Visual Dialogue User Guide. Version 6.1

Transcription

1 Visual Dialogue User Guide Version 6.1

2 2015 Pitney Bowes Software Inc. All rights reserved. This document may contain confidential and proprietary information belonging to Pitney Bowes Inc. and/or its subsidiaries and associated companies. Portrait Software, the Portrait Software logo, Portrait, and Portrait Software s Portrait brand are the trademarks of Portrait Software International Limited and may not be used or exploited in any way without the prior express written authorization of Portrait Software International Limited. Acknowledgement of trademarks Other product names, company names, marks, logos and symbols referenced herein may be the trademarks or registered trademarks of their registered owners. Portrait Software Support If you need help with something that s not covered by this documentation, try the Knowledge Base on our web site. and follow the links to your product. You can also download other Portrait Software documentation from the site. If you don t have a username and password or you ve forgotten them please contact us through one of the channels below. If you find a problem with the use, installation, or documentation of this product, please contact us using any of the following methods: software.support@pb.com Phone USA/Canada (toll-free) Rest of world When you report a problem, it helps if you can tell us: The name of the software application The circumstances in which the problem arose What error messages you saw (if any); The version of the software that you were using. Pitney Bowes Software Inc. February 03, 2015

3 Contents Chapter 1: Introduction...9 Purpose...10 Intended audience...10 Related documentation...10 Chapter 2: Product overview...11 About Visual Dialogue...12 Key functionality...12 Chapter 3: Visual Dialogue GUI...13 The main application window...14 Ribbons...14 Ribbon tabs...14 The File tab...14 The Home tab...15 The Create tab...17 The View tab...17 The Web tab...17 Folders...17 About folders in Visual Dialogue...17 The Explorer...18 Browsers...18 The main component browsers...18 The Select Columns window...19 Visual Dialogue options...19 The Background Tasks Monitor window...22 Browsing dependencies...23

4 Chapter 4: Dialogs...25 What is a dialog?...26 Creating a new dialog...27 Dialog Designer...27 About Dialog Designer...27 Design View...28 Execute View...52 Script View...61 The Options tab...62 Dialog properties...63 Telemarketing projects...64 Browsing dialogs...68 Dialog security...69 Dialog templates...70 What is a dialog template?...70 Creating a new dialog template...70 The Dialog Template Designer...71 Guided setup...71 Dialog template properties...74 Dialog template ribbon tabs...75 Chapter 5: Selections...77 About selections...78 Selections in dialogs...78 Selections in Customer View...79 Selection Designer...79 About Selection Designer...79 Creating a new selection...80 Adding a criterion...81 Previewing a selection...82 Adding more criteria...82 Grouping criteria...83 The toolbox in Selection Designer...84 Group criteria...84 Special criterion types...85 Working in Expression Mode...89 Working in SQL Mode Portrait Dialogue 6.1

5 Working with context...90 Browsing selections...92 Chapter 6: Messages...93 About messages...94 Document types...94 Browsing message templates...95 Message Manager...95 Test sending messages...97 Deleting tracking data...97 Master templates...98 About master templates...98 Master template properties...98 Master Template Designer - Message Designer Message templates Creating a new message template HTML templates and web modules Message Template Designer Chapter 7: Questionnaires About questionnaires How questionnaires are used Creating a new questionnaire Questionnaire Designer About Questionnaire Designer Questions View Layout View in Questionnaire Designer Using merge tags Questionnaire properties Testing a questionnaire Building a questionnaire URL Response tracking Browsing questionnaires Running the questionnaire report Exporting response data Deleting response data Questionnaire styles Script Object Model Visual Dialogue User Guide 5

6 Script Object Model overview Global objects, methods, and properties The Question object The Alternative object The Matrix object The Column object The Row object The Cell object The Page object The Section object The Customer object Examples of scripting in questionnaire flow The Dialogue Server API Client-side events and scripts About client-side events and scripts Working with client-side scripts and events Available events Global script methods Global script properties Chapter 8: Reports About reports How and why reports are used Report Designer Creating a new report template About Report Designer Report template properties Data View Layout View in Report Designer The toolbars Using subreports Preview View About Preview View Previewing the report Printing the report Viewing a report in Report Portal Browsing reports Report security Portrait Dialogue 6.1

7 Report formats Report Portal Integrated reporting Integrated reporting overview Standard reports Customizing standard reports Standard report SQL statements Chapter 9: Task Organizer About Task Organizer Workgroups Workgroup users Manual distribution Automatic distribution Deleting workgroups and users Chapter 10: Broadcasts About broadcasts Chapter 11: Published files About published files Chapter 12: Content objects About content objects Creating a new content object Content Object Designer About Content Object Designer Content object properties Working with content items Working with rules Testing a content object Building content object HTML tags Using content objects in a questionnaire Using content objects in an Browsing content objects Visual Dialogue User Guide 7

