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Customer List Schedules

Rachael Norris
Rachael Norris
  • Updated

Customer List Schedules can be used to automate the running of Customer Lists for different purposes. 

In this article, we'll cover:

 

Why use Customer List Schedules?

A Customer List Schedule is a way of taking one or more Customer Lists and either automating them to be emailed out at a specific time, or allowing them to be run and downloaded by a specific set of users at any time.

Some examples why you might use Customer List Schedules would be:

  • To schedule a Customer List to automatically send at a specific time. For example, to deliver daily lists of attendees to workshop leaders.
  • To allow an external partner (such as a producer or promoter) to download a Customer List on an on-demand basis. For example, to allow promoters to view sales figures for their productions at any time.
  • To be used to schedule integrated emails. For example, to automatically send thank you emails to customers who made a donation yesterday.

 

How Customer List Schedules work

There are two ways Customer List Schedules can be run: 

  • As a schedule
  • On demand 

You can set up each schedule to use one or both of these methods, and to include a range of different users. 

There are also two actions that can be performed by a Customer List Schedule: 

  • Delivering a Customer List - this can be as a schedule or on demand.
  • Sending an Integrated Email.

In this article we’ll cover how to set up both of these types of Customer List Schedules and actions.

 

Run as Schedule

By choosing Run as Schedule, you can:

  • Automate the delivery of a Customer List (via a download link) to members of your team, or external partners such as a promoters and producers.

WARNING: When Customer Lists are sent by download link, the download link will expire after 7 days. To collect this Customer List after the link has expired, you can run the Customer List manually from the Customer List Explorer.

  • Regularly send a Customer List to Dotdigital to send automated emails.

You can set up a Customer List to Run as Schedule by following the instructions below.

 

Run on demand

Choosing Run on demand allows you to give individuals external to your organisation permission to run a Customer List at any time using the Partner Companies Interface.

TIP: If you're delivering a Customer List to an external partner by download link or have made it available to run on demand, you'll need to make sure the recipient can access it by creating a Spektrix user account. See the section below on setting up access to download Customer Lists for more information.

You can set up a Customer List Schedule to run on demand by following the instructions below.

 

How to Set Up a Customer List Schedule

Customer List Schedules can be found in Insights & Mailings > Customer List Schedules. 

You'll see any existing Customer List Schedules listed here. 

REMINDER: Before you set up your new Customer List Schedule, you’ll need to have created Customer List that you want to use in advance. If you intend to send an Integrated Mailing, you’ll also need the Dotdigital template you intend to send.

  • To create a new Schedule, click the Add button.

There are two pages for you to complete when creating a new Customer List Schedule – Basic Details and then, depending on the action you've chosen, either Customer Lists or Integrated Emails.

 

Basic Details

  • Name: give your Schedule a clear and descriptive name.
  • Description: though this field is optional, we'd recommend completing it to make the purpose of this Schedule clear to other members of your team.
  • Action: choose either Deliver Customer List or Send Integrated Email from the dropdown.

Next you’ll want to choose how your Customer List Schedule is going to operate. Once you have chosen either one or both of these options, you need to fill in the rest of the Basic Details, or move onto the next page.

  • Run on demand: if you only check this option then you don’t need to fill in anything else on the Basic Details page - select Next to continue.
  • Run as schedule: if you check this option then you need to fill in the remaining fields on the Basic Details page, even if you have also ticked Run on demand.

  • Run from: the date you want the Schedule to become active. This defaults to the current day, but you can change it if you want the Schedule to start running on a date in the future.
  • Run until: fill this in if you want your Schedule to stop after a specified period of time. To have your schedule run indefinitely, you can leave this blank.
  • Occurs: choose the frequency at which the Schedule runs. You can choose from: Daily, Monthly (specific day), Weekly, Monthly.
  • Recurs every: this changes depending on what you choose in the Occurs field.

Daily: choose whether you want to send a report every day (pick 1 day) or pick the number of days from the drop down list.
Monthly (specific day): choose which day of the month you want to send a report, and whether you want to send it every month or every few months.
Weekly: choose the day or days of the week that you want to send a report, and whether you want to send it every week or every few weeks.
Monthly: use this if you want to send reports on the same day of the month, e.g. on the first Monday of the month.

  • Daily frequency: pick the time that you want emails to send

Runs before 08:00: pick this to ensure the Customer List is sent before 8am. If your Customer List does not need to be generated at a specific time but does need to be delivered by the morning, we recommend that you use this option.
Runs every: use this to send Customer Lists at intervals by number of hours. You can also set start and end times for this frequency.
Runs once at: pick the specific hour at which you want the Customer List to be sent.

Click Next to move through to either the Customer Lists or Integrated Emails page.

If you have chosen Deliver as Customer List - move on to the Customer Lists section. 

If you have chosen Send Integrated Email - move on to the Integrated Email section.

 

Customer Lists

If you've chosen Deliver Customer List as the Action for your Schedule, you'll see the Customer Lists page. Here you can choose which Customer Lists to include in the Schedule. 

You can add as many Customer Lists to a Schedule as you need, and set each Customer List to send, or be available on demand, to different people.

Click Add Customer List to start the process of adding to your Schedule. 


 

Basic Details

Next you’ll need to fill in the details about who is going to have access and how it will be delivered.

 

  • Name: give the Customer List a name. This will appear in the email. You don’t have to use the actual name of the Customer List in, so feel free to rename it.

TIP: Both the actual name of the Customer List and this name will appear in the Schedule, so you can clearly see which Customer List(s) a Schedule contains.

  • Email to: enter the email addresses of every person you want to have access to this Customer List. If you want to include more than one email address, separate them with a comma.

