Using Offers

This chapter provides an overview and discusses how to create offers.

Understanding Offers

A PeopleSoft Marketing offer represents the way in which a particular product or service being offered as part of a marketing campaign activity. In other words, the offer is not the product or service itself, but some sort of discount or product giveaway that is designed to encourage customers to buy. Each activity can have only one offer. Price Rules associated with the offer define the discount or giveaway structure.

Offer details are carried through the entire transaction chain. For example, if the offer is associated with a telemarketing activity, the offer details pass to the PeopleSoft Sales application as leads are created, and to the PeopleSoft Order Capture application when sales are made. This continuity ensures that your customers receive the intended discounts or bonuses.

Offers can also be presented to customers either associated with a marketing activity or as a standalone offer, , and their reactions to the offers can be tracked. Third-party optimization tools can be used to make decisions as to which offers are most appropriate for a given customer. Other than marketing activities, customers can be presented with offers from:

Case.
Order Capture.
360–Degree View.

See PeopleSoft Enterprise CRM 9 Call Center Applications PeopleBook.

See PeopleSoft Enterprise CRM 9 Order Capture Applications PeopleBook.

See Interactions and 360-Degree Views.

Offer Statuses

Offers pass through structured life cycles. At each stage in its life cycle, an offer has a status. Status changes must follow predefined status rules. You can use the status rules that are delivered with your system, or you can redefine status rules on the Status Rules page.

Status	Description
New	Offer has just been created or imported.
In Review	Offer is being reviewed for approval.
Declined	Offer was not approved for use in this campaign activity.
Planning	Offer was approved for use in this campaign activity and is now in development.
Completed	Offer is defined and ready for use.
Archive	Offer has been set to be no longer usable.

Understanding Offer Presentation

When presenting offers, the system requests recommendations from third-party optimization engines that determine the best choice for a customer based on various criteria.

Offers can be presented to customers in two ways:

Passive offers require the user to click on an icon in order to view the offer.
Active offers pop up automatically on an agent's screen, their content based on which offers are the most appropriate for the given customer.

Both active and passive offers take the user to the same page—the only difference is how they are invoked.

Configuring the System to Allow Offer Management

Before you can use Offer Management, you must set up the third-party optimization engine and set up the appropriate AAF policies to activate passive and active offers.

Delivered with the application is an abstract wrapper class named OfferRecEngineAbstract. This class contains an abstract definition of the methods that Offer Management uses to communicate with the third-party optimization engine. Also included is the OfferRecEngineProd class, which extends the abstract wrapper class and contains implementations of actual communication with the third-party optimization engine. Because every customer's actual implementation is different, the methods in this class are mostly empty—you must supply the necessary code to integrate with your chosen third-party engine.

You can find additional information about the wrapper classes by searching for the extension reference ROF_REC_ENGINE at Setup CRM, Common Definitions, Component Configuration, Application Class Extensions.

See Setting Up PeopleSoft Enterprise Marketing and Telemarketing.

Passive Offers

In the case of passive offers, the user requests offer recommendations from the third-party optimization engine by clicking on a predefined button on a page. In the delivered applications, this button appears as either a “spinning dollar sign” on the page's toolbar (360-Degree View and Case) or in the middle of the page (Order Capture).

The button is available when the following conditions are met:

Configuration information is set to indicate that the customer is running a third-party optimization engine, or
The customer or contact on line to a call center has been targeted for a campaign-driven marketing promotion (this applies to passive offers presented from Order Capture only).
The appropriate AAF policy has been set: for example, for the icon to appear in the 360-Degree View toolbar, a policy must be configured using the action “Display Offer Icon in 360,” and for it to appear in the Case toolbar, a policy must be configured using the action “Upsell Configuration on Case.” Order Capture does not require an AAF policy to display the icon on the Order Capture page.

Note. The spinning dollar sign button is also available on the customer's 360-Degree View.

In order to perform retrieval of offer recommendations, additional AAF policies must be set up. For 360-Degree View and Case, a policy must be set up that uses the action “Display Offer Alerts.” The number of offer recommendations can be configured in the policy. For Order Capture, a policy must be set up that uses the action “Display Offers and Promotions.” On this policy, you can configure the number of offer recommendations as well as the option to use the third-party optimization engine to retrieve offer recommendations, retrieve campaign-driven marketing promotion, or use both.