8 Chapter 13: Export and import of Visual Dialogue objects About export and import The Visual Dialogue export wizard The Visual Dialogue import wizard Portrait Dialogue 6.1

9 Introduction 1 In this section: Purpose Intended audience Related documentation

10 Purpose Purpose This document describes how to use Visual Dialogue to design and implement marketing strategies and campaigns. Intended audience This guide is intended for marketing analysts who are tasked with planning and implementing marketing campaigns. Related documentation Document Media (zip/dvd) and location Portrait Dialogue 6.1 Release Notes Portrait Dialogue media in: \Documentation\<language_code>\ Note: This document and others can be downloaded from the Pitney Bowes Software website: 10 Portrait Dialogue 6.1

11 Product overview 2 In this section: About Visual Dialogue Key functionality

12 About Visual Dialogue About Visual Dialogue Visual Dialogue forms part of the Portrait Dialogue suite of products, which support Customer Relationship Management. Visual Dialogue is used by marketers to define, manage, and carry out large-scale structured communication processes, and is specifically designed to support the principles of one-to-one marketing. The Visual Dialogue application provides you with an intuitive work environment that makes it easy to graphically plan your customer communication process and execute all phases in it. For example, you might use Visual Dialogue to: welcome new customers, query them about their communication preferences, and send them an offer via their preferred communication medium handle complaints, ensuring that all first-time complainers receive a phone call, while chronic complainers receive responses based on their profitability distribute a customer satisfaction survey, evaluate the responses, place customers in different groups according to their responses, and then send appropriate communication or take appropriate actions about each group. Key functionality Visual Dialogue includes five key components to help you implement your marketing strategies and campaigns: Visual Dialogue Designer: Create and execute customer dialogs. Visual Selection Designer: Create and test selections used to differentiate between customers. Message Template Designer: Create and test message templates used to communicate with your customers through different channels. Questionnaire Designer: Create and test questionnaires to get feedback from your customers. Report Designer: Create and test reports to easily access data in your system. 12 Portrait Dialogue 6.1

13 Visual Dialogue GUI 3 In this section: The main application window Ribbons Folders Browsers Visual Dialogue options The Background Tasks Monitor window Browsing dependencies

14 The main application window The main application window When you start Visual Dialogue, the main application window shows the start page. This is one of many windows you will be working with, but a number of the elements are common to all windows. Element Ribbon tabs Quick access toolbar Explorer bar Work area Status bar Header bar Tab bar Toolbox Contains most of Visual Dialogue s commands. In addition, you can use right-click menus to gain access to functions that are directly associated with a specific item. Contains buttons that let you perform common functions without having to go through the menus. Lets you quickly access the different parts of Visual Dialogue. This can also be done from the Home tab. The area in which you work with the different parts of the system. For the start page, this contains references to all your recent work. You can click on a reference to open it. Gives information on application activity. Shows what you are working with at the moment. Lets you switch between the windows that are open. This can also be done from the View tab. Contains different tools that you can use while working The toolbox will change according to what you are working with at the moment. Ribbons Ribbon tabs There are five standard ribbon tabs in Visual Dialogue: the File tab, the Home tab, the Create tab, the View tab and the Web tab. Alongside these tabs, additional task-specific tabs appear in different parts of the application. The File tab These are the commands that you can access from the File tab: Tab option Save Save the item that you are currently working with. 14 Portrait Dialogue 6.1

15 Chapter 3: Visual Dialogue GUI Tab option Save as... Save all Close Recent Print Printer setup... Help Relogin... Options... Exit Save a copy of the item that you are currently working with. Save all items that have unsaved changes. Close the item that you are currently working with. Open items that you have worked with recently. Print the item that you are currently working with. Configure a printer. Display this help file, the reference help, version and license information. Reconnect to the application server. This is necessary if your connection has timed out. View and change different options in Visual Dialogue. Close all windows and exit the application. In addition, when working with objects like dialogues, selections, questionnaires etc. you will get an Info option with the following sub options: Tab option Properties Dependencies Security Show properties of the selected item. Open the dependency browser window for the selected item. Show the security settings window for the selected item. The Home tab These are the commands that you can access from the Home tab: Tab option Active items Explore Cut Copy Paste Delete Find Replace Shows a list of all the items you have open. Open the Explorer window or a main component browser window. Remove the current selection and place it on the clipboard. Copy the current selection to the clipboard. Insert the contents of the clipboard in the active window. Delete the current selection. Search for text. Search and replace text. Visual Dialogue User Guide 15

