What's New in NCR Customer Connect

New Features released in NCR Customer Connect:

October 14, 2020

API connections to Microsoft Azure and MTA changed to use TLS 1.2 protocol

October 22, 2019

Custom validation added to input fields, based on customer input, to prevent XSS attack

June 26, 2019

Added SMS Functionality - Ability to create, schedule and send SMS campaigns
Added functionality for support to enable SMS Feature
Added support for Canadian mobile numbers
Created new / Updated existing campaign reports to include SMS campaign data
An updated version of TinyMCE editor
Fix for Devexpress popup control with Chrome Version 61.0.3163.100 (and above)
Added enhanced security feature to prevent Cross-site scripting and Cross-frame scripting vulnerability
Added generic error page and redirect unhandled errors to the custom error page
Upgraded hardware for all servers

October 11, 2017

Updated Google custom search API to Version 2.0
Fixed issue of randomly happening zero email counts for campaign

June 12, 2017

Optimized the display of the Uploaded Contact list
Updated Facebook API reference from version 2.0 to 2.3

January 25, 2016

Speed improvements applied to the email scrubber to improve delivery time of emails.
New image uploader allows the upload of multiple images using a zip file.
More data provided on bounced email addresses (failure code & short description) to better understand why a contact didn't receive an email.
TinyMCE text editor upgraded resolving several email client compatibility issues.

August 17, 2015

New segment Days Since Email Engagement:
- Allows you to target contacts who display engagement with marketing emails within a specific time period. Targeting contacts whose engagement is less than 60/180 days helps increase email delivery and open rates because these contacts have displayed interest in your message(s).
- Cleanup & manage lists by sending Reconfirm emails to those who haven't displayed email engagement in over 180 days. Add an incentive to the Reconfirm email to win them back so they re-subscribe. Check out this article for details, under the topic Email Engagement.
- You may use this segment rule alone or with other segments, on Campaign/Step 4, to decrease the emails sent to spam traps (dead/unused email addresses).
Email alerts were added to share when a high number of spam complaints or hard bounces occur. These alerts are received when:
- 1 of 1000 or .1% of emails cause a spam complaint in a single email submission.
- More than 5% of emails are hard bounced in a single email submission.
Soft bounce data has been added to Campaign Results for additional email delivery feedback. It originally provided hard bounce data only, making it difficult to understand delivery percentage.

April 27, 2015

Features to help you increase your reach!

Subscribe app for Facebook allows Facebook Followers to subscribe to your business without having to leave Facebook
Auto post & schedule email to social media - you may also select the image shared in the post
- Social Media Engagement Results
Step 8 - Channel Selection - provides ability to post email to social media only

Other:

Profile configuration added to the Dashboard Upload Status
Choose the location of the whitelist message in emails
Ability to choose the image shared on Facebook when recipients share their email on social media
Purchase Amount Percentile segment calculates in 1% increments instead of 10%

November 5, 2014

Confirmed Opt-In - Enable this feature to require new & current subscribers to confirm their subscription, which also assists with adhering to the Canadian Anti-Spam Law (CASL).
Simple way to determine which emails are active
Selecting the "view as webpage" link (found at the top of emails) now displays the email's subject line on the web browser tab, instead of NCR Customer Connect. Check it out today!

June 4, 2014

Two-way communication
- Customer Connect begins sharing data with Counterpoint. For more information check out Sharing Data Between Applications.
- Start notifying Counterpoint of invalid email addresses - Learn More>>
DMARC - To control email spoofing (aka phishing), email providers are using DMARC technology to inform the internet of emails not sent from their servers. Those who use these email providers service in any 3rd party application find their emails being rejected by most email servers on the internet. Check out what we're doing and what you can do to try and prevent future emails from being rejected.

