Knowledge Base

Capturing customer data in Profile Properties

At the core of BlueConic are the profile properties that store customer or visitor data in BlueConic customer profiles. Profile properties receive data from various parts of BlueConic, for example from listeners that collect data, from customer input to dialogue forms, from connections that integrate with other systems, and so on. 

To view or manage profile properties, you select More > Profile properties from the BlueConic navigation bar.

Organizing and managing profile properties

All existing profile properties are shown in a navigation list on the Profile properties tab. You can manage the listed profile properties by searching and filtering. You can even modify the columns displayed. See "Object Navigation" for an in-depth discussion of the navigation list and its options.

How do I create profile properties in BlueConic to store first-party customer data in a customer data platform?

Creating a profile property

Profile properties can be created manually in BlueConic. To create a new profile property, click the [Add profile property] button on the Profile properties tab. Or, you can create profile properties as you are building connections, dialogues, or listeners. 

Define the following settings for a profile property:

Setting Description
ID The internal identifier for the profile property. The identifier must be unique for each profile property. A valid ID may consist of letters, numbers, hyphens (-), and underscores (_) and must be at least one character long. Once saved, the ID can not be modified.
Name This is the human readable text that appears for the profile property wherever it appears in the BlueConic user interface. See Best practices for names and labels for tips on naming your profile properties.
Description A short description of the profile property.
Labels Assign any number of text labels to the profile property for grouping or easy retrieval.
Segmentation Specify whether the profile property will show up in the Segments tab for segmentation or not. If you do not show the profile property in the Segments tab, you cannot use it in a segment definition.
Type Specifies the data type of the profile property. The options are:
  • Text — The value stored in the profile property is in text format. Valid entries include any type of text. Examples: ブルークルー, Blue Crew
  • Email address — The value contains a valid email address. Example: anyuser@domain.com
  • Number — The value stored in the profile property is in numerical format: 0 to 9 and -. If you select this format, you also select the units for the number. The maximum number that can be held by BlueConic is 2,147,483,647. Examples: 1234 and -9876
  • Decimal — The value contains numbers from 0 to 9, - and . with a maximum of 4 decimal places. Examples: 12.3456 and -98
  • Currency — The value contains numbers from 0 to 9, - and .. If you select this format, you can select from over 150 currencies, with the corresponding units. Examples: 12.34 and -98.76.
  • Date time — The value stored in the profile property is in Unix millisecond timestamp format: the number of milliseconds since 1-1-1970 UTC. Example: 1538073598692 represents September 27th, 2018 6:39:58 PM UTC

Note: If you set these data types, BlueConic will enforce them. Once there is at least one profile with a value for the profile property, you can no longer change the data type (except for "Text" profile properties, which can be changed to the type "Email address" at all times). Learn more about validating and enforcing data types in profile properties.
Default values Enter default values for the profile property. These values will be available for building segments — even when no values have been added by listeners to visitor profiles yet.
  • Click [Save] to permanently save the profile property.

Expert Settings

Use the profile property expert settings to control the privacy level of the property and what happens to the value of a profile property during profile merging. You can also assign a unique identifier to a profile property that aids in the retrieving of property values using the BlueConic API.
If you aren't sure about how to configure these settings, it's best to leave them at the default value or ask your BlueConic customer success manager.