16 The Home tab Tab option Select all Rename Reports Select everything in the active window. Rename the selected item. Reports enable you to run integrated reports from various places in Visual Dialogue. Reports are only available if integrated reporting is enabled. This is configured in Visual Dialogue options. The content varies depending on which integrated report is applicable in a module/location in Visual Dialogue. See Integrated reporting overview and Standard reports for details. In addition, when working with a main component browser, the following commands are shown in the tab: Tab option Open Properties Security Dependencies Export Import Find Preview Open the selected item. Show properties of the selected item. Show the security settings window for the selected item. Open the dependency browser window for the selected item. Launch the Visual Dialogue export wizard, which lets you export objects (dialogs, selections, etc.) designed in Visual Dialogue to files, or export a list of content of the current browser to file. Launch the Visual Dialogue import wizard, which lets you import Visual Dialogue objects from files. Show or hide a window where you can search for items in the browser. Show or hide a preview of the selected item in the bottom of the browser In addition, when working with the Explorer, the following commands are shown in the tab: Tab option New folder Up Back Forward Create a new folder. Navigate up one level in the folder structure. Navigate back in the folder structure. Navigate forward in the folder structure. 16 Portrait Dialogue 6.1

17 Chapter 3: Visual Dialogue GUI The Create tab Create new dialogs or dialog templates, selections, message or master templates, questionnaires, report templates, broadcasts, questionnaire styles, published files, and content objects. The View tab These are the commands that you can access from the View tab: Tab option Select columns Refresh Explorer bar Toolbox Header bar Tab bar Status bar Previous window Next windows Previous sub view Next sub view Switch language Choose the columns to view in the browsers. Refresh the data in the active window with the newest data from the server. Hide or show the Explorer bar. Hide or show the toolbox. Hide or show the header bar. Hide or show the tab bar. Hide or show the status bar. Move focus to the previous window in the list of open windows. Move focus to the next window in the list of open windows. Go to the previous subview (tab) in the active window. Go to the next subview (tab) in the active window. Select another language to be used in the user interface. The application must restarted for this change to take effect. The Web tab From the Web tab, you can open the web applications Customer View, Telemarketing, Report Portal and Message Designer. In all cases, you will automatically be logged in as the user you are logged into Visual Dialogue with. Folders About folders in Visual Dialogue Visual Dialogue has a folder structure that works very like the Windows folder structure. All Visual Dialogue objects can be contained in folders, and the folders themselves can contain subfolders. Visual Dialogue User Guide 17

18 The Explorer You can use folders to organize your work in any way you want. For example, you could create a folder for each user of the system, or you could create a folder for each dialog, in which you would keep the dialog and all objects it uses, possibly in subfolders. The two methods could of course be combined. The Explorer The Explorer displays the hierarchical structure of objects and folders on your system. You can use the Explorer to organize your folders and objects by dragging to the tree view or by cutting and pasting. You can also create or delete objects, edit existing ones, show properties, and perform other actions in connection with objects. Browsers The main component browsers All the main components display a browser window with a grid as its first window. You can open an item in the browser by double-clicking on it. You can sort the items by clicking on a column header. When you right-click on an item, a new menu appears. These are the commands you can access from this menu: Menu option New... Open Delete Properties Security... Create a new item. Open the selected item. Delete the selected item. Show properties of the selected item. Show the security setting window for the selected item (not applicable for all item types). Browse dependencies... Open the dependency browser window for the selected item (not applicable for all item types). Reports Export... Import... Select Columns... Show available integrated reports for the selected item. Launch the Visual Dialogue export wizard, which lets you export objects (dialogs, selections, etc.) designed in Visual Dialogue to files. Launch the Visual Dialogue import wizard, which lets you import Visual Dialogue objects from files. Open the Select Columns window, to select the columns you want to view and their order. 18 Portrait Dialogue 6.1

19 Chapter 3: Visual Dialogue GUI The Select Columns window In the Select Columns window, you can choose what columns to view and in what order they will appear. View selected columns View all columns Hide selected columns Hide all columns Move selected columns up in viewing order Move selected columns down in viewing order Visual Dialogue options From the File tab, you can open the Options window. Here you can alter various options that change the look and feel of Visual Dialogue and the way it behaves. The General tab Option Show Recent Work Show Explorer When this box is checked, the recent items in the File tab will be shown as the initial page when you start the application. When this box is checked, the Explorer will be shown as the initial page when you start the application. Show instance and server in application title If this box is checked, the instance and server name to which you are logged on will be shown in the title of the Visual Dialogue main window. Show icons in tab bar Show icons in tab bar Log exceptions to file Log to folder If this box is checked, the tabs in the tab bar get a small icon to the left of the caption symbolizing their content. If this box is checked, the tabs in the tab bar get a small icon to the left of the caption symbolizing their content. If this box is checked, all exceptions (errors) in the application are logged to a file. If you turn on exception logging use this field to specify the folder where the log files are kept. Visual Dialogue User Guide 19

