Post-interaction reference guide

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Post-interaction

email reference

guide

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Disclaimer

• Is confidential and intended for Bazaarvoice clients. No part of this document may be shared with anyone outside your company or your company-partners without prior approval from Bazaarvoice.

• Is provided “as is” without warranty of any kind either expressed or implied, including, but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement.

• Is periodically updated to be in sync with the improvements and/or changes in our product offers.

• May be changed without notice. Some examples depicted herein are provided for illustration only and are not guarantees of a specific result. You bear the risk of using this document.

Bazaarvoice is not liable for any technical or typographical errors that might be inadvertently present in this document. Bazaarvoice might have patents and/or pending patent applications covering subject matter in this document. The furnishing of this document does not give you any license to these patents, or legal rights to any other intellectual property in any Bazaarvoice service or product.

All Bazaarvoice brand and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of Bazaarvoice in the United States and may be protected as trademarks or registered trademarks in other countries. All other product, service, or company names mentioned here are claimed as trademarks and trade names by their respective companies.

Contact us:

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Overview

Post-interaction emails (PIE) invite your customers to leave a review for a product they have purchased, a service they have received, or any other type of interaction on your website, over the phone, or in your brick-and-mortar stores.

Reasons to use PIE

PIE is not only the most important best practice to drive volume, it also adds significant product coverage, content freshness, and SEO value. Clients who use Bazaarvoice's PIE program, including follow-up PIE, typically see more than 80% of their ratings & reviews volume generated through PIE.

Other benefits of PIE:

• Ensures that you receive content from authenticated purchasers.

• Drives significant volume back to your site. Some clients see thousands of transactions per week from PIE-based visitors.

• Increases conversion. You can expect to generate 4 moderated and approved reviews per 100 PIEs sent (on average). This conversion rate can be up to 10% for specialized retailers when following these best practices. Data has shown that the PIE program could double review volume for Bazaarvoice clients, validating the idea that if you invite customers to write a review, they most often will.

Case studies

Here are some case studies from Bazaarvoice clients that show what PIEs did for their business:

• British pottery manufacturer, Emma Bridgewater, saw their review volume go up 79% the first eight months after starting PIE. Read morehere.

• Ashford.com, an online retailer of luxury watches, saw their average daily review volume soar to 137.5% after launching PIE. Read the detailshere.

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Typical workflow

The following steps describe a typical workflow for a PIE sent after a transaction. Keep in mind that PIEs can also be sent for non-transactions.

1. Customer completes transaction.

2. Transaction record is generated within your database.

3. Transaction data is sent to Bazaarvoice in the required format, either as a data feed or directly using data collected from the transaction tag on the confirmation page.

4. Bazaarvoice determines if customer has already submitted an approved review for the product or service. If so, this product or service is omitted from the PIE.

5. Bazaarvoice determines if a customer has more than one transaction on the same date. If so, Bazaarvoice creates a single PIE that includes all transactions completed on the same day.

6. PIE is sent to the customer 14-21 days (configurable) after transaction event. If the customer does not write a review within 8 days (configurable) of receiving the initial PIE, the customer receives a follow-up email with a reminder.

7. Customer clicks theWrite a RevieworBe the first to review this product/servicelink in their email message.

8. Customer submits one or more reviews on your site by either going back to their email and clicking on a subsequentWrite a Reviewlink or if the review request module (RRM) is enabled, they can review other items on the review submission "Thank You" page.

9. Review is published on your site if approved by the Bazaarvoice moderation team.

For transactions, aVerified Purchaserbadge that signifies that the review was submitted by a verified purchaser can be displayed next to the review.

10.Measure the success of your PIE campaign by reviewing reports that can be accessed in the Bazaarvoice portal.

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Data collection methods

Bazaarvoice can collect data for PIE in two ways:

• Maintenance-free PIE

Bazaarvoice collects encrypted transaction/interaction data directly from your site using this interaction tagging method. You can enable this feature by applying a small amount of JavaScript (JS) code, called the ROI beacon, to your order confirmation page. Once the beacon tag is integrated, Bazaarvoice collects the data needed to generate your PIEs.

• Feed-based PIE

If maintenance-free PIE is not implemented, or if you want to send PIE for transactions received somewhere other than your website (such as in-store purchases), Bazaarvoice can accept an XML feed with transaction information in order to send out PIEs.