After the agent clicks the button, the system returns recommendations (the number of which the user can configure) based on conditions set up in the AAF policy. The recommendations are returned in the form of a series of offer IDs, the details of which are displayed along with applicable campaign-driven promotions for which the customer has been targeted. From this page, the agent can:

View products and pricing rules associated with the offer.
Initiate either a branch script or a Real-Time Advisor script associated with the offer for the purposes of scripted selling.
Select products associated with an offer.
Accept an offer.
Reject an offer.
Register interest in an offer.

Active Offers

In the case of active offers, the system uses an AAF action to request offer recommendations from the third-party optimization engine automatically at multiple trigger points throughout the application. Additional AAF actions can be configured to invoke the request action from preconfigured trigger points whenever the policy conditions are met. For the 360-Degree View, Case, and Order Capture, you must set up a policy that uses the action “Display Offer Alerts.”

As in the passive offer, the system returns a user-configurable number of recommendations, in the form of offer IDs, based on conditions set up in the AAF policy. The AAF action initiates a pop-up window to display the details of the recommended offers. The pop-up window contains links that allow the user to view further details for each offer. Each link opens a subsequent page, from which the user can:

View products and pricing rules associated with the offer.
Initiate either a branch script or a Real-Time Advisor script associated with the offer for the purposes of scripted selling.
Select products associated with an offer.
Accept an offer.
Reject an offer.
Register interest in an offer.

Delivered AAF Actions

The following table shows the AAF actions that are delivered with Offers.

AAF Action	Description
Initiate Offer Rec Section	Initiates a new section with the third-party optimization engine for the given customer or contact.
Send Offer Session Data Update	Sends data updates to the third-party engine for the customer actions that might change during the call.
Display Offer Alerts	Requests a list of offer recommendations from the third-party optimization engine and displays the list in a pop-up window.
Display Offer Icon in 360	Displays the spinning dollar sign icon on the 360–Degree View toolbar.
Display Offers and Promotions	Generates a list of offer recommendations from the third-party optimization engine, from offers associated with marketing campaigns, or both.
Upsell Configuration on Case	Displays the spinning dollar sign icon on the Case toolbar. This action can be configured to use offers as the type of upsell this icon will represent. The offer configurable option is only be available if a third-party optimization engine is installed.

You will need to create AAF policies to use these actions.

See Working with Active Analytics Framework.

Offer Logging and Post-Presentation Flow

When a customer registers a reaction to an offer presented via the third-party system (for example, Accept or Decline), this reaction is logged. The following occurs:

The reaction (including customer ID, contact ID, offer ID, disposition of the offer, and the timestamp) is logged in the Offer History table and in an Offer History node in the 360-Degree View that shows offer history by disposition.
A message is sent to the third-party system to indicate the customer's disposition of the offer.

If the customer accepts the offer and there are related products associated with it, the system navigates to the Order Capture Screen, where the following occurs:

An order line is created for the product selected from the offer.
Pricing rules associated with the offer are applied to the order.
Order Capture tracks the offer by storing the Offer ID.

If an order is generated from an offer relating to a case, corresponding order details are tracked back to the originating case.

See PeopleSoft Enterprise CRM 9 Call Center Applications PeopleBook.

Creating Offers

In this section, we discuss how to:

Define a campaign offer.
Create a PeopleSoft Marketing Price Rule.
Attach notes to offers

Pages Used to Create Offers

Page Name	Object Name	Navigation	Usage
Manage Offers	RA_OFFER_DETAIL1	Marketing, Manage Offers, Offer	Define attributes that make up a campaign offer.
Create Price Rule - Select products, partners and discount	RA_PRICESET_PG	Click the Add Price Rule link on the Offer page when creating a new offer. Click the Update products and price rule link on the Offer page when editing an existing offer.	Specify the type of discount structure that applies to the offer and the products offered.
Create Price Rule - Define Price Breaks	RA_PRICE_BREAK	Click the Next button on the Create Price Rule - Select products, partners and discount page.	Define the discount structure of the offer.
Create Price Rule - Review and Save	RA_PRICE_BREAK3	Click the Next button on the Create Price Rule - Define Price Breaks page.	Confirm price rule selections before saving the definition.
Note	RA_OFFER_NOTE	Marketing, Manage Offers, Note	Write notes and attach them to offers.