September 16, 2013

Modifications made to the subscribe header to make opting in/subscribing to your business less confusing (includes changes to the font size, color and content placement).
Enhance segmentation:Improvements made to decrease delays around viewing Results.
- We've increased the search length to 50 characters when segmenting by "Contact List Name - Contains - __".
- The Vendors segment has been alphabetized.
Improvements made to decrease delays around viewing Results.
Custom variables have been enhanced to include a merge tag name. The merge tag entered is displayed in the content editor/email preview, causing less confusion when using more than one custom variable in your email. Learn more>>
New article, found on the Help tab under General Help - "How changes to Gmail affect email delivery"

April 15, 2013

Create unique item groups in Customer Connect to assist with targeting the customers you want to reach.
Improvements added for software efficiency
Application updated to include new Support email address and phone number (email: [email protected] / phone: 800-932-1075)

July 30, 2012

Ability to delete unused segments - learn how>>
View BOUNCED email addresses - read more>>
Additional information has been added to the email footer, potentially leading new customers into your store. When a customer forwards an email to a friend this new footer allows the friend to subscribe to your email. The additional line in the footer will be on all emails after 7/30/12. Check out the additional line here: If this email was forwarded and you'd like to receive future emails, subscribe here.
A Reply-to email address has been added to the Email Sender section on Campaigns/Step 3 & Manage/Defaults. This is where email is sent when a recipient chooses to reply to one of your emails. By default this value is the same as the From email address. Change this data if you'd like replies to be sent to a different address.
New Help articles added:

Why does my email look bad in Outlook? read more>>
How do ISPs know which emails are 'good' and which are 'bad'? read more>>

April 6, 2012

NCR Customer Connect hosts your images on a Content Delivery Network (CDN), speeding up the delivery of images in your email and providing an image URL that's easier to remember and read. For details on how to setup your folder on the CDN, click here.
With the addition of a CDN, some additional rules apply to image deletion. Click here for more information.
New segments available for Date Profile Codes: Days Until & Months Until These segments allow you to do date math. Review the examples found in Segmenting Your Contacts Using NCR Counterpoint Customer Profile Codes - located under #3 (Counterpoint V7 or NCR Counterpoint SQL links).
Thumbnails have been added to templates you create, making template selection easier since you can see them without having to open each one. Templates can be found under the MyTemplates tab on Manage/Templates or Campaigns/Step 5. When saving a template we display 'creating thumbnail', after pressing refresh the thumbnail is created as seen below.
Campaign Results have been improved and now includes the total purchases made with a coupon or promotion code, found under the Redeems column. Previously, the number displayed on the screen included the total amount saved by the customer.

February 24, 2012

Searchable knowledge base - found at the very top of the page
New Upload Status Alert
Screen Timeout Log In
Email & Segment Criteria preview available on Step 2
Expand your ability to target your email list. Check out Step 8 for the additions.
- Never Send to the Same Recipient Twice has been moved from Step 2 to 8 to give you a single, consolidated place to manage how often an email is sent to a recipient within a segment.
Additions to text editor
- More font sizes - review 'Font Size' in the article
- Spell Check Function - review 'Toggle Spell Checker' in the article
Export Results to .PDF - new option located next to 'Export to .CSV'

January 21, 2012

New tool added - Address Scrubber
Troubleshooting tips added for Status Alerts
Company Country added to Email Sender on Step 3 and Manage/Defaults, making the company address compatible for international merchants.
Additional segments available:

Contact List
Contact List Name
Country
Customer Category Code
Customer Type
Days Since Opt In
Loyalty Program Code
Vendor

New Text Editor for building email content
Improved color palette to choose just the right colors for your email
Option added to Step 8 to improve email delivery
Ability to view number of contacts, email addresses, and number of unscrubbed address on the Manage/Lists page
Additional sections added to the Manage/Defaults page - Advanced & Additional Email Options
Ability to delete custom variables
Click here for release details and information about additional help articles

October 29, 2011

Additions to the Manage/Contacts: Ability to create custom variables for each store
- Added the contact's street address to the exported CSV file, making direct mail marketing available.
- Added a "Company" column to the exported CSV file, which provides you the company the contact belongs to (useful for multi-company users only)
New segment types available on Step 4/Select Recipients: Added a "select" option on the view templates screen

