Exclusive Identifiers

“How do I ensure that when I merge people togather that the correct merges occur?”

“Can I refine the merging process, making it dependent on the quality of the identifiers I provide?”

To enhance our ability to track customer journeys across multiple channels, we need to merge various identifiers into a single individual. This merging process allows us to create a coherent trail of the customer's interactions.

By default, we combine CXIDs whenever we encounter previously used identifiers during a Rule's execution. Some of these identifiers are stong, like customer ids, member numbers and some are poor or transient idenitfiers, like browser cookies. We do not by default differentiate between the Identifiers accuracy when merging.

Using the Exclusive Identifier feature we can refine the merging process by selectively merging data linked to temporary identifiers, rather than permanent ones.

Here we will review some of the scenarios that Exclusive Identifiers can help with. To understand the Exclusive Identifiers setup process please see the child page to this one here.

Scenario 1

Scenario: Without Exclusive Identifiers

Let's consider a situation where a user has multiple web cookies, each associated with a different browser. However as a user you will only have a single customer id for the website.

Imagine a family member Bob, logs onto your computer and opens your browser. All the activity they generate will be linked to the web browser cookie that belongs to you, not Bob.

Now if they log into the website as “Bob”, getting “Bob's” new identifier of “customer id” we would by default merge your “Bob” to you.

The rationale is that the web browser cookie belonged to you and the customer id for ”Bob” was passed in the same request. Why would these not be the same person?

The Exclusive Identifiers functionality allows you to limit this.

Scenario Explanation:

In this scenario, without the Exclusive Identifiers functionality, both You's and Bob's activities are linked to the same web browser cookie (Cookie A) that belongs to you (You). When Bob logs onto your computer and opens your browser, all the activity they generate will be linked to the web browser cookie that belongs to you, not Bob. Now, if Bob logs into the website as Bob and gets his identifier (Customer ID), there is no mechanism to distinguish between their activity and yours. As a result, the system would merge Bob's” activity to yours, assuming it is the same person.

Scenario: With Exclusive Identifier of Customer ID

Let’s follow the same scenario but with customer id chosen as our Exclusive Identifier. Remember it’s exclusive to the individual.

“Bob” logs onto your computer and opens your browser. All the activity they generate will be linked to the web browser cookie that belongs to you.

Now they log in and Bob gets his identifier, “customer id”.

Now we are being passed two identifiers we review at this point whether we need to merge any identifiers to another CXID.

With Exclusive Identifiers on we will now check if the web browser cookie already has a “customer id” linked to it. In this case it does. You already have a customer id linked to your CXID. As a result we will not now merge. We know they are two different people because each individual can only have a single customer id against the CXID

The events being generated in the session continue to be created against your Cookie id.

Scenario Explanation:

With the Exclusive Identifiers functionality enabled, the table shows the following changes:

1. You already have a Customer ID (Customer ID A) linked to your web browser cookie (Cookie A) due to a previous login activity.

2. When Bob logs onto your computer and generates web activity (Activity B), it is linked to the same web browser cookie (Cookie A) that belongs to you (You). However, when Bob logs in as Bob and gets his identifier (Customer ID B), the system checks whether the web browser cookie (Cookie A) already has a Customer ID linked to it. In this case, it does, which means the Exclusive Identifiers functionality prevents the merge. As a result, Bob remains separate from you because each individual can only have one customer ID against the CXID.

The Exclusive Identifiers functionality effectively limits the merging process, ensuring that events continue to be created against the respective Cookie IDs and distinct Customer IDs for each individual.

Scenario 2

Scenario: Without Exclusive Identifiers

Let's examine a scenario where both your CXID (CX Customer Identifier) and your friend Bob's CXID have both been associated with identifiers including Customer ID, email address, and web browser cookie.

You receive an email with link click tracking embedded in it. When you click on the tracking links, all activity is tracked as your own.

You decide to forward the email to Bob, and he clicks through a link. However, our solution will still track this activity as yours, not Bob's.

When Bob arrives on the website, he is assigned a web browser cookie specific to him.

At this point of landing on the website, we have two identifiers: your email address and Bob's web browser cookie. In this situation, the system would typically merge both you and Bob together, assuming you are the same person. The rationale behind this is that the email address belongs to you, and the web browser cookie belongs to Bob, but they were passed in the same request, so should be merged.

Scenario Explanation:

In this scenario, without the Exclusive Identifiers functionality, both your CXID and Bob's CXID have been associated with identifiers like Customer ID, email address, and web browser cookie. When you receive an email with link click tracking embedded in it and click on the tracking links, all activity is tracked as your own (User A).

Later, you decide to forward the same email to Bob (User B), and he clicks through a link. However, our solution will still track this activity as yours (User A), not Bob's (User B).

When Bob (User B) arrives on the website, he is assigned a unique web browser cookie (Cookie A) specific to him.

At this point, we have two identifiers: your email address (linked to Customer ID A) and Bob's web browser cookie (linked to Customer ID B). In this situation, the system would typically merge both you and Bob together, assuming you are the same person since the email address belongs to you, and the web browser cookie belongs to Bob, but they were passed in the same request.

Scenario: With Exclusive Identifier of Customer ID

Now, if we enable the Exclusive Identifier functionality and set it to customer id, we are effectively informing the solution that an individual (CXID) can only have one of these identifiers and to consider this before merging. Let's continue with the same scenario:

You receive an email with link click tracking built into it. Each tracking link will track activity as you if you click through.

You forward the email to Bob, and he clicks through a link. Our solution will track this as your activity, not Bob's.

When Bob lands on the website, he receives a unique web browser cookie specific to him.

With Exclusive Identifiers on, we will now check if either of the CXIDs linked to the identifiers provided have a customer ID associated with it.

In this case, both the web browser cookie belonging to Bob and the email address belonging to you have CXIDs with different Customer IDs. Since this is the case, we will NOT merge the data, and the events will continue to be tracked against the best identifier available.

Scenario Explanation:

With the Exclusive Identifiers functionality enabled, the table shows the following changes:

1. You (User A) still receive the email with link click tracking built into it, and all activity tracked through the links will be associated with your CXID (Customer ID A) as before.

2. When you forward the email to Bob (User B), and he clicks through a link, our solution will still track this activity as You (User B) because the email only has your identifiers within it.

3. With Exclusive Identifiers on, the system checks if either of the CXIDs linked to the identifiers (email address and web browser cookie) has a customer ID associated with it.

4. In this case, both the web browser cookie belonging to Bob and the email address belonging to you have CXIDs with different Customer IDs (Customer ID A for you and Customer ID B for Bob). As a result, the data will not be merged, and the events will continue to be tracked against the best identifier available for each user (You - User A and Bob - User B).