This feature enables System Admins to set contact duplication conditions and interval when importing records for Campaigns in Campaign Suite. It can be found navigating to System Admin → System Settings → Survey & Campaigns → Duplication Rule.



Note: This setting is only applicable for Campaigns. Surveys that are not linked to a campaign or External Responses are not impacted by this setting.


Feature Notes:

  • The changes are applied immediately after saving.
  • If no fields are selected the duplication will be solely based on Contact (email or phone).
  • You may select up to 3 fields.




Setting Up


1. Navigate to System Admin → System Settings → Survey & Campaigns → Duplication Rule.



2. Enable the Duplication Rule by clicking on the slider located at the right top corner. You can also disable it here.



3. Select the Interval period (days).
Note: selecting a 1 day interval with empty fields will block the importing of duplicated contacts until 24 hours have passed.



4. Select the Fields you want the duplication rule to be based upon.
Note: selecting a segment in addition to Contact will allow sending to the same contact multiple times as long as the segment value is not a duplicated value within the selected interval.



5. Click on Save to apply your changes.



How does it work?


At the core of every duplication rule these are the key settings:

  1. One or more fields that CustomerGauge will check for a duplicate value
  2. A time period within which records that have identical values for ALL fields listed in point 1 above are automatically suppressed and not send another survey
  3. The sent date field on which we check the time period above
  4. ALL campaign types are affected by the duplication rule.


To further explain how the duplication rule works, we will list out a scenario here and then several examples illustrating when emails would get delivered versus when they would get blocked due to the duplication rule in this scenario, depending on how the duplication rule has been configured. These examples are all based on email sending and thus use email address, but if you are surveying via SMS, the same principle applies, just with "phone number" instead of "email address". 



Scenarios


You upload the following data into CustomerGauge spread across 5 different data upload files:

  1. Data is uploaded to CG on 1 August
    Email address: amy.johnson@company.com
    Survey Touchpoint: Relationship

  2. Data is uploaded to CG on 1 September
    Email address: amy.johnson@company.com
    Survey Touchpoint: Support

  3. Data is uploaded to CG on 5 September
    Email address: amy.johnson@company.com
    Survey Touchpoint: Relationship

  4. Data is uploaded to CG on 15 September
    Email address: amy.johnson@company.com
    Survey Touchpoint: Support

  5. Data is uploaded to CG on 15 December
    Email address: amy.johnson@company.com
    Survey Touchpoint: Relationship


Examples


"email + 90 days"

This is our default, best practice duplication rule. It means that our system will not send a survey invitation to the same email address more than once per 90 days, no exceptions.


Scenarios:

  1. Delivered
  2. Blocked due to duplication (less than 90 days since 1 August)
  3. Blocked due to duplication (less than 90 days since 1 August)
  4. Blocked due to duplication (less than 90 days since 1 August)
  5. Delivered (more than 90 days since 1 August)


"email + 30 days"

This means that our system will not send a survey invitation to the same email address more than once per 30 days.


Scenarios:

  1. Delivered
  2. Delivered (more than 30 days since 1 August)
  3. Blocked due to duplication (less than 30 days since 1 September)
  4. Blocked due to duplication (less than 30 days since 1 September)
  5. Delivered (more than 30 days since 1 September)


"email + survey touchpoint + 90 days"

This means that our system will not send a survey invitation for the same survey touchpoint to the same email address more than once per 90 days. 


Scenarios:

  1. Delivered
  2. Delivered (less than 90 days since 1 August, but survey touchpoint is not identical)
  3. Blocked due to duplication (less than 90 days since 1 August and survey touchpoint is identical - Relationship)
  4. Blocked due to duplication (less than 90 days since 1 September and survey touchpoint is identical - Support)
  5. Delivered (more than 90 days since 1 August, which was the last succesfully delivered survey where touchpoint = Relationship)


Additional example:


Within a period of 90 days, Julie Fisher is in touch twice with your company's Customer Support division, and once with the Finances division. For each of these three interactions, you want to send a survey invitation. Julie will receive one survey invitation from the Finances division, and one from the Customer Support division. One of her interactions with Customer Support will not result in a survey invitation, because the duplication rule blocks it.



"email + segment_x + 90 days"

This rule works the same as the rule above ("email + survey touchpoint + 90 days"), except with a different data value rather than division. For example 'contact reason', or 'project type'.



Be aware


A few things to keep in mind regarding the duplication rule.


One rule per platform


Each CustomerGauge platform must have 1 common duplication rule throughout. If you are sharing a platform across multiple divisions, brands, etc. you need to make sure to put in place a duplication rule that works for all.


One person, multiple email addresses


If you have multiple email addresses for the same person, the duplication rule will not prevent that person from receiving multiple survey invitations. The system will assume that a different email address equals a different person. For example:


Amy Johnson has both a work email address ("amy.johnson@company.com") and a personal address ("amylouisejohnson1978@gmail.com"). She logs a support ticket with your company using her personal address, and receives a survey invitation based on that support ticket. A week later, you send your quarterly relational survey invitation to all users of your product, which includes Amy's work email address. She will receive both survey invitations, because as far as the system knows, "amy.johnson@company.com" and "amylouisejohnson1978@gmail.com" are two different people.



One email address, multiple people

Conversely, if you have a single email address for multiple people, like an office@company.com email address, the duplication rule will block subsequent survey invitations. For example:


Amy and her colleague Tom Smith log a support ticket each with the general company email address "office@company.com". John's ticket is closed a few hours earlier than Amy's ticket, so when data is loaded into CustomerGauge, John's record is first. He receives the survey invitation, but Amy's record is blocked by the duplication rule. Even though Amy is a different person, the system cannot recognise the distinction because they are using the same email address.



Fields with empty values


Fields with empty values do count towards the duplication rule. This means that a record with an empty value in a field used in the duplication rule can be caught as a duplicate. A value of “” is just as valid as a value of “ABC”.