Defining an Offer

Access the Manage Offers page.

When creating a new offer definition, the Manage Offers page enables you to enter basic information about the offer. Once the offer is created and saved, the page enables you to edit basic information and displays summary information about the product selection and discount detail.

Offer	Enter a name to uniquely identify the offer.
Type	Displays whether the offer is a Promotional Discount or a Communication offer. You specified the type on the Manage Offers search page. You cannot add the offer unless a type is selected.
Status	Enter the position of the offer in its life cycle
Owner	Enter or select the name of the person designated as the offer owner. By default, this field is filled in with the name of the currently signed-on user.
Objective	Select an objective for the offer.
Priority	Select a priority for the offer.
Control %	Specify a control percentage for the offer. This value is informational for the PeopleSoft Marketing system, but will be used by third-party tools to create “control group” scenarios (for example, to specify to the tool that it should only present the offer to 5% of the eligible customers).
Start Date and End Date	Enter the start and end dates that the offer is valid.
Internal Description	Enter a description of the offer that will only be viewed by internal personnel—the offer recipient will not see this description.
Price Rule	(Promotional Discount offer only) Displays information about the products and price rule for the offer.
Discount Detail	(Promotional Discount offer only) Displays information about the discount associated with the offer.
Update Products and Price Rule	(Promotional Discount offer only) Click to access the Create Price Rule wizard, where you can add or update products and price rules. Note. You cannot access the Create Price Rule wizard when the offer's Status is Complete or Archived.
Display Message	Enter a description of the offer that will be visible to the offer recipient.
Script Type	Select whether the script type is an Advisor dialog or a branch script.
Script Name	Select the name of the Advisor dialog or branch script you specified. This field appears when you select a Script Type.
Marketing Channels	Select a channel from the drop-down list. The available options vary depending on the offer type. For Promotional Discount, the choices are Telemarketing, Order Capture, Mail Correspondence, Sales Force, and Cross Sell. For Communication, the choices are Mail Correspondence and Cross Sell.
Add Channels	Click to specify marketing channels to add to the Marketing Channels list.
Add All Channels	Click to add all available marketing channels to the list.
Transaction Context	Select an AAF Context to associate with the offer. This information indicates the contexts from which the offer can be recommended, and is used for tracking that point of contact (for example, the offer is presented from the Call Center). You can associate multiple AAF Contexts with an offer. The allowable contexts are: Case. Order Capture CI. 360-Degree View.
Add Context	Click this button to add an AAF Context to the list.
Add All Context	Click to add all the available AAF Contexts to the list.

Creating Price Rules

A price rule is the specification for price adjustments (discounts), applied to standard prices. You must associate one price rule with every offer.

Price rule definitions can be changed up to the point that the offer status is set to Completed and the offer is saved.

Selecting Your Discount Type and Offered Products

Access the Create Price Rule - Select products, partners and discount page.

Discount Type

Select the discount type that you want to associate with the offer. Marketing Discount Type options are:

Giveaway: Giveaway discounts take the form of in-kind giveaways, rather than cash breaks. That is, when a customer receives a giveaway discount, you give that customer some free product or a service and charge full price for the actual purchase.

Standard Discount: Standard discounts are flat discounts. Customers who purchase qualified amounts receive the same discount regardless of how many units of a product of service they buy.

Tiered Pricing: Tiered discounts vary based on the number of units of a product or service purchased. For example, you might give a five percent discount when a customer buys one to nine units, ten percent discount if they buy ten to twenty-four, and a fifteen percent discount if they buy twenty-five or more.

No Discount: Allows creation of offers with products that will not be presented with a discount. If the product selected has no discount, all customers will pay full price for the product regardless of the quantity ordered.

Note. Price Rules defined in PeopleSoft Marketing are used to define prices applied to products when orders are placed in response to a marketing offer. Orders are fulfilled through Order Capture processing which utilizes price rules not only from Marketing, but from Order Pricing as well. The discount types of Standard Discount and Tiered Pricing that are available in Marketing are not available in Order Pricing. Price rules created under marketing that use the Standard and Tiered discount types fall under the Cascading discount type in Order Pricing.

