sending the second email message.

The Marketing tool also supports Email activities, which offer an alternative way to send bulk email messages to all customers in a customer segment. The advantage of using the Customer Is In Segment trigger in a dialog activity to send bulk email messages is that we can automate follow-up actions after the initial email message is sent. In the previous dialog activity example, a single email activity can achieve only what you see to the left of the Wait trigger, whereas a dialog activity supports the follow-up actions to the right of the Wait trigger as well.

Scenario 2: Send a bulk text message (SMS) to all customers in a segment

In this scenario, we want the dialog activity to automatically send a bulk text message (SMS) to all customers in a customer segment, with or without follow-up marketing actions. This scenario uses the Customer Is In Segment trigger to send a bulk text message (SMS):

On the start date for the dialog activity, check for customers who belong to the Preferred Customers segment. Then, send a text message (SMS) to each customer in the segment about the upcoming Storewide Weekend Sale.

For the previous example to work correctly:

• The Customer Is In Segment trigger must have the Frequency of check for customers in segment field set to One time only; otherwise, Preferred Customers will receive text (SMS) messages every day the activity is active.

• The start date for the Dialog activity must be the day we want the text message sent. It is not necessary to specify an end date because the Dialog activity will end automatically after sending the text message.

Prerequisites for using this trigger

• Make sure the site is configured to support the Management Center marketing features.

• Before adding the Customer Is In Segment trigger to a dialog activity, we must create one or more customer segments to specify in the trigger, if those segments do not already exist. See Creating a customer segment.

Guidelines for using this trigger

When setting up this trigger, we must specify the following options:

Option	Description
Customer segments	Specify the customer segments to check to trigger the dialog activity. If you specify more than one customer segment, the dialog activity runs for the customers in all segments you specify. If a customer is in more than one of those segments: If the dialog activity has the Repeatable check box cleared, then the customer will experience the dialog activity only one time. If the dialog activity has the Repeatable check box selected, then the customer will experience the dialog activity one time for each segment he or she belongs to on any day the activity runs. As a result, the customer might participate in the activity multiple times. The Repeatable check box is on the General Properties tab that displays when you click the green circle at the start of the Dialog activity flow.
Frequency of check for customers in the segment	Options are: Daily: This option makes sense if you have a customer segment with a membership that changes daily. Be cautious using this option for a customer segment with a membership that does not change daily; the activity will run every day for customers in the segment while the activity is active. One time only: This option makes sense if we want the activity to run only once on a specific date. By default, the server performs the check at 2 AM, but a Site Administrator can change the time.

Considerations if we are using this trigger to send emails

If we are using this trigger to send emails with the Send Message action, you have two options for specifying when the server sends the emails on the days the activity runs. You control these options by selecting or clearing the Send immediately check box in the properties for the Send Message action.

• Option 1: Send emails immediately following the daily check of the customer segment. To set this option, select the Send immediately check box for the Send Message action.

  A Site Administrator configures the time of day that the daily check occurs; by default the time is 2 AM each day. If our customer segment has a large number of customers in it, this option is not recommended because it can affect server performance.

• Option 2: Send emails at the time of day that all marketing emails are scheduled to be sent in the Administration Console. To set this option, clear the Send immediately check box for the Send Message action. This option is preferable because it has less impact on server performance; however, this option requires a Site Administrator to ensure that the daily check of the customer segment is scheduled earlier than the send time for the email messages.

Related concepts
Activity building blocks: triggers, targets, and actions
Triggers in dialog activities

Related tasks
Creating a dialog activity