email opt-out for constiuents sharing email addresses?

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kaomalle
kaomalle ✭
Ancient Membership First Reply
in Blackbaud Luminate Online® & Blackbaud TeamRaiser® Discussions

We have constituents who share email addresses. Our current issue is one consituent will 'opt-out' of emails. This 'opt-out' applies to the one constituent record, not all constiuent records who share that email address.

Example for a family registration (multiple registration scenario for Team Raiser)

John Smith, email = jxxx @ fake.com

Susie Smith, email = jxxx @ fake.com

Our default for constituents is 'opt-in'. At some point, John chooses opt-out (but Susie remains opt-in because her contituent record was never explictly updated). On our next email campaign, an email is sent to jxxx @ fake.com because Susie's constituent record is still set as 'opt-in'. At that point, John is frustrated because he knows he selected 'opt-out' but is still receiving emails.

Has anyone found a way to identify those consituent records sharing email addresses where one of the constituents has 'opt-out' selected.

If I could find a way to do sub-query select via the Query tool, I think it could be accomplished with something similar to the pseduo-query of 'select NAME from constituent_record where email in (select email from 'email opt out group') We realize we'd probably have to manually update the 'accepts email' for the result list we get - but at least we'd have an idea of how many contituents think they opted out when they really are not opted out for all constituent records in the system.

Thanks for any input.

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  • Andy G.
    Andy G. ✭
    Ancient Membership First Reply

    John and Susie example happens all the time in our database, and we do get similar complaints. The way we explain to them is the email is intended for Susie, but since Susie'e email is also John's , John gets to see the email in their inbox. It is the similar situation when you send a letter to a mailing address where more than 1 person live in the house. To make the intention more obvious, you can (if you havent already) use conditionals that pulls first name so the email will begin with "Dear Susie,", that way (hopefully) John will realize that the email is Susie's, not his.

    Convio doesnt have such tools for the query. You could download the data using mailmerge and then use excel, access or SQL to find those duplicates. You can get the counts, then use the email from the list and search the constituent database to update the opt-out box.

    another way is using Data Management > Import/Export > Resolve New Registration. This page will give a side-by-side view of 2 constituent records base on the possible duplicate criterias: name, mailing addess, or, in your case, email address. it will allow you to MERGE those records, so you will have to choose which one's information will be overwritten. If you choose John who already opt-out as the master record, the process will then overwrite Susie's info with his, so in the end in the database there will be only 1 John with jxxx@fake.com who opt-out and NO Susie.

    It really depends on how do you segment your audiences, IE is your email content gender specific? Unless the message is general accross the database, IMO its unfair if Susie doesn't get her email just because she is sharing email address with John and John says no email from your organization.

    good luck!

    Andy

  • kaomalle
    kaomalle ✭
    Ancient Membership First Reply
    Andy G.:

    John and Susie example happens all the time in our database, and we do get similar complaints. The way we explain to them is the email is intended for Susie, but since Susie'e email is also John's , John gets to see the email in their inbox. It is the similar situation when you send a letter to a mailing address where more than 1 person live in the house. To make the intention more obvious, you can (if you havent already) use conditionals that pulls first name so the email will begin with "Dear Susie,", that way (hopefully) John will realize that the email is Susie's, not his.

    Convio doesnt have such tools for the query. You could download the data using mailmerge and then use excel, access or SQL to find those duplicates. You can get the counts, then use the email from the list and search the constituent database to update the opt-out box.

    another way is using Data Management > Import/Export > Resolve New Registration. This page will give a side-by-side view of 2 constituent records base on the possible duplicate criterias: name, mailing addess, or, in your case, email address. it will allow you to MERGE those records, so you will have to choose which one's information will be overwritten. If you choose John who already opt-out as the master record, the process will then overwrite Susie's info with his, so in the end in the database there will be only 1 John with jxxx@fake.com who opt-out and NO Susie.

    It really depends on how do you segment your audiences, IE is your email content gender specific? Unless the message is general accross the database, IMO its unfair if Susie doesn't get her email just because she is sharing email address with John and John says no email from your organization.

    good luck!

    Andy

    Thanks - we used the duplicate finder (match on email only) and the mail merge to get the list to review in excel. We've backed off trying to resolve it at this point - you are correct, it is a manual and daunting process and it is tough to know whether Susie should get the email or if John just forgot to opt out all the records. At this point, we have our list so we at least have an idea of who may receive unwanted emails during our next email campaign. And we'll handle it on a case-by-case basis as users call/email asking why they are still receiving emails.

    Thanks for your detailed explanation!

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