Product ID	Select the ID of the offered product.
Description	Displays the description of the selected product.
List Price	Displays the Inventory Business Unit and List Price of the selected product. You establish list prices using the Products Price page of the Price component under the Products CRM menu.
Partner Company	(Optional) Select the name of a partner company if you want to create a Price Rule keyed by Partner ID.

Defining Quantity Breaks and Price Adjustments

Access the Create Price Rule - Define Price Breaks page.

The discount type that you select in Step 1 determines the fields needed for Step 2. The following fields apply to all discount types except No Discount.

Note. This page does not appear when the discount type selected is No Discount.

Unit of Measure

Select the unit of measure you want to use for the offered product.

Low Quantity

Enter the minimum quantity of product to qualify for the promotional discount.

Upper Quantity

Enter the maximum quantity of product to qualify for the promotional discount.

Note. Enter a maximum quantity high enough that no order will exceed it.

The following fields apply to Standard and Tiered Pricing discount types.

Adjustment Type	Select the type of discount that you want to apply to the product price. Type options are: Amount: Select the amount option to deduct a fixed currency amount from the final product price. Percent: Select the percent option to calculate and deduct a percent amount from the final product price.
Percent	Enter a percent amount that you want deducted from the final product price when you select a Percent type.
Amount	Enter the currency amount that you want deducted from the final product price when you select an Amount type.
Currency Code	Select the currency code appropriate to your market when you select an Amount type. A currency code selection does not apply to the Percent type.

The following fields apply only to Giveaway discount types.

Description

Select the Promotional Product ID number of the product you are giving away as the promotional item.

Unit of Measure (Promotion)

Select the unit of measure used for the promotional product.

Quantity

Enter the quantity of promotional products to be given with the amount of product purchase. The Quantity amount corresponds to the Unit of Measure (promo prod) selection.

For example, if you want to give one box of T-shirts with the purchase of ten or more cases of fishing line, select Box as the Unit of Measure (promo prod) and 1 as the Quantity.

Reviewing and Saving Your Price Rule Definition

Access the Create Price Rule - Review and Save page.

Confirm your completed price rule definition and check for reasonableness. Check to make sure that the correct products are specified and that price adjustments are appropriate to the unit of measure.

Price rules created within PeopleSoft Marketing are available for use by PeopleSoft Order Capture processes only when the status of the offer is set to complete and saved.

Note. The Price Breaks grid does not appear if the No Discount discount type was selected.

Attaching Notes to Offers

Access the Offers - Note page.

Use the Offers - Note page to attach any notes related to the offer.

See Working with Notes and Attachments.

Presenting Offers

This section describes how to present an offer that has already been created.

Pages Used to Present Offers

Page Name	Object Name	Navigation	Usage
Offer	ROF_OFFERPRESENT	Click the spinning dollar sign icon in the 360–Degree View, Case, or other page where Offer Management has been set up. or Click an offer in a pop-up window that displays a list of offers.	View recommended offers and their details, and select one to present to a customer.

Page Name

Object Name

Navigation

Usage

Offer

ROF_OFFERPRESENT

Click the spinning dollar sign icon in the 360–Degree View, Case, or other page where Offer Management has been set up.

Click an offer in a pop-up window that displays a list of offers.

View recommended offers and their details, and select one to present to a customer.

Presenting Offers

Access the Offer page.

Recommended Offer

Displays a list of recommended offers (either selected through marketing promotions or optimized by the third-party optimization system based on customer information).

Score

This value indicates the “fit” of the offer to the customer. The score is assigned to the offer by the third-party optimization system, based on the likelihood that a given customer will accept the offer. Offers associated with campaign-driven promotions will show a score of zero. If duplicate offers exist (from a targeted promotion and suggestion by the third-party system), only the offer with the higher score (usually the third-party system suggestion) is shown.

Offer Details

The content of this section will vary depending on the type of offer selected. Some available offer types include:

Product offers.

Communications offers.

Promotional discount offers (including giveaways).