20 Visual Dialogue options The Dialog General tab Option Quick design mode Show grid Snap to grid Horz. size / Vertical size Automatically display execution progress window Automatically save dialog before executing Enable Dialog Overview view Show component IDs Show comments Show execute options as icons Check this option to enable Quick Design Mode. When Quick Design Mode is enabled, dialog groups and operation can be drawn/designed without displaying the properties dialogs. Check this option to show the canvas grid when designing dialogs Checking this option makes groups snap to the canvas grid when designing dialogs. These settings specify the horizontal and vertical size of the canvas design grid. Check this option to automatically display the execution progress window when execution a dialog operation. Check this option to automatically save a dialog before executing an operation. If this box is checked, the overview page is shown as part of the Dialog Designer. If this box is checked, the internal IDs of groups and operations are shown in the Dialog Designer. If this box is checked, comments are shown in the Dialog Designer. If this box is checked, execute icons are shown in the Dialog Designer. Execute icons visualize the execute options that you have set for your operations. The Dialog Colors and Skin tab Option Design Execute Active Inactive Selected Default Skin Set the background color of the dialog work area when you are in Design View. Set the background color of the dialog work area when you are in Execute View. Set the color of an active dialog operation. Set the color of an inactive dialog operation. Set the color of a selected dialog operation. Set the default skin used when creating new dialogs. 20 Portrait Dialogue 6.1

21 Chapter 3: Visual Dialogue GUI The Message Designer tab Option Open in Design View Open in Source View Open in integrated designer Use old style dialog to select published files Launch designer in web browser When this box is checked, message templates will be opened in Design View. When this box is checked, message templates will be opened in Source View. When this box is checked, Message Designer templates will be opened in Visual Dialogue. When this box is checked, the Visual Dialogue internal published files browser is used to select published files instead of the Message Designer published files browser. The Visual Dialogue internal browser supports folders. When this box is checked, Message Designer templates will be opened in a web browser. The Selection Designer tab Option Auto describe new criteria when suitable If this box is checked, new criteria in Selection Designer are automatically given a textual description if a suitable description can be derived. The Task Organizer tab Option Prompt for confirmation These options turn the confirmation dialog box on or off for the different operations you do in the Task Organizer. The Integrated Reporting tab Option Enable integrated reporting Launch Report Portal Open reports inside Visual Dialogue Open in new window Report view format Enables reports configured for integrated reporting. Select this option to run integrated reports in Report Portal. Select this option to run integrated reports inside Visual Dialogue. Select this option to open integrated reports inside Visual Dialogue in a new window. The output format used when running the reports. For a detailed list of the different formats available, see Report formats on page 247. Visual Dialogue User Guide 21

22 The Background Tasks Monitor window The Content Object Designer tab Option Open in Design View Open in Source View When this box is checked, content items of type HTML will be opened in Design View. When this box is checked, content items of type HTML will be opened in Source View. The Web tab Option Always open in Internet Explorer When this box is checked, web applications opened from Visual Dialogue will always use Internet Explorer. Open in Internet Explorer when required Always open in default web browser When this box is checked, web applications opened from Visual Dialogue will use Internet Explorer if they only support Internet Explorer (for instance Customer View, Report Portal and Telemarketing), other web applications will be opened in the system default web browser. When this box is checked, web applications opened from Visual Dialogue will always use the system default browser. The Background tasks tab Option Automatically display execution progress window When this box is checked, the execution progress window for background tasks is always shown when a background task is triggered. When the box is not checked, background task progress will only be shown in the status bar. The Background Tasks Monitor window Background tasks Background tasks are typically long-running tasks that run in the background, enabling you to continue working on other tasks in Visual Dialogue in the meantime. The Background Tasks Monitor window The Background Tasks Monitor window can be used to monitor and abort ongoing tasks that are executed in the background. Examples of tasks that are executed in the background are Clear Dialog, Delete Dialog, and Delete Message bundle. Note: The first time a background task is triggered, a background task execution window appears. 22 Portrait Dialogue 6.1

