Back Office Marketing Documentation

Back Office Section Heading Back Office Marketing Documentation

1. Introduction to Marketing

The Marketing tool within the FLEX system is designed to facilitate data extraction and analysis, serving purposes such as marketing campaigns, data mining, and report generation. It functions similarly to the File Export Utility but offers the enhanced capability of combining data from various system files. The extracted data is exported into an Excel spreadsheet for further manipulation and use.

  • Availability: Marketing is an optional feature and may require separate purchase.
  • Location: The Marketing tool can be accessed from the FLEX Main Menu under:
    • Member Relations > Marketing

2. Marketing Screen Overview

The Marketing screen provides a user interface for defining and running data queries.

2.1. Top Navigation and Actions

The top section of the Marketing screen contains several key action buttons:

  • Export Name:
    • A dropdown menu to select previously saved queries.
    • Default value is Start New Query.
  • Save:
    • Saves the current query filters.
    • If it’s a new query, the system will prompt the user to enter an export name.
  • Save As:
    • Saves the current query filters under a new export name.
    • Allows the user to specify visibility: Everyone or Just Me.
  • Delete:
    • Deletes the currently selected query.
  • New:
    • Clears all current query filters, allowing the user to start a new query from scratch.
  • Run:
    • Executes the defined query based on the selected filters.
    • Exports the results to an Excel spreadsheet.

2.2. Filters Section

The Filters section is where users define the criteria for their data extraction.

  • Query For:
    • A dropdown menu to select the primary data file for the query.
    • Available files include:
      • Account
      • Card
      • Certificate
      • Credit Score
      • Cross Selling
      • History
      • Loan
      • Loan Application
      • Real Estate
      • Relationship Group
      • Share
      • User Defined
      • Vehicle
  • Field:
    • A dropdown menu that displays available fields within the file selected in the Query For dropdown.
    • Examples of fields include: Account Dormancy Date, Account Number, Account Type, Age, Credit Score, etc.
  • Low/High:
    • Input fields used to specify a range for the selected Field.
    • For fields with known, predefined values (e.g., Account Type), a dropdown will appear with selectable options (e.g., B – Business, I – Individual).
    • For numerical or date fields (e.g., dollar amounts, credit scores), users can manually enter the Low and High values.
    • To search for a single specific value, enter the same value in both the Low and High fields.
  • Add:
    • Adds the currently defined Query For, Field, Low, and High criteria to the query list.
    • Note: Adding multiple fields will narrow the results, as members must fit ALL criteria listed.

3. Global Options

The Global Options section provides settings that affect the overall output of the query.

  • Maximum Results (Any Number, Blank = No Max):
    • Specifies the maximum number of records to be returned by the query.
    • The system defaults to 1000.
    • Users may need to increase this number if a larger dataset is expected.
    • Leaving the field blank (Blank = No Max) will return all matching results.
  • Output Type:
    • Determines the type of information included in the exported results.
    • Defaults to Standard.
    • Other options are available to include member name and address. (Refer to Appendix A for details on predefined fields in Legacy output).
  • Include Criteria In Export:
    • If checked, the search criteria used for the query will be displayed at the bottom of the exported results.
  • One Result Per Member:
    • If checked, ensures that only one result is returned per member, even if a member has multiple suffixes that meet the query criteria.
  • Append Available Queried Columns:
    • If checked, data from the fields used in the query criteria will be included as separate columns in the exported data.

4. Query Sample Example

To illustrate the use of the Marketing tool, consider the following scenario:

Objective: A credit union wants to identify all “EC” draft accounts that are open, do not have an “OD” Overdraft Line of Credit, and have a credit score greater than 650.

Steps to Configure the Query:

  1. Share File – Share Type:
    • Query For: Share
    • Field: Type
    • Low: EC
    • High: EC
    • Click Add.
  2. Loan File – Without Loan Type:
    • Query For: Loan
    • Field: Without Loan Type
    • Low: OD
    • High: OD
    • Click Add.
  3. Credit File – Score:
    • Query For: Credit Score
    • Field: Score
    • Low: 650
    • High: 999
    • Click Add.

Expected Output: The exported Excel file will contain records of members who meet all three specified criteria. If Append Available Queried Columns is selected, columns for “Share Type” and “Credit Score” will be included in the results.

5. Exported Results

The results of a Marketing query are exported to an Excel spreadsheet.

  • Standard Output Type: Includes standard information in the results.
  • Mail Merge: If a Mail Merge is intended, save the exported spreadsheet as a .csv file.