Rule types

Optimization rules fall into one of three categories: Capacity, Exclude/Include, and For Each Customer (FEC).

The following sections define each rule type and list the available rules of that type.

Capacity

This rule type specifies the minimum and maximum number of contacts that can occur on a particular channel over a rolling time period. For example, setting a maximum for offer X can specify that it cannot be given out more than 1,000 times over a seven-day period, and that the scope of the constraint is all customers. This category contains the following rules:

  • Custom capacity. Additional constraints that you can specify based on an aggregation (sum or average) of a score field. For example, a bank that gives out loan offers might specify that the average "risk score" must be below a certain threshold.
  • Min/Max # offers. Offer capacity rule that allows you to specify a minimum or maximum number of offers to send over a rolling time period. For example, a telecommunications company might limit the number of free cell phone offers given in any 30-day period to 100,000.

    You can add Rule Exceptions to Min/Max # Offers rules if you need to change the capacity for a particular time period.

Exclude/Include

This rule type determines whether Contact Optimization includes or excludes a contact in the optimized contact list. Use this type of rule to apply global exclusions, opt-in and opt-out lists, or to ensure that particular customers do not receive particular types of offers. This category contains the following rules:

  • Customers in. Allows you to specify that customers in a specific strategic segment can or cannot receive particular offers. For example, a financial institution might want to exclude credit offers to individuals with low credit ratings.
  • Interactions where. Allows you to include or exclude specific transactions that are based on any attributes in the proposed contacts table (PCT). For example, a retailer might want to exclude proposed transactions with a score less than or equal to zero from being delivered.

For Each Customer (FEC)

This rule type determines the contact strategy on a per-customer basis. That is, it determines how your organization communicates with each customer over time. For example, setting a maximum of Y offers, determines that each customer is allowed only Y offers over a specified time period. This category contains the following rules:

  • B only with A. Sequencing rule that specifies offer B might be sent only after offer A. For example, a mortgage company might specify that a call center representative might initiate a follow-up call only after the initial mortgage offer has been sent by direct mail.
  • Max # duplicate offers. Rule that controls the maximum number of times you present the same offer to the same recipient over a specified time period. For example, an online web retailer might want to present any given cross-sell offer a maximum of seven times to a web customer over a six-month period.
  • Max # packages. Contact-fatigue control that prevents over-communicating with customers by controlling the number of different packages (or interruptions) allowed to any recipient over a specified time period. For example, a hotel chain might want to limit the number of communications to their low value customers to a maximum of one per quarter.
  • Min/Max # offers. Offer capacity rule that allows you to specify a minimum or maximum number of offers to give to a particular segment on a channel over time. For example, a collectibles company might want to limit the dilution of multiple offers by targeting their best customers with at least 3 and at most 25 different offers in any given 30-day period.
  • Never A followed by B. Sequencing rule that prevents certain offers from following too closely after other offers. For example, a bank might want to ensure adequate spacing between sending a high-interest certificate of deposit (CD) offer to a customer after sending them a credit-limit decrease notification.
  • Never A with B. Offer-conflict resolution rule that prevents two conflicting offers (or sets of offers) from ever being given together within a specified time period. For example, a retailer might want to prevent a "$10 off a purchase of $100 on the web" offer and a "$20 off a purchase of $100 in-store" offer from going to the same individual within the same month.

Rule scope

The scope of a rule is the set of proposed contacts that are affected by that rule, which can be specified by using various dimensions such as customer, offer, channel, cost, and time. The following table shows which scopes are available with each rule.

Table 1. Rule scope

Mapping between rule scopes and rules

Include/ Exclude Chan- nels Offer/ Offer lists Offer attri- butes PCT colu- mns Seg- ments Time Chan- nel B Offer/ Offer lists B Offer attri- butes B Min count Max count
B only with A X X X X X X X
Custom capacity X X X X
Customers in X X X X X
Interactions where X X
Max # duplicate offers X X X X X X
Max # packages X X X X
Min/Max # offers capacity X X X X X X
Min/Max # offers FEC X X X X X X X
Never A followed by B X X X X X X X X
Never A with B X X X X X X X X