Customer Store - useful for users with more than one store (available to CounterPoint SQL users only)
Ticket Item Number - partial and exact matches
Ticket Item Number List - exact matches for more than one item number
E-commerce categories - now available to CounterPoint V7 users too

Add a "select" option on the view templates screen
Variables organized differently - tree view, similar to category selection
New variables available:
- Customer Profile Codes
- Store - mailing address & phone number
- Custom Variables - variables created on the Manage/Variables page
Marketing flags available on the CounterPoint POS when creating the customer record. These flags set the contact's opt in/out dates in CustomerConnect. Examples added on how emails look when posted to Facebook or Twitter
- In V7, the flag is labeled "Marketing?"
- In V8, the flag is labeled "Opt-out from marketing emails"
Continue making performance improvements
Multi-Company functionality (available to CounterPoint SQL users only)

September 7, 2011

Performance improvements that speed up navigation in NCR Customer Connnect
Default to "Active" contacts on the Manage/Contacts page - hides opt outs & invalid email addresses
New message on Step 8 - Recipient count is zero
Ability to segment on Ecommerce categories
An easier way to delete/unsubscribe a large number of email addresses at once - review delete instructions
New "Add Empty List" function on the Manage/Lists page for adding a new subscriber list option - review step 2 of this article for details
Additional instructions/examples added to help articles:

July 19, 2011

June 5, 2011

New banner categories added. Images include:

Father's Day
First day of Summer
Summer Vacations: Seasonal
Independence Day

New link added to the Log In page that provides instructions on how to retrieve a forgotten Log In E-mail Address or Password
Additions made to the Manage/Contacts tab
- Ability to view Segments and Imported Lists
- Ability to view more than 10 email addresses per page
Ability to add variables on the Email Subject Line Ability to export tickets that are attributed to a campaign or email
- New variable "Customer Number" added to variables drop down box
Provide the ability to select "Use Default Email Settings" on Campaigns/Step 3 Edit Settings
Image enhancements:

Export Results to CSV
Navigating through the Results tab
Arial added as the default font for all email content sections

March 28, 2011

New banner categories added. Images include: Cinco de Mayo

Mother's Day
Memorial Day
Weddings: seasonal
Graduation: seasonal

Social Media "Share" and "Follow" options available
Links Clicked and Social Media Tracking Results
New Segmentation Options

Last Purchase Amount
Customer Store
Ticket Item Description
Has Purchased From Item Subcategory

Add ##Company Email# variable
Dashboard Status Alert for CounterPoint data missing over 48 hours
Managing Default Email Settings

February 28, 2011

Integration for Counterpoint V7 for Linux
New banner categories added. Images include:

St. Patrick's Day
Easter/Passover
Photograph

Managing Loyalty programs with Set & Forget campaigns
New segmentation options

NCR Counterpoint Customer profile codes
Loyalty Program Name
Item Category Last Purchase Date

Option to send email to recipients only once - for Set & Forget emails
Ability to export recipient list on Campaigns/Step 4 Select Recipients
Automated expiration dates for Set & Forget emails

February 4, 2011

Newsletter template with Table of Contents
View email open data
New holiday templates added for February

December 10, 2010

November 20, 2010

Integration with Counterpoint Version 7 for Windows
Add your logo to opt-in and opt-out web pages
View email addresses in recipient segment lists
Manage/Edit contact email addresses
New pre-loaded email campaigns
- 1 - Welcome New Customer email with Image
- 3 - 2010 Winter Holiday emails

October 11, 2010

SPAM Checker
Crop and Resize Images
Segment by Loyalty Point balance

September 28, 2010

Welcome to NCR Customer Connect. We are excited to release our new email marketing product designed specifically for retailers. Integration with the NCR Counterpoint POS and NCR Counterpoint Online ecommerce solutions provides features that can uniquely help you to maximize the impact of your marketing campaigns on your business.

Check out the help and resource topics throughout the application to learn more about features available in our first release. To suggest a feature, visit the Help tab.