Comparison of maintenance-free and feed-based

PIE

The following table shows some of the differences between the maintenance-free and the feed-based PIE: Feed-based PIE

Maintenance-free PIE

More effort, more control, more maintenance

Easier, faster, encrypted*

Can exclude as part of the feed effort Cannot be excluded. If you have a high

number of cancelled transactions, you should use feed-based PIE.

Order cancellations

Can be adjusted Can only be covered by appropriate

delay for all PIEs. If you have many orders that are shipped with delays, you could delay all PIEs to a point where 97% are shipped. If many orders are delayed for months, you should use feed-based PIE. Shipping delays

Multiple interaction types allowed. For example, interactions can come from a coupon download using the interaction tagging beacon, while purchase data can use a feed.

One interaction type per client Interaction type

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Feed-based PIE Maintenance-free PIE

Not encrypted. However, the feeds are uploaded to our secure FTP (SFTP) site. High level.

*Data is encrypted when collected and transmitted to Bazaarvoice. Data is unencrypted only prior to

send-out/storage. Security/Encryption

Medium to high. Feed creation adds some time to the project length. Very low. 5-10 hours net effort. Project

length: 5-10 days. Level of effort

What's the same?

Required Required

Submission link (formerly "ssURL")

Yes Yes

Template creation

All current partners All current partners

Partner ESPs supported

All features available Most features available (category-based

delays are currently not available) PIE features

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Integration options

PIE can be implemented using either of the following integration methods:

• White-label (preferred option for most clients)

• Partner-integrated

The appropriate integration method for a particular client depends on the combination of a client's choice as well as whether the client's email service provider (ESP) is supported by Bazaarvoice. Regardless of the integration method used, Bazaarvoice requires the creation of fully functioning staging and production environments so that development can be done on a staging/test environment to avoid sending emails to live clients.

White-label PIE

White-label PIE is a full-service option and also the most popular choice with Bazaarvoice clients. Bazaarvoice will deliver the PIE messages in conjunction with an industry leading ESP. Clients are not required to engage with or have an account/contract with this provider. This option also ensures that clients benefit from all best practices and features, including a mobile-friendly template and full reporting capabilities.

The following image illustrates how white-label PIE works. Transaction data is delivered to the Bazaarvoice SFTP server daily, either via maintenance-free PIE or by uploading your own XML feeds.

Partner-integrated PIE

Bazaarvoice will trigger the PIE message via existing integrations with a short list of industry-leading ESPs. With this method, the PIE templates reside within the client's account at the ESP, and Bazaarvoice can trigger the template via API-based integrations with the ESP's platform. A client should expect additional fees from the ESP to implement a partner-integrated PIE campaign.

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The following image illustrates how partner-integrated PIE works. The transaction data file, also known as the PIE feed, is the client's responsibility to generate and upload to the Bazaarvoice SFTP server daily.

The list of Bazaarvoice-certified ESP partners includes the following:

• Cheetahmail • eCircle • Emailvision • ExactTarget • Responsys (6.x platform) • Silverpop • Epsilon (DREAM) • Epsilon (DREAMmail)

Contact a Bazaarvoice representative for a copy of the ESP-specific integration guide for more details about the integration.

Note

If you are not using the ROI beacon transaction tag to collect order data, both options require an interaction-data feed from the client.

Both white-label PIE and partner-integration PIE require the client to provide an interaction-data feed to Bazaarvoice on a recurring basis. See the section below titled "Data Feed Requirements."

The desired integration option determines which entity actually delivers the PIE message (Bazaarvoice or ESP) to the end user.

For more information about using the transaction tag as part of an automated PIE solution, see the "Maintenance-free PIE" section below.

The following table provides a comparison of the two options.

Partner-integrated White-label Feature Slower Fastest Time to implement Yes No

Additional fees charged by ESP

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Partner-integrated White-label

Feature

Yes Yes

Basic features (e.g. simple submission support, filter out previous reviewers, call-to-action for products not yet reviewed, etc.)

No Yes Advanced roadmap Yes Yes Basic reporting Yes No

Reporting integrated with partner reporting systems

Yes No

Send as promotional email

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Requirements for PIE success

This section contains information, tips, reminders, and steps to maximize the effectiveness of your PIE program.

