Learn better video? Be sure to check out our Account Filters Training Video before setting up your first one. It will walk you through step-by-step on how to create your first Account Filter.
Overview
From messaging, to campaigns, to reporting, chances are good that you'll want to segment specific groups of guests into groups for different purposes. Account Filters are the tool to creating guest segments.
Before You Start
Before you dig in, here are a couple of important terms to know:
Condition - A Condition is like a parameter or criterion. When you create an Account Filter, you select Conditions to narrow down to a smaller pool of guests, a segment. You can set Conditions by demographics (favorite store, age, gender, etc.), or by Wallet data.
Wallet data - Since Wallets generally record guest actions (specific item purchased, number of visits, dollars spent, etc.), filtering by Wallet data lets you filter by guest behavior/activity. You can also set Conditions based on Predictive Analytics scores (likeliness to visit within a certain time period). In all, you can choose from 50+ unique Conditions; even if you only select a few Conditions, there are hundreds of thousands of possible combinations.
What are Account Filters?
An Account Filter is a query, made up of a set of Conditions. Account Filters pull only guest accounts that meet the criteria set in the Conditions. Account Filters represent sub-sets of total guest accounts. Account Filters are used to segment your guest data, whether it is by demographic data, Wallet data, Predictive Analytics scoring, or any combination of the three. Essentially, you can filter guests by:
Who they are (demographic details),
Their behavior (Wallet data),
Their likely behavior (predictive analytics),
Or any combination of the above
Filtering can be used to identify gift, loyalty, and comp account records; all types of accounts can be filtered with Account Filters.
There are 50+ possible Conditions that can be used to filter your data, so you may need to spend some time seeing which Conditions do the best job of segmenting guests based on your goals. In general, the more Conditions you set in your filter, the smaller the pool of guests that will be returned. The fewer the Conditions, the larger the pool of guests.
A list of available conditions and explanations on how to leverage each can be found at the following link: What are the available Account Filter Conditions?
Account Filters are most commonly used in the Guest Analysis Report and in the Campaign Center.
Account Filters can be saved and reused. After a bit of setup, you can have a few key Account Filters ready and waiting for you to use whenever needed.
Strategies for Creating an Account Filter
Segmenting your guest accounts with Account Filters can be complicated; there may be multiple ways to achieve a single goal. The best strategy is to think about your goal(s) as you create your Account Filter.
Determine the requirements needed to define the guest accounts you are trying to segment. What are your goals?
Example: I am trying to increase sales of our new "healthy options" breakfast sandwiches and would like to send an offer to guests likely to try one of our new sandwiches if they are nudged with an offer. I don't want to give this offer to guests already likely to try our new sandwiches.
Goals are underlined.
Think about how the Account Filters can help you segment your guest data. What Conditions can you select to isolate the target guests? Let's break this down step-by-step:
Filter by location? No. This is a nationwide promo.
Program? Only include guests in the loyalty program.
Potential target behaviors:
Guests who have bought any of our current breakfast sandwiches
Guests who make purchases before noon
Guests who have purchased other "healthy options" menu items
Guests who have done all of the above within the previous month
Exclude guests likely to visit in next 7 days? No. The goal is to get regular guests to try something new; it makes sense to include guests likely to visit.
Exclude inactive guests? Yes. The goal is to get regular customers to try a new thing. It makes sense to exclude guests who haven't visited in a long time.
What else? It's good practice to only include guests who are registered, and who have opted in to receive offers.
Think about how you can check your Account Filter to verify that you have successfully segmented guest accounts to meet your goals. How will you know if it is correct?
Use the Get # of Matching Accounts button often to see if your results make sense to you, and fit your goal:
Steps for Creating an Account Filter
Example 1: Create an Account Filter that finds all loyalty guests who have not visited in the past 60 days.
From the left navigational pane, select Marketing Tools, and then Account Filter.
Click on the Create New Account Filter button.
DO NOT start by naming and saving your Account Filter. Even though this box is at the top, you'll do this step LAST. If you name your Account Filter and click Save, you'll create an empty Account Filter. And once an Account Filter is saved, it can't be edited.1 Follow the instructions for selecting Account Filter Conditions; saving instructions are in the next section, Saving & Reusing Account Filters.
Drag the Program Template Condition into the Conditions section.
From the list on the left (Available), select at least one Program Template and move it to the right list (Selected). Single arrows add or remove one Program Template; double arrows add or remove an entire list.
To find guests who have not visited in the last 60 days, use the Last Guest Activity Date Condition. Start typing in the Search Conditions search box. Don't worry if you don't know the exact name, we'll help as you type. So if you type "date" in the Search Conditions search box, you'll see it in the search results:
Drag the Last Guest Activity Date Condition over to the Conditions section (or double-click on it).
