A Customer Profile is a collection of customer data, attributes and events organized with a specific hierarchy into Bluecore. The Customer Profile starts with either the user’s email address or phone number as a primary ID, with other information tied to that ID.
Email addresses are always primary IDs, so only one email address can be tied to one Customer Profile. Phone numbers can also be primary IDs, but only if an email address is not known. Phone numbers can also be tied to a known email address, so a Customer Profile can have multiple phone numbers tied to it.
The attributes and behaviors for identified Customer Profiles are viewable in the Customer 360 (C360) tool. These behaviors and attributes for each Customer Profile are used in Bluecore’s product recommendations, predictive audiences features, and campaign personalization. The attributes and behaviors for identified Customer Profiles are viewable in the Customer 360 tool.
Customer Profile Fields
There are three kinds of Customer Profile fields:
Standard - Field already built for each Customer Profile, data supplied by client or captured online.
Reserved - Field used and updated by Bluecore.
Custom - Namespace specific fields that can be added for segmentation or campaign personalization.
Field Name | Kind | Type | Description |
first_name | Standard | String | The customers first name |
last_name | Standard | String | The customer's last name (surname) or any name following the first name, including hyphenated names when applicable. |
birthday_day | Standard | Num | Customer’s day of birth - a number between 1-31. |
birthday_month | Standard |
| Customers' birth month - the number spelled out. |
Standard | The primary email address for this Customer Profile. This is the only email channel ID that Bluecore manages eligibility for or delivers to. Emails must be in the "mailbox" format specified in RFC 5336. | ||
email_hash_number | Reserved | Integer | A random number between 0 and 99 generated based on a deterministic hash of the email address. Email hashed can be used for securely appending an unencrypted email address (when encryption isn’t supported) and randomizing a segment for a holdout group. |
has_control_group_halted_email | Reserved | Date-Time | Timestamp indicating the last time an email was halted due to the customer being in a control group. Required format is ISO 8601 |
has_email_delivered | Reserved | Boolean | Indicates whether Bluecore has detected an email-delivered event, helping determine the email address's deliverability. |
has_received_email | Reserved | Boolean | Indicates whether this customer has previously received an email from Bluecore (from this namespace). |
last_email_scheduled | Reserved | String | The most recent time when an email was scheduled to be sent to the customer. |
last_purchase_date | Reserved | Date-Time | Timestamp of the customer's most recent purchase. The data is automatically generated when a purchase event is tracked or ingested. This comes from the created date or created override date (if it exists), of the most recent purchase event for this Customer Profile. |
last_email_sent | Reserved | String | Reflects the last date an email was sent by Bluecore to this email address. |
Customer Profile Dimensions
These are the Customer Profile Dimensions that are calculated in every namespace; available for targeting and segmentation in Audience Builder, but not available in audience exports.
Dimension | Kind | Type | Description |
email_status | Reserved | Enum: Known, Subscribed, Unsubscribed | Reflects the most recent email channel eligibility status for this Customer Profile. Learn more about email eligibility here. |
first_identified_date | Reserved | Date-Time | The first date an email address was ingested or directly captured by Bluecore for this profile |
Updating a Customer Profile
There are two ways you can manually update a Customer Profile - via a customer feed or via a file import. Customer Profiles can also be automatically updated via Site campaigns.
Managed customer feed
The most reliable way to update your Customer Profile records is with a managed feed. The client sets up a scheduled file drop to a Bluecore-owned or client-owned SFTP folder. The Bluecore FDE team sets up recurring jobs to grab the data, providing clean and transform services if needed, then the updated information is processed by Bluecore. Currently, the feeds themselves are not visible to external users in the Bluecore platform, but our support teams continuously monitor these managed feeds for issues.
As-Needed File Imports (Self-Serve)
If you need to update, correct, or add in new Customer Profile details ahead of a personalized campaign run, a one-time job to import a .CSV can be set up directly in the Bluecore UI (requires Data Manager or Client Admin permissions). New Customer Profile fields can be added in the platform UI (by anyone with Data Manager or Client Admin permissions).
Email and SMS/MMS Eligibility
Each customer profile in Bluecore has three potential eligibility states for email and SMS/MMS promotional communications - known, opted-in, or unsubscribed.
Unsubscribes are not the same as a deletion request.
Customers who unsubscribe from receiving promotional emails are still tracked and may still be eligible to receive promotional messages via SMS/MMS.
Eligibility statuses do not affect a Customer Profile's ability to receive transactional messages.
Eligibility for the two channels are handled separately. If a customer is subscribed to both, and they unsubscribe from email, they will still be subscribed to SMS/MMS.
Email Eligibility
Known: A Customer Profile that has been identified, but has neither opted-in nor unsubscribed for email. Once a customer profile has been opted-in or unsubscribed, it cannot be set back to known.
Opted-in: Explicit consent from a customer. A customer has entered an email address on a subscription form or preference center, electing to receive email communications from your brand; the customer profile is opted-in and not unsubscribed.
Unsubscribed: A customer has elected to no longer receive email marketing messages from your brand. This typically occurs when a customer performs an unsubscribe action via an unsubscribe link in an email or a preference center, therefore they are no longer subscribed.
SMS/MMS Eligibility
Known: A customer’s phone number has been identified (through a file upload, JavaScript on the website, or a double opt-in flow where the number has signed up but not confirmed subscription), but has neither opted-in nor unsubscribed. These numbers are not eligible to receive any marketing SMS/MMS.
Opted-in: Explicit consent from a customer. A customer has entered or shared a phone number electing to receive marketing SMS/MMS from your brand; the customer is opted-in. SMS/MMS promotional/batch or triggered messages are only sent to numbers that have explicitly opted-in.
Double Opt-in
A double opt-in adds an additional confirmation from the customer when opting-in that requires customers to confirm their interest.
A phone number was acquired via a sign up action but that action does not mean the customer has given explicit permission. The customer must then confirm subscription to ensure consent to receive marketing messages.
Single Opt-in
A single opt-in requires the customer to subscribe only once to begin receiving marketing messages.
A phone number was acquired via a sign up action. By signing up, the customer explicitly consented to receiving marketing messages.
Unsubscribed: A customer has explicitly elected to no longer receive marketing SMS/MMS from your brand by texting STOP to the sending code, or through a file import.
For information on privacy and Right to Be Forgotten requests, see Bluecore Privacy Compliance.