External IDs must match

For purchase transactions, the ExternalId in the product data feed that you send Bazaarvoice must match the ExternalId in the interaction-data feed. This matching is crucial to associate the review with the appropriate product in your product catalog. For example, Bazaarvoice has seen cases in which clients inappropriately provide a more granular stock-keeping unit (SKU) in the interaction-data feed rather than the less granular ExternalId in the product data feed.

Product data feed must be set up and validated

Prior to any PIE implementation, you must ensure that your product data feed is complete, uploaded, imported, and successfully validated through the Bazaarvoice SFTP server each day. This can be accomplished for both your staging and production server through the Bazaarvoice portal. Contact Bazaarvoice support for instructions.

Review-submission authentication

Anonymous submission

If you do not need customers to log in before submitting a review, Bazaarvoice provides a non-pre-authenticated submission link in the PIEs that leads them directly to the review-submission page.

Authenticated submission

If you require your customers to log in before writing a review, then you should include User IDs in the

interaction-data feed. This allows Bazaarvoice to provide preauthenticated submission links in the PIEs to your customers. Because the User ID is embedded in the submission link, customers who click this link bypass the login step and are led directly to the review submission page. This technique results in the highest volume of review submissions.

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Note

The submission links are preauthenticated only in regards to accessing the review submission page. If a customer attempts to perform any action (other than writing a review) on your site that requires site authentication, they are redirected to your login process.

Bazaarvoice clients often support the concept of “guest” purchasers, where a customer is not required to create an online profile during the onsite check-out process. These purchase events will not have an associated User ID in the interaction-data feed. In these cases, Bazaarvoice can either generate a unique user ID and create

pre-authenticated ssURLs, or generate non-preauthenticated submission links in the PIEs that require customers who click the links to log in and create an online profile before writing a review.

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Enhancing PIE success

Enhance your PIE program with an implementation of the review request feature and the verified purchaser badge.

Follow-up PIE

Consumers don't always initially respond to the first post-interaction email. Configure a follow-up PIE to encourage them to write a review.

A follow-up email is a reminder sent a configurable number of days after the initial PIE if a customer hasn't reviewed all products from the purchase.

Follow-up PIE has been shown to addup to 68% volume. Consumers are in control regarding these emails using the opt-out solution, which is required for implementing both the initial and follow-up PIE. You can configure the number of days after the initial PIE that you want to send the follow-up PIE -- for example, 8 days after the first email.

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Using the review request module

In conjunction with PIE, Bazaarvoice highly recommends implementing the review request module (RRM) on your review thank you page as an easy and effective way to gather a few additional reviews.

When used with PIE, the review request feature will display the products from the email that were not yet reviewed. This capability can be applied for white-label or partner-integrated PIEs.

Verified-purchaser badge

Assigning a verified-purchaser badge for content created via a PIE submission link, lends credibility to the review; readers know that the author is the owner of the product, warranty, mortgage, or online account they are interested in. Note that the verified-purchaser badge cannot be attributed to content submitted via a non-transactional PIE.

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The following image shows a sample verified-purchaser badge:

The text on this badge can be customized. For example, reviews for a customer-client-service interaction could be badged "Verified Customer".

Default product image

In the event that a product does not have an image associated with it, a default product image is inserted into the PIE. The following is the default image, but it can be customized:

The PIE can also be configured to exclude products that have no image.

Including product description

Many catalogs have similar product names or lack images to help the consumer identify the product that they'd like to write a review about. In these cases, adding a product description to the PIE reduces confusion about the item to be reviewed and presents a more informative view that helps conversion. The following image shows how product description can be added to the PIE.

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VIP PIE

For new or short-lived products that need reviews quickly, or as a way to boost review volume where and when it matters most, we offer a VIP PIE that is sent after a configurable length of time - for example, seven days after purchase, as opposed to 21 days for a standard PIE. You can create a product category (like seasonal items) to use with this feature, but it is not required. A VIP PIE is configured to isolate one new product per order based on the following client-configured criteria:

• Product is younger than X days.

• Product has fewer than X reviews.

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This product is the focus of the VIP PIE. The following image shows a sample VIP PIE.

Opt-out option

Bazaarvoice provides an opt-out scenario for PIEs with an unsubscribe page. After clicking the Unsubscribe link in the PIE, users are directed to a page where they can unsubscribe from a PIE follow-up message or all PIE messages. There are several reasons to add an opt-out link to a PIE:

• Allows more emails to be sent since the consumer can opt-out of specific types of emails (follow-up, VIP, etc.)