23 Chapter 3: Visual Dialogue GUI You can configure Visual Dialogue so that background tasks are executed without a background task execution window appearing. See Visual Dialogue options on page 19. Alternatively, clear the Automatically show this window checkbox. If this checkbox is not checked, the only place where background task execution can be monitored is the status bar. Click on the status bar to open the Background Tasks Monitor window. Browsing dependencies Dependency browser windows can be used to browse dependencies between dialogs and message templates, questionnaires, selections, and other dialogs. The upper part of the Dialog Dependencies window shows operations in other dialogs that use the dialog. The lower part shows you what items are used by operations in the dialog. If you open the window for other types of components, only the upper part will be shown. You can click on the edit (pen) button on the right-hand side to close the window and open the selected item. Visual Dialogue User Guide 23

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25 Dialogs 4 In this section: What is a dialog? Creating a new dialog Dialog Designer Browsing dialogs Dialog security Dialog templates

26 What is a dialog? What is a dialog? In 1:1 marketing we aim to give each customer the feeling of being in direct, 1:1 communication with our organization, even though there are tens or hundreds of thousands of customers. We aim to learn from each customer s communication with us: To let the customer s communication with us influence our further communication with him or her. This is possible when we structure communication in a dialog: A tool for planning, carrying out and keeping track of 1:1 market communication with large numbers of customers. Comparison to moving business cards between file boxes You can best understand what a dialog is by comparing it to the manual process of putting customers business cards into different file boxes, depending on what you want to do with each customer. You might begin by collecting the cards of all the customers who have not bought anything from you for at least a year and put them in a box called Group of those to be contacted. You might put some of the cards in a box marked Call these and some of the cards in a box marked Write to these. After you have called each person, you might put the cards into new boxes: Placed a new order, May be interested, follow up later, or Lost these customers, make a plan to get them back. Below, you see how the communication process would look like using the file box method. In Visual Dialogue, you create the communication process in a graphic environment using elements to illustrate the different stages of the process. 26 Portrait Dialogue 6.1

27 Chapter 4: Dialogs Creating a new dialog To create a new dialog, choose Dialog on the Create tab. The New Dialog Wizard appears. Enter the appropriate information. Option Dialog name Customer domain State Enter the name of the new dialog. Choose the customer domain you want this dialog to get its participants from. The state the dialog is in. This is only an informative field and does not have any influence on how you work with the dialog or how it behaves. When you have entered all the information, click on Next to continue. Option Allow multiple occurrences of customers Enable participant logging Check this if you want the same customer to figure as participant in the dialog more than once, provided the customer has different context information attached to each occurrence. If it is not checked, the same customer can only occur one place in the dialog at any time. Check this to have additional logs created when the dialog is executed. This provides for more basis for statistics and analyses but will slow down execution, in some instances noticeably. If you choose Decide logging on each operation, you can turn logging on or off on each operation. If you choose Always generate participant log, additional logs will always be created. When you have entered all the information, click on Finish to create the new dialog and start working with it in the Dialog Designer. Dialog Designer About Dialog Designer Dialog Designer is used to create and execute dialogs. It has three main modes: the overview page, Design View, and Execute View. The overview page This view contains key information about the dialog, such as its key properties and execution summary. You can also edit the dialog s properties from this page by clicking on Edit... You can open the dialogs folder by clicking on Open folder. You can show or hide this view in Options. Visual Dialogue User Guide 27

28 Design View Design View Design View is where you design your dialogs. Here you can add groups and operations using the toolbox, and you can edit and/or delete them afterwards to refine your dialog. Execute View In Execute View, you can manually execute the dialog operations. You can also manipulate the dialog in other ways, e.g. by moving participants from one group to another, or by deactivating some or all of the participants in a group. This is also where you can view the dialog s participants and the various history logs. Design View About Design View Design View is where you design and customize your dialog. You can add groups and operations using the toolbox on the right-hand side. You can edit groups and operations by clicking on them and choosing Edit Group/Operation, or by double-clicking on them. If you want to change the look of your dialog, you can drag the different elements around or change the color of your groups. It is also possible to change the starting group of your operation or the end group of your branches by clicking and dragging them to different groups to change the flow of the dialog. Quick Design Mode Use Quick Design Mode to easily place groups and operations in a dialog. Use this feature to draw a dialog at first, for later fine-tuning. Dialog elements The following is a visual example of the elements that appear in a dialog: groups, operations, branches, branch points, and entry points. The operation in the example includes only one branch. 28 Portrait Dialogue 6.1