WARNING: When adding email addresses for users to view the Customer Lists, make sure this exactly matches the email address of their Spektrix User Account for the Partner Companies Interface. This is case sensitive - the Report Schedule will not identify them as the same if there are any differences in capitalisation. You'll need to add the email addresses for Customer List Schedules running both on a schedule or on demand.

  • Custom subject: the default subject line for emails is "Your report from {ClientName}". Enter a different subject line here if you’d like to change it.
  • Customer List: pick the appropriate Customer List from the dropdown menu. The list will contain all Customer Lists that are currently available on your system.
  • Deliver as: Customer Lists will always deliver as a link rather than as an attachment. This is because Customer Lists can contain sensitive personal data.
  • File format: choose which format you want the Customer List to be delivered as, either as a CSV, an unformatted Excel file, or a Mail Merge document.

Once you have filled everything in, click Next to move through to the Output page.

 

Output 

Here you can choose the columns that you want the Customer List to show. 

Drag and drop the criteria into the Output Columns: box. When you export your Customer List, these are the columns that will populate with data.

TIP: Uncheck the Only show commonly used columns box to show the full range of outputs.


You can also drag Output Columns into the Sort By area to sort the outputted information.

In this example, we've selected Output Columns that will give us the Name and Email address of all the customers in this List. By also adding the Name to the Sort By area, the exported data will sort the customers alphabetically by Name.

TIP: You can set default Output Columns for Customer Lists and Standard Mailings by going to Insights & Mailings > Mailings > Mailings Settings and scrolling down to the Output Template section.

Once you're happy with your Output Columns, select Ok to save. 

To add more Customer Lists to the schedule, repeat the process beginning with the Add Customer List button.

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If you need to go back and edit any of the Customer Lists in the Schedule, you can just click the blue pencil icon next to the Customer List's name, or click the red x to delete a Customer List from the Schedule.

Watch this video to see the process of creating a Customer List Schedule from start to finish.

Next, move on to Setting up access to download Customer Lists.

 

Integrated Emails

If you've chosen Send Integrated Email as the Action, you'll see the Integrated Emails page.


Select Add Integrated Email to set this up.

Next you will need to choose which Customer List and which dotdigital template you want to send the integrated email to.

REMINDER: You’ll need to have prepared your Customer List and the Dotdigital template you intend to send in advance.

 

  • Name: give the new Scheduled Integrated Email a descriptive name. This is for your internal purposes only and is not visible to customers.
  • Mailing Category: choose which category of Mailing you are using, based on the options set up on your system. 
  • Customer List: pick the Customer List you want from the drop down menu. The list will contain all Customer Lists that are currently available on your system.
  • Email template: pick the Dotdigital template you want from the drop down menu. The list will contain all of the campaigns which are currently in the Unsent folder within your Dotdigital account.

Once you have input the information, select Ok to move on.

If you want to add any further Customer Lists to the schedule, repeat the process beginning with the Add Integrated Email button. Any additional Customer Lists added will be sent as part of the same schedule but delivered as separate emails.

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If you need to go back and edit any of the Customer Lists in the Schedule, you can select the blue pencil next to the Customer List's name, or click the red x to delete a Customer List from the Schedule.

Integrated emails will now automatically be sent to your chosen Customer List at your chosen time of schedule. You can view sent Integrated Mailings in the Mailings tab.

 

Setting up access to download Customer Lists

To download a report via a link in an email or on demand, the recipient needs to be able to log into your Spektrix system.

Existing system users will just need a specific user role added to their User Account. 

Anyone outside of your organisation can be set up with a login that grants them access only to their Customer Lists (as well as any Reports set up to be accessed on demand using Report Schedules).

 

Existing Spektrix users

To make sure an existing Spektrix user can download Customer Lists you'll need to amend their User Account. This applies when delivered by a link or when accessing the Partner Companies Interface directly. 

To do this, follow the steps below:

  • Go to The Settings Interface > Users > User Accounts.

  • Either create a new User, or select the user you want to update.
  • Under the Roles section, check the box marked Collect Report user role.
  • Click the Save User Account button.

External users need a specific type of User Account to be able to log in and download their Customer Lists. 

To set this up, follow the steps below:

  • Go to Insights & Mailings > Report Schedules > Users. 
  • Select the Add button to set up a new User Account with only the Collect Reports user role.

  • Fill in the details. When you set a password, communicate the password to the user in person – never write down or email passwords. If someone forgets their password, you can click on the Change Password link next to their name in the list.

 

 

The Partner Companies Interface

Reports Schedules that are set to run on demand can be accessed via the Partner Companies Interface. 

The Partner Companies Interface is a part of your system designed to be used by people from outside of your organisation.

You can find your Partner Companies Interface by updating the following URL with your client name: https://system.spektrix.com/yourclientname/client/partner-companies

If you're not sure what your client name is, you can easily find it by logging in to Spektrix and looking at the address bar at the top of your browser window:


When the user goes to the Partner Companies Interface URL, they will see a log in screen:



Once logged in, any reports which have been made available on demand to that user will show up in a list under the Reports tab. 

To run a report, they'll need to select the Run button: 

The Customer List download will then appear in the top right hand corner of the screen.

 

 

On Demand Customer Lists

When you make a Customer List available to be run on demand, you'll set the Segments which define who is included in the Customer List.

Partner companies or third party users can’t update the Customer Lists you have assigned them - they can only run them as they are using the specific output method you have chosen (e.g. unformatted Excel). Make this clear to anyone running Customer Lists on demand, so that they are aware. 

TIP: When setting up On Demand Customer Lists, think carefully about the date metrics that you're using in Segments – remember that the Last Week metric looks at the previous calendar week, not the previous seven days.

 

Further Reading

To continue learning about Reporting, why not check out the following articles:

You can find more articles on running and configuring Reports in the Reporting section of the Support Centre.