• Legal compliance (Opt-out functionality is mandatory in Australia.)

• Users are less likely to mark emails as spam if they can unsubscribe.

• Complaint rate with your ESP.

Bazaarvoice recommends a complaint rate below 0.3%. It is recommended to add opt-out when your complaint Enhancing PIE success

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Note

The opt-out option (unsubscribe link) is required when using follow-up PIE, although Bazaarvoice data does not show significantly elevated opt-out rates with follow-up PIE.

If a user does opt out of receiving PIE messages, this action doesn't affect alerts or other marketing emails. However, there is no way for the user to re-subscribe or opt back in once they have opted-out of receiving PIE messages.

Note

There is currently no reporting capabilities on the opt-out option. A reporting solution will be available in a future version.

The following image shows a PIE with a link to the unsubscribe page:

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Email template

The PIE that Bazaarvoice sends contains the following standard features:

• Your company logo

• A clear, concise subject line, such as "Tell us what you think" or "Your opinion counts" Emails with shorter subject lines significantly outperform those with long subject lines.

• The following information for every product or service that is involved in a single interaction:

• The product name

• An image of the product (or default no image available graphic)

• A call to write a review, such as aWrite a Reviewlink with simple submission links

Important!

PIE is not a marketing email. The recommended template should be used, only adjusting copy. Bazaarvoice does not support customization common to marketing emails, since marketing design in PIEs significantly reduces conversion rates and increases rejection rates.

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The following image provides an example of a transaction PIE.

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The following image provides an example of a non-transaction PIE.

The notification-style templates that Bazaarvoice recommends as a best practice have been optimized based on experiences across hundreds of Bazaarvoice clients.

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Multi-language support

Bazaarvoice supports sending PIEs in languages other than the default value of English. This type of integration requires two key components:

• Include locale data in the interaction-data feed you send to Bazaarvoice (e.g. “en_US” for English, “es_US” for Spanish, etc.)

• Request that language-specific templates are created for each desired language

Bazaarvoice will use the locale value in the interaction-data feed to know which language-specific PIE template to use for the intended recipient.

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Tracking PIE success

You can track the performance of your PIE implementation in the following ways:

• PIE campaign reporting

• Reports

PIE campaign reports

Reporting on PIE campaigns depends on the type of PIE integration you implement.

White-label PIE automated reporting

For a white-label PIE campaign, Bazaarvoice will set up an automated report as part of the PIE implementation. You'll need to provide Bazaarvoice with an email address or addresses to send the report.

Note

If you have notifications as part of your ratings and reviews implementation, metrics on PIEs are included in the notifications automated report that Bazaarvoice sends you.

Report Delivery Frequency

Reports can be delivered with the following frequencies:

• Daily – Can specify the time of day

• Weekly – Can specify the day of week

• Monthly – Can specify to run on the first day of the month or on the first Su/M/T/W/Th/F/Sa of the month

Date Range

The report can be configured to include data for the following date ranges:

• Last full week (Sunday – Saturday)

• Last full month

• Last full quarter

Report Period

The report period defines the manner in which the data is summed within the report. The report can be configured so that the reporting period can be set to any of the following periods:

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• Week

For example, if a report is configured with a date range ofLast full weekand a report period ofDay, it displays a row for each day in the last week.

Report Columns

The report includes the following columns:

• Name – Name of the alert

• Description – Description of the alert

• Period – Report period

• Sends – Number of emails that were sent during the period

• Deliveries – Number of emails that were sent during the period that did not bounce

• Delivery rate – Percentage of emails that were sent during the period that did not bounce

• Total bounces – Number of emails that were sent during the period that bounced

• Bounce rate – Percentage of emails that were sent during the period that bounced

• Unique opens – Number of emails that were sent during the period that were opened. This column counts only the first time that the email was opened.

• Open rate – Percentage of emails that were sent during the period that were opened

• Cumulative opens – Number of emails that were sent during the period that were opened. This column counts multiple opens from the same recipient.

• Unique clicks – Number of emails that were sent during the period that were clicked. This column counts only the first time that the email was clicked.

• Click rate – Percentage of emails that were sent during the period that were clicked

• Cumulative clicks – Total number of emails that were sent during the period that were clicked. This column counts multiple clicks from the same recipient.

• Complaint deliveries – Total number of emails delivered to domains for which complaints were received. For example, if you sent 300 emails to example.com and one of those emails received a spam complaint, the number listed here would be 300.