29 Chapter 4: Dialogs Groups Adding groups 1. Click on the group you want to add in the dialog toolbox. 2. Position the mouse pointer, which should now have a small group symbol attached to it, where you want to place the group in the work area, and click once. If Quick Design Mode is turned off, the Edit Group window opens. If Quick Design Mode is turned on, right-click on the group and choose Edit. 3. When you have finished entering information in the Edit Group window, click on OK. Editing a group Double-click inside the group that you want to change, choose Edit selected item from the Design tab, or right-click on the group and choose Edit Group. The Edit Group window opens. Option Group Type Participants Group Name Group ID Allow inserts of participants... Use for reporting In the Type field, you see which group type the group is. The group type cannot be changed. Here you see the number of participants in the group. Give the group a descriptive name. The name you enter here is the name that is displayed inside the group rectangle in the Visual Dialogue, so you want this to be fairly short. This is the unique group id which identifies the group in the database. Enter a description of the group that can help you or other dialog users to understand how the dialog works at a later time. Check Allow manual insert of participants if you want to insert participants into the group from Customer View. Check Use for reporting if you want the group to appear in the summary on the overview page. This property can also be used in some standard reports to decide if the group is shown in the report or not. Group types Groups are containers of customers that you want to do something with. In visual dialogs, these are shown as large rectangles. There are four different group types: Group All known customers The All known customers group contains all the customers in the customer domain you are working with. The customers are identified by ID numbers only and can Visual Dialogue User Guide 29

30 Design View Group therefore appear only once in the group. In other words, the All known customers group can be seen as the participant source group in the dialog. The All known customers group is normally used as the Start group in a dialog. However, it can also be used to enter new participants into a dialog, for instance by using it together with an Import from file operation. Known customers The Known customers group contains a selection of customers. These customers are identified by a combination of ID and context, and therefore the same customer ID may appear more than once in the group or the dialog. Currently, the Known customers group may be used as From group or To group for almost all operation types in a dialog. Market segment The Market segment group contains a description of supposed segment members. That is an unknown number of unidentified customers, possibly including some or all of the customers in the customer database. By having groups with this group type (and the associated operations), users can define dialogs aimed at potential customers and customer capture, and record costs in the same way as for other dialogs. Control group The Control group contains a selection of customers. These customers are identified by a combination of ID and context, and therefore the same customer may appear more than once in the group or the dialog. The control group is an additional group type that includes only participants that are randomly selected into the group for control purposes. The functionality around this group type has not been fully implemented, but is planned for future release. However, the way it currently can be used is to select a group of customers that you do not want in your dialog. You may then use data mining to compare the results of the customers in the control group with the results of the customers that participated in the dialog. Operations Adding an operation 1. Click on Draw operation in the dialog toolbox. 2. In the work area, position the mouse pointer, which should now have a small arrow attached to it, over an empty area or in the group from which you want to start the operation. Click and hold down the mouse button, and drag a line to the area or group in which you want the operation to end. Note: When you are adding an operation, if no to-group is selected and Quick Design Mode is turned off, the New Group window opens automatically, so that you can configure the new group. 30 Portrait Dialogue 6.1

31 Chapter 4: Dialogs 3. Select the operation type that you want. 4. If Quick Design Mode is turned off, the Edit window opens. Enter the appropriate information for the selected operation. For detailed information on the options in this window, see Editing an operation on page When you have entered all the necessary information in the Edit window, click on OK to save the operation. Editing an operation Double-click on the operation that you want to change, right-click on the operation and choose Edit, or select the operation and choose Edit selected item from the Design tab. The Edit window opens. The Edit window can be divided into four parts: main operation information, the Branches tab, the Execute options tab, and the Note tab. Main operation information The main operation information is located on the top of the window. Option Operation ID From group Operation Type Name Operation start/end Operation Active The Operation ID field shows you the ID that the operation has been given. This ID, which is used to identify the operation in tables of the system, cannot be changed. In the From group field, you see the name of the group that is the From group of your operation. In the Type field, you see of which operation type the operation is. In the Name field, you can set or change the name for the operation. The name you enter here, is the name that appears in the Visual Dialogue, so you want this to be fairly short. If you want to limit how long the operation should be active, you can use the Active from field and enter a date for the day from which you want the operation to be active. In the succeeding to field, you enter the date for the last day you want the operation to be active. Dates outside the Start/End date range set in dialog properties will have no effect. If you want to be able to execute the operation, it has to be activated. To activate the operation, check the Active box. If you want to, you can inactivate it to make sure that the operation does not run until you are ready for it to run. If an operation line in a Visual Dialogue has the color red, then the operation is set to inactive. Branches The branch info is displayed in the Branches tab. Visual Dialogue User Guide 31