For this example, we will set this Condition as follows:
Date condition type is: Relative Date Range - Year Sensitive
Last Guest Activity Date:
must be
prior to the last
60 days
After you make your selections within the Condition, the Account Filter Tool calculates the cut-off date and displays the Condition in plain language:
Now, with all necessary Conditions selected, click the Get # of Matching Accounts button (near the upper right of the page) to get a calculation of how many guest accounts fit these criteria:
Is that more guests than you thought? Fewer? The right amount? You can adjust the Account Filter with additional or fewer Conditions until the segment meets your marketing or reporting goals. While it is unlikely that you will know if this exact number is correct, you can use it to confirm that you're on the right track.
If your Account Filter returns no Matching Accounts, this typically means that your Conditions are too restrictive, or that you made a mistake in one of your choices (e.g. setting the date range too far in the past, or in the future).
Similarly, if your Account Filter returns roughly the same number of Matching Accounts as total accounts, this typically means that your Conditions are not restrictive enough. You can go back to your Conditions and make changes until you feel that the number of Matching Accounts fits your goals for the guest segment you are trying to isolate.
Example 2: Create an Account Filter that finds all loyalty guests who have a birthday next month.
From the left navigational pane, select Marketing Tools, and then Account Filter.
Click on the Create New Account Filter button.
DO NOT start by naming and saving your Account Filter. Even though this box is at the top, you'll do this step LAST. If you name your Account Filter and click Save, you'll create an empty Account Filter. And once an Account Filter is saved, it can't be edited.1 Follow the instructions for selecting Account Filter Conditions; saving instructions are in the next section, Saving & Reusing Account Filters.
Drag the Program Template Condition into the Conditions section.
From the list on the left (Available), select at least one Program Template and move it to the right list (Selected). Single arrows add or remove one Program Template; double arrows add or remove an entire list.
To find guests who have a birthday next month, use the Date of Birth Condition. Start typing in the Search Conditions search box. Don't worry if you don't know the exact name, we'll help as you type. So if you type "date" in the Search Conditions search box, you'll see it in the search results:
Within the Date of Birth Condition, select the following options:
Date condition type is: Relative Date Range - Year Agnostic
Date of Birth:
must be
within the next
1 month
Again, after you make your selections within the Condition, the Account Filter Tool calculates the cut-off date and displays the Condition in plain language:
Note that birthday campaigns typically run on the first day of the month, so while the Account Filter tool shows one month from the date you create the Account Filter, the actual date range will depend on how you set up the Campaign that uses this Account Filter.
Now, with all necessary Conditions selected, click the Get # of Matching Accounts button (near the upper right of the page) to get a calculation of how many guest accounts fit these criteria:
Is that more guests than you thought? Fewer? The right amount? You can adjust the Account Filter until the segment meets your marketing or reporting goals. While it is unlikely that you will know if this exact number is correct, you can use it to confirm that you're on the right track. If your Account Filter returns no Matching Accounts, this typically means that your Conditions are too restrictive, or that you made a mistake in one of your choices (e.g. setting the date range too far in the past, or in the future).Similarly, if your Account Filter returns roughly the same number of Matching Accounts as total accounts, this typically means that your Conditions are not restrictive enough.
You can go back to your Conditions and make changes until you feel that the number of Matching Accounts fits your goals for the guest segment you are trying to isolate.
IMPORTANT NOTE:
There is a good reason you can't edit or delete Account Filters after they are created. There may be existing campaigns, or reports running that rely on a specific Account Filter. If you edit or delete Account Filters, it may break those campaigns or reports. If you find you don't have need of a particular Account Filter on a regular basis, you can't delete it but you can hide it from your view to de-clutter your list of active Account Filters.
Saving & Reusing Account Filters
Once you settle on a set of Conditions that meet your goals, you'll need to save your Account Filter if you want to use it elsewhere (e.g. Campaign Center, or in any reports). Saving the Account Filter also allows you to reuse it if you need to isolate this specific segment of guests at another time.
At the top of screen, enter a Name for your Account Filter in the Name box. We recommend naming the Account Filter something that easily and quickly describes the guest data segment. Click the Save button.
Now your Account Filter is ready to be used in Campaign Center, or in any of the reports, particularly the Guest Analysis Report. TIP: While you can include multiple conditions when creating your account filter to segment the audience, you can only attach one Account Filter to a campaign.
All saved Account Filters will appear in a list of saved Account Filters available to be loaded for future use. A saved Account Filter can be loaded either by clicking on the name of the filter, or on the magnifying glass icon:
If you want to make changes to an Account Filter, or make a similar version of the same Account Filter (for example, the same starting Account Filter but one for loyalty tier), you can click the middle icon with two squares.
This will copy the Account Filter. From there, make your adjustments to the Conditions, verify by clicking Get # of Matching Accounts, and make final adjustments. If you want to save this copy as its own Account Filter, enter a description in the Name box, and click the Save button:
Additional Resources
Account Filters Training Video
What are the available Account Filter Conditions?
What are Rules and Wallets?
What is the Guest Analysis Report?
Campaign Center Guide