• Unique complaints – Number of unique spam complaints your account received during the time interval you defined. Unique complaints means one complaint per subscriber per email, even if that subscriber complained multiple times about one message.

• Cumulative complaints – Total number of spam complaints your account received during the time interval you defined. Every time a subscriber complains, this number increases.

• Complaint rate – Percentage of your emails that received spam complaints during the time interval you defined.

• Unique unsubscribes – Number of users who marked email as "spam" in their email client.

• Cumulative unsubscribes – Total number of unsubscribes your account received during the time interval you defined.

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Partner-integrated reporting

For a partner-integrated PIE campaign, all metrics such as Sends, Open Rate, Click-Through Rates, etc. are exposed in your ESP’s campaign reporting system. Contact your ESP regarding how to access this data.

Reports

You can view the number of reviews that you receive from the PIE campaign by using the Reviews reports. The

Campaign IDcolumn in this report indicates the source of a review. Reviews that were submitted via theWrite a Reviewlink in a PIE feature a campaign ID value ofBV_PIE, as the following image shows.

Viewing transaction data received for ROI beacon

When you implement the ROI beacon, you will be able to see test data based on transactions in the Bazaarvoice portal. Navigate toSettings > Configuration Settings: ROI Beacon / PIE Tag Testing. You can see records from transaction data in the tables with field names and values. The following values are possible:

• Red: empty required fields - this needs to be corrected

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• Green: required or recommended fields are populated with data. No action required.

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Additional technical details

Sending PIE based on feeds

If maintenance-free PIE is not implemented, Bazaarvoice will also accept an XML feed with transactions in order to send out PIEs.

PIE campaigns can be implemented by using either of the following integration methods:

• White-label – Full-service option in which Bazaarvoice delivers PIE messages in conjunction with an

industry-leading email service provider (ESP). Clients are not required to engage with or establish an account or contract with this provider.

• Partner-integrated – With this option, Bazaarvoice triggers PIE messages through existing integrations with a short list of industry-leading ESPs. Your ESP might require additional fees to implement a partner-integrated PIE campaign. Contact Bazaarvoice for a list of supported ESP partners.

Bazaarvoice requires a regularly scheduled interaction-data feed to power either of these integration methods. For more information, seeFile typeson page 28.

Creating PIE feeds

Data from your online interactions must be sent to Bazaarvoice according to the requirements that this section identifies.

If you collect email addresses during a purchase transaction in your brick-and-mortar store, you can send us this purchase data for PIE delivery as long as the feed meets the requirements listed in this section.

Tapping into this data source has two advantages:

• Significantly increase review volume – some clients have seen a 2x increase in review submissions

• Introduce offline customers to your online experience

The PIE interaction-data feed for non-transactional PIEs can, at a minimum, contain a list of email addresses of the intended PIE recipients.

File types

Data sent to Bazaarvoice for PIEs, is referred to as the interaction-data feed. This feed must be in one of the following file formats:

• An XML file (preferred format)

• A tab-delimited text file

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• YourSiteName_OrderData_20120928.xml

If you intend to send multiple feeds a day, add a unique character to the file name. For example:

• YourSiteName_InteractionData1_20120928.xml

• YourSiteName_InteractionData2_20120928.xml

Interaction data feed file

As an XML document, the interaction data feed file begins with a root node of<Feed xmlns="http://www.bazaar¬ voice.com/xs/PRR/PostPurchaseFeed/5.6" >, and each transaction in the feed features its own<Interaction>

element under the root. Transaction-related metadata appears as children elements like<TransactionDate>under

the appropriate transaction.

The following example shows the general structure of a simplified XML interaction feed that exhibits all possible elements: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <Feed xmlns="http://www.bazaarvoice.com/xs/PRR/PostPurchaseFeed/5.6"> <Interaction> <TransactionDate>...</TransactionDate> <EmailAddress>...</EmailAddress> <UserName>...</UserName> <UserID>...</UserID> <Locale>...</Locale> <Products> <Product> <ExternalId>...</ExternalId> <Name>...</Name> <ImageUrl>...</ImageUrl> <Price>...</Price> </Product> </Products> </Interaction> </Feed>

Utilize the following best practices when you create an interaction data feed file (XML interaction feed):

• Interaction dates must conform to the XML dateTime format. For example:

2010-10-10T11:11:11.000

• Ensure that the first line of your feed adheres to the following format:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

• The standard character-encoding scheme, such as UTF-8 or Windows-1252, must match the scheme that you use for any special characters in the feed.