32 Design View The left side shows all the branches the operation has. The number in front of each branch shows the order the branches will be executed in. Use the arrows on the right side of the list to change the execution order. Option Branch ID Branch Type To group Branch Name Generate participant log Deactivated Use for reporting Parameters The Branch ID field shows you the ID that the branch has been given. This ID, which will be used to identify the branch in tables of the system, cannot be changed. In the type field, you see the branch type. In the To group field, you see the name of the group that your branch leads into. In the Name field, you can set or change the name for the branch. If you check the Generate participant history box, Visual Dialogue will generate history for the participants that are affected by the branch each time the operation is executed. If you do not need the historic information, leave the field empty. This field will only be enabled if you have chosen Decide logging on each operation in dialog properties. By clearing the Deactivate branch checkbox, the branch will be deactivated until you go back to this window and activate it again. This option is also available by right-clicking on the branch itself in Design View. Check Use for reporting if you want the branch to appear in the summary on the overview page. This property can also be used in some standard reports to decide if the branch is shown in the report or not. The parameter fields available depends on what kind of operation type you are working with. See the different parameters for each operation type for more information. Execute options The execute options for an operation are displayed in the Execute options tab. When you add an operation to a dialog, you must decide how the execution of the operation should be started. By default, the option User command is already checked for you. Option User command Waterfall If you select User command, you can execute the operation manually in Execute view at any time. If you select Waterfall, the operation is executed as soon as the prior operation that brings customers into the operations From group is executed. For instance, if you have a Select operation, followed by a Divide operation, and you apply the Completing prior operation option on the Divide operation, the Divide operation will be executed as soon as the Select operation is executed. 32 Portrait Dialogue 6.1

33 Chapter 4: Dialogs Option If you apply this option for an operation that starts in a From group that several operations enter into, the operation will be triggered upon each of the operations leading into the From group. If you want the operation to execute every time the prior operation is finished, check Always run. Check Only run when participants were moved if you want the operation to run only when the prior operation actually moved participants. Scheduled Event triggered If you select Schedule, you can set up a schedule for when you want the operation to be executed. In the Next run fields, enter the date and time that you want the operation to be executed next. This will be the starting point for the schedule. When the operation has been executed, the date and time for the next schedule will be automatically updated here. If you want the operation to be executed only once, check Run only once. This will automatically deselect Run every. If you want to set up a schedule for several executions, go to the Run every field and enter a number specifying how often you want the operation to be executed. For example, if you enter the number 2 and select the Hours option below, the operation will be executed every two hours. You can set the scheduled operation to execute on at most a given number of participants by checking the Run max on [count] participants box and specifying maximum number of participants in the field below. This is similar to manually executing the operation with the Execute advanced popup menu. Note that the operation will only run on schedule if the operation is active and the date is between the dialog s start and end dates, which you can set in the Main Operation Information window. If you select Event triggered, the execution is triggered by the events that are entered in the Respond to these events table. Select the event that you want to trigger the operation, and click on OK. (The events reside in the Dialog database. If you need other events than the ones available, contact your marketing database administrator). To remove an event, deselect the event. Note: By choosing this option, the operation will only run on the relevant participant. If you want the operation to execute every time an event of the selected type(s) occurs, independent of whether the participant is in the from-group of the operation, check Always run. Check Only run if customer is in fromgroup if you want the operation to run only when the participant or customer specified in the event is in the from-group of the operation. Visual Dialogue User Guide 33

34 Design View Advanced options By using the advanced options it is possible to override the default priority and chunking & multithreading settings for the operation. The default settings for the operation are configured for each operation in Dialogue Admin. For a more technical explanation of how these options work, see the Dialogue Admin help. Execution priority Option Execution priority The execution priority is used to prioritize the execution of the operations accross all the dialogs. The operation with the highest priority will always be executed before one with a lower priority. Select the wanted priority in the dropdown which contains the five possible priorities; low, medium low, normal, medium high and high. Note: Avoid giving a long lasting operation with many threads a high priority, because you run the risk of starving other lower-priority operations running in the system. Chunking & Multi-threading If chunking or multithreading is disabled for the operation type, the respective controls will be disabled. Option Enable chunking Override default chunk size Enable multithreading It is possible to disable the chunking for the operation if it is enabled for the operation type. The chunk size is the maximum number of participants in one chunk to be executed. It is possible to disable the multi-threading for the operation if it and chunking is enabled for the operation type. Override default number of threads The number of threads gives the concurrent number of chunks for the operation that queues up for execution. There is a maximum number of executing threads which is set in the system configuration. This means that for a system with several active dialogs, the number of actual threads available for running the operation may at times be less than the specified number. (For more information see the Dialogue Admin help.) Note: Enabled options may be disabled by the branch plug-in. In which case a warning will be displayed naming the first branch which overrides these settings. Notes In the Notes tab, you can add any text that you would like to add to an operation. For example, if you know that some of your coworkers will be working on your dialog, you might use the Notes tab to give 34 Portrait Dialogue 6.1