Setting Description
Permission level Specifies what visitor permission level is minimally needed to use the profile property. There are two options:
  • Level 1 — The profile property can only store anonymous data.
  • Level 2 — The profile property can store personal data such as an email address or telephone number.
Merge strategy Specifies what to do with the value of the profile property if the visitor's profile is merged with another profile. See Profile merging for complete information on profile merging. You have the following options:
  • Value of current profile — The value of the property in the current visitor profile is kept. The current profile is the one the visitor was actively using at the time of the merge.
  • Keep both — The values from both profile properties are kept.
  • Most recently updated value — Keeps the value that was last set.
  • Sum — (number, decimal, and currency only) The values from the two matching profile properties are added together.
  • Highest — (number, decimal, and currency only) Keep the highest number from the visitor profiles as the value.
  • Lowest — (number, decimal, and currency only) Keep the lowest number from the visitor profiles as the value.
  • Most recent date — (date time only) Compare both date values and keep the most recent one.
  • Oldest date — (date time only) Compare both date values and keep the most recent one.
  • First stored value — If both profiles have a value, the oldest value (with the oldest timestamp) is used for merging.
Unique identifier A unique identifier that can be used to retrieve profiles with a specific value for a property, for example, an email address. The unique identifier is also used for profile properties that can be used to create a "When to Merge" rule. See Profile merging for complete information.
Select "Create new profile when identifier changes" for improved privacy and security (to prevent profile hijacking). If checked, the visitor will switch to a new profile when a new value for this property is set.
Visitor access

Determines what access the visitor or browser has from the browser client to read or write to this profile property (including BlueConic client connections, dialogues, and listeners). Enable the "Read" option to allow the visitor's browser to retrieve the value for this profile property. Enable "Write" to allow the visitor's browser client to write a new value into this property.

When you create new profile properties via the Profile properties tab, Visitor access is turned off by default, to improve security of these values, so the values are not open to changes from the browser. You can choose to enable Read or Write access if you require that the visitor's browser be able to read or write the profile property value. 

Visitor access determines a profile property's read and write access from a website (as well as BlueConic client connections, dialogues and listeners). It does not apply to batch and server-side, real-time connections, server-side listeners, or the BlueConic REST API. The BlueConic connections to Mailchimp, via Webhooks, and for Facebook Custom Audiences are all examples of batch or server-side real-time connections, so these do not need readable or writable profile properties.

Contact your BlueConic Customer Success Manager for more information.
Hide from UI Enable the "Don’t show on Segments tab" option if you do not want this profile property to show up on the user interface of the Segments tab. This is useful if you only want to be able to hand off the profile property in a connection.

 

Validating and enforcing data types

When you set a data type for a profile property, BlueConic enforces data validation for the number, currency, date time, decimal, and currency data types.

You can see the data type and validation status when you view profile properties in a navigation list.

How to use the BlueConic customer data platform to create a single customer view of first-party customer profiles

See validating and enforcing data types to learn more.

Modifying a profile property

You can change any setting for a profile property except the ID of the profile property. When you change any of the settings of a profile property, the [Save] button is enabled. By clicking the [Save] button, the profile property settings are permanently modified. Note: Profile properties that are defined in plugins by a developer are read only and cannot be modified. This is indicated in the user interface by the grayed-out settings and the disabled [Save] button.

 

Deleting a profile property

To delete a profile property, select the [Save] button and choose [delete] from the dropdown menu. Note: Profile properties that are defined in plugins by a developer are read-only and cannot be deleted. This is indicated in the user interface by the grayed-out settings and the disabled [Delete] option.

 

Copying a profile property

To copy a profile property, select the [Save] button and choose [Save as...] from the dropdown menu.
A new profile property is created with the same settings as the original profile property, but with an adapted ID. You can set a new ID or change any other setting. By selecting the [Save] button, you finalize the creation of the copied profile property.

 

Statistics

In the right-hand sidebar, the "statistics" widget shows the number of profiles in your profile database that contain a value for the profile property that you are managing.
It also shows that last date and time a value was set in any of the profiles for this particular profile property.

How to view your first-party customer data using unified customer profiles in BlueConic

Related items

In the right-hand sidebar, the "related items" widget shows the other objects in BlueConic that are directly related to the profile property that you are managing.
Profile properties can have the following types of related items:

    • Segments that use this profile property as a filter. Learn more: Segments in BlueConic
    • Listeners that are configured to set a value for this profile property. Learn more: Listeners in BlueConic
    • Dialogues that are configured to set a value for this profile property or interactions that use this profile property as a filter on the "Who" tab. Learn more: Dialogues in BlueConic