• If you do not have a value for a particular field, omit the field from your feed. Do not include the field with a blank value.

Validating XML interaction feeds

You can validate your XML interaction feeds using a local validator such as XMLBeans before submitting them to Bazaarvoice. To do so, follow these steps:

1. Visithttp://xmlbeans.apache.org/and install XMLBeans (installation steps will vary by operating system and platform).

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2. Save a copy of the Bazaarvoice schema you are attempting to validate against on your local machine. To do this, visit the site defined in the xmlns (For example:http://www.bazaarvoice.com/xs/PRR/PostPurchase¬ Feed/5.6) and save the output as an XSD file on your machine.

3. From there, you will be able to use the command line to call XMLBeans to validate your file. Full documentation oftheXMLBeanscommandlinetoolscanbefoundhere:http://xmlbeans.apache.org/docs/2.0.0/guide/con¬ ValidationWithXmlBeans.html#command_line_validation

Example:svalidate schema.xsd localfile.xml

Data fields for transactional PIEs

The following table identifies the required or recommended fields for transactional PIEs: Description Required? Best practice for PIE? Field

The purchase, shipping, or other interaction date. Bazaarvoice supports the following date formats:

• yyyy-MM-ddTHH:mm:ss(2012-09-21T11:36:47)

• yyyy-MM-ddTHH:mm:ss.SSS(2012-09-21T11:36:47.384)

• yyyy-MM-ddTHH:mm:ssZ(2012-09-21T11:36:47.0500)

Yes, if using send delay Yes

Transaction¬ Date

Controls the language-specific email template that is used, as shown by the following examples:

• en_USfor English

• es_USfor Spanish

Yes, if supporting PIE in multiple languages Yes Locale (includes language and country information)

Email address of customer. Must be in a valid format. Yes

Yes

EmailAddress

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Description Required? Best practice for PIE? Field

Customer's user ID, typically created during an online transaction. This value is encoded into the Bazaarvoice user authentication string (UAS).

The user ID in the interaction-data feed must match the user ID that is passed to Bazaarvoice during the

review-submission process (as part of your ratings and reviews implementation). This field can be blank on purchase records for which a user ID was not generated during the checkout process, such as a guest purchaser.

If the same user ID occurs in the same feed more than once with different email addresses, the user ID will be set to null and a warning is printed to the log file.

This field should be omitted if using Bazaarvoice hosted authentication.

No Yes

UserId

User's first name or nickname created by the customer on an online account. This field can be used to personalize the email greeting.

Yes if you want to:

• auto-populate the nickname field on the submission form

• address the email recipient by their user name in the PIE (example, “Hi Vicki”) Yes

UserName

The following fields apply to each product or service in the interaction. The maximum number of products that will be listed on a PIE is five.

Description Required? Best Practice for PIE? Field

Must match the external product ID for the item that is sent to Bazaarvoice in your product-catalog data feed. Yes

Yes

ExternalId

(product)

Product thumbnail will be displayed in the email template. Always provide the full URL including "http://www". If not provided, it will be retrieved from your current product database.

Yes

If you cannot provide a URL to the image, a customizable "no image available" graphic is displayed.

Yes

ImageUrl

(product)

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Description Required? Best Practice for PIE? Field

Will be used in the email template. If not provided, it will be retrieved from your current product database. In XML feeds, it puts names in CDATA sections:<![CDA¬

TA[Your_Product_Name]]>

Replace special characters with the HTML entity number equivalent (®_{= ®)}

Yes Yes

Name(product)

Used to control the order in which products appear within a given email (i.e. list highest value product first). Should be a decimal number with no currency symbols, e.g., "20.99", "40.00"

No, but recommended for VIP PIE

Yes

Price

Data fields for non-transaction PIEs

The following table identifies the required or recommended fields for non-transaction PIEs: Description Required? Best practice for PIE? Field

The purchase, shipping, or other interaction date. Bazaarvoice supports the following date formats:

• yyyy-MM-ddTHH:mm:ss(2012-09-21T11:36:47)

• yyyy-MM-ddTHH:mm:ss.SSS(2012-09-21T11:36:47.384)

• yyyy-MM-ddTHH:mm:ssZ(2012-09-21T11:36:47.0500)

Yes, if using send delay Yes

Transaction¬ Date

Controls the language-specific email template that is used, as shown by the following examples:

• en_USfor English

• es_USfor Spanish

Yes, if supporting PIE in multiple languages Yes Locale (includes language and country information)

Email address of customer. Must be in a valid format. Yes

Yes

EmailAddress

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Customer's user ID, typically created during an online transaction. This value is encoded into the Bazaarvoice user authentication string (UAS).