35 Chapter 4: Dialogs instructions to your coworkers about the operation. The information that you add can be edited at any time without affecting the functionality of the operation. Operation types Operation types overview You can choose between different operations depending on what your marketing database administrator makes available for you in the Dialog database. These are the operation types that come with a standard installation of the system: Operation When you are sending to contacts in a dialog, use the Check bounced operation to select the participants whose addresses are OK, and those whose s are bounced (returned) by the mail server. The Check for duplicates operation selects all customers in the from-group that are possible duplicates in the database. See the Technical Documentation for more information on duplicate checking. The Copy to another dialog operation enables you to copy participants from one dialog (the source dialog) to another (the destination dialog). The Create customer operation creates a new customer in your database. This operation needs to be customized depending on the data you have available about the new customer and the structure of your customer database. Because of this, a new operation of this type is created as a scripted operation containing an example script. The Create letter operation uses a message template and information from the customer database, creates a personalized letter in Microsoft Word for each customer in the from-group, and then moves the customer to the to-group. The Create Task operation creates a task for all the participants. You can set a follow-up date and assign the task to a specific workgroup. You can use the Custom operation to create a scripted operation that contains only the bare bones of an operation implementation without any logic. This can be used as a basis for your own customized operation. The Decision optimization operation takes the customers from a from-group of the Known Customers group type, evaluates them using a decision-optimization rule, and moves the customers into different to-groups based on the outcome. Visual Dialogue User Guide 35

36 Design View Operation The Divide operation takes the customers from a from-group of the Known Customers group type, compares them to different selection criteria in order of priority, and moves the customers into different to-groups. The to-groups will therefore contain customers who are more alike than the customers in the from-group. The Facebook operation uses a Facebook message template and information from the customer database, creates and posts a personalized facebook posting, and then moves the customer to the to-group. You specify the operations Facebook template when you add the branch to the operation. The Import from file operation takes the customer IDs of customers in a specified text file, checks that each one exists in the database, and then places them in the to-group. If the operation encounters a customer not found in the database, the customer ID is logged in an error file, and the customer is not moved to the to-group. The Inactivate operation inactivates the participants. The Move operation takes the participants in a from-group and simply moves them to another group without performing any other action on them. For example, if you perform an action on customers that reside in an Expiry group, you might want to move them to another group associated with the action that you performed. The Receive response operation detects the registration of a response to a questionnaire for a customer in a from-group and then moves that customer to a to-group. You define which questionnaire should be associated with the operation when you define the branch information for the operation. This will normally be the questionnaire that you used in the Send or Create letter operation earlier in the dialog. The Select operation is used to pick out your target audience (dialog participants) from a group of the All Known Customers group type and move them to a new group. Depending on which branch you choose, the Select operation functions differently. The Send operation uses an message template and information from the customer database, creates and sends a personalized , and then moves the customer to the to-group. You specify the operations template when you add the branch to the operation. The Send SMS operation uses an SMS message template and information from the customer database, creates and sends a personalized SMS, and then moves the customer to the to-group. You specify the operations SMS template when you add the branch to the operation. 36 Portrait Dialogue 6.1

37 Chapter 4: Dialogs Operation The Set category operation is an operation that makes it possible to set or clear categories in the customer database for selected participants. The Telemarketing operation is an operation that makes it possible to include telemarketing campaigns in a dialog, for instance to use the telephone to ask questions in a questionnaire or to market goods and services. The Twitter operation uses a Twitter message template and information from the customer database, creates and posts a personalized tweet, and then moves the customer to the to-group. You specify the operations Twitter template when you add the branch to the operation. The Check bounced operation Branches OK Bounced Parameters Select participants who s are not bounced (returned) and thus is assumed arrived. Select participants who s are bounced (returned) and thus is not arrived. Parameters: Maximum stale days: The maximum number of days the participant can be in the From Group. If the participant has been in the group longer than this when the operation is run, he or she will be moved. This parameter accepts decimals to allow fractions of a day. Fixed expiry date: After this date, the participants will be moved irrespective of how many days they have been in the From Group. Bounce codes: Select the bounce code(s) representing the reason why the did not arrive to the receiver. The Check for duplicates operation Branches Duplicate check Expiry Parameters Select participants representing customers who might have one or more duplicates in the customer database. See the Technical Documentation for more information on how to set up duplicate checking. See the entry for Expiry in The Divide operation on page 40. Visual Dialogue User Guide 37