The user ID in the interaction-data feed must match the user ID that is passed to Bazaarvoice during the

review-submission process (as part of your ratings and reviews implementation). This field can be blank on purchase records for which a user ID was not generated during the checkout process, such as a guest purchaser. If the same user ID occurs in the same feed more than once with different email addresses, the user ID will be set to null and a warning is printed to the log file.

This field should be omitted if using Bazaarvoice hosted authentication.

No Yes

UserId

User's first name or nickname created by the customer on an online account. This field can be used to personalize the email greeting.

Not required unless you want to:

• auto-populate the nick name field on the submission form

• address the email-recipient by their user name in the PIE (example, “Hi Vicki”)

Yes

UserName

The following fields apply to each non-transaction event you want to list on a PIE. The maximum number of events that will be listed on a PIE is five.

Must match the external product ID for the item that is sent to Bazaarvoice in your product-catalog data feed.

No, but recommended Yes

ExternalId

(product)

Product thumbnail will be displayed in the email template. Always provide the full URL including "http://www". If not provided, it will be retrieved from your current product database. No, but recommended Yes ImageUrl (product)

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Will be used in the email template. If not provided, it will be retrieved from your current product database. In XML feeds, it puts names in CDATA sections:<![CDATA[Your_Prod¬ uct_Name]]>

Replace special characters with the HTML entity number equivalent (®_{= ®)}

Name(product)

Used to control the order in which products appear within a given email (i.e. list highest value product first). Should be a decimal number with no currency symbols, e.g., "20.99", "40.00"

Price

Uploading PIE feeds

Note

This section only applies to clients who are implementing feed-based PIE. If you are implementing maintenance-free PIE, you can ignore this section.

You will need the following values to upload your interaction data feed file to the Bazaarvoice SFTP location. The following is an example, contact Bazaarvoice support if you do not know the values of the various credentials listed here:

• Staging server –sftp-stg.bazaarvoice.com

• Production server –sftp.bazaarvoice.com

• Secure user name –example

• Secure password –password123123123

• Directory –ppe/inbox

The following image shows the location of this directory.

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Frequency of interaction-data feed

You can specify the frequency with which the interaction-data feed is sent to Bazaarvoice as long as you do not send more than one feed every 24 hours. Bazaarvoice recommends that you schedule the feed to run daily.

Scheduling the interaction-data feed and PIE

You can determine how soon after an interaction to send a PIE to a customer for feedback on your products or services. After you determine a schedule for your PIEs, you can send Bazaarvoice the interaction-data feed anytime from the interaction event until 24 hours before the delivery date of the PIE.

Bazaarvoice recommends the following schedule:

• Upload PIE feed once daily.

• Delay sending the data feed to Bazaarvoice by 20 days from the date of the interaction (assuming you will follow the recommendation for delivering PIE 21 days after interaction date).

Bazaarvoice sends a PIE for every record in your interaction-data feed. If you are concerned about sending a PIE to customers who have canceled products, you can remove canceled items from the interaction-data feed before delivering it to Bazaarvoice.

• Deliver PIE 21 days after interaction date to allow for delivery time as well as time for the customer to experience the product or service. The timeframe is configurable.

The following table lists the scheduling options for PIE.

Recommended value* (default) Possible values

Option

Daily Daily or weekly

Frequency of interaction-data feed sent to Bazaarvoice

21 days One to several days

Number of days between interaction event and PIE delivery

8 days One to several days

Number of days between initial PIE delivery and follow-up email

Five products or services 1 to n

Maximum number of products or services listed on a PIE

* If you do not specify values for the above options, the defaults listed will be used (see the Recommended value column).

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Example scenarios

The following image illustrates a scenario in which a client sends Bazaarvoice the interaction-data feed 24 hours before a PIE is scheduled for delivery to customers.

The following image illustrates a scenario in which a client sends Bazaarvoice the interaction-data feed shortly after the interaction date.

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Post-interaction reference guide