Customer and Subscription Management Overview

Regardless of whether you are using MEP for simple, one-off messaging or more sophisticated and longer term customer services, a fundamental aspect for all campaigns is customer management. MEP supports all aspects of customer management and regulatory compliance through a flexible range of automatic and manual features. These include:

  • Sophisticated end user mailing lists, known as subscriptions in MEP, available through the Subscriptions tab. These can automatically trigger services.
  • Flexible service handlers to add and remove end users from subscriptions. These handlers can create subscriptions on-the-fly and select a subscription based on end user information (using MEP expression language).
  • Ability to customize messages and campaigns to each end user through built-in and custom user variables (part of MEP expression language). Built-in variables include details like the user's mobile number and mobile operator. Custom variables give you a limitless ability to gather and store any additional end user details. You can gather user details automatically through a service, or include them when uploading mobile numbers to a subscription.
  • Ability to view end user specific interactions through tools available on the Utilities tab, and more generic data through reports available in the Statistics tab.

Subscriptions operations also exists for managing mailing lists programmatically; see Making Subscription Requests.

View the video!

Watch to see a high level overview of mailing lists and subscriptions in MEP, and how to create a simple mailing list.

What are subscriptions?

Subscriptions in MEP are sophisticated end user mailing lists, and the foundation of customer management. You can easily send messages to list members, such as promotions, reminders, and other content that might be a part of your campaigns; and also restrict access to special offers or other services based on list membership.

Subscriptions are configured in the Subscription tab of MEP. From here you can create, edit, and delete subscriptions, as well as manually add, remove, and download end user identifiers and user variables. Depending on the subscription type you select, the subscription can also automatically trigger services, meaning that you can automate almost all interaction with end users.

Subscriptions are grouped into subscription collections for easier management. A collection needs to exist before you can create a subscription.

Subscription types

When creating a new subscription, you will need to choose a subscription type. Each subscription type has some automation and options that can help you manage your end users and campaigns.

The subscription types are:

  • Mailing list — Stores a passive list of subscribed end users. There is no automated messaging or service triggering. This list is ideal for campaigns where you want to control all messaging. This is also the only type of subscription that you can set as protected.
  • Global subscription — Triggers a service at a regular interval. This is useful for campaigns that send out regular content, like a daily weather alert or traffic update.
  • User schedule subscription — Triggers a service at a regular interval, based on when the end user joined the list. This could, for example, be useful for triggering services that reward an end user for the length of time they have signed up to a campaign, or for sending reminders.

Protected subscriptions

Protected subscriptions are "Mailing List" subscriptions that are protected from a range of actions that would normally remove end users from the subscription. This is useful if you want to maintain a list of end users who have opted out of a service or are eligible for a free service.

In particular, an end user will remain in the subscription even when:

  • The Unsubscribe handler is triggered to remove the end user from all subscriptions.
  • You remove end users using the "Unsubscribe Users" tool in the Utilities tab.

End users are only removed when:

  • Explicitly removed using the subscription's properties page "Remove Users" tool.
  • The Unsubscribe handler is configured to remove end users only from that subscription.
  • For US subscriptions only, when MEP is informed by the mobile operator that the mobile number has been disconnected from service.

Only "Mailing List" subscriptions can become protected subscriptions.

To create a protected subscription, create a new Mailing List subscription (or edit an existing subscription). In the properties page of the mailing list, under Subscription Details, select the Protection check box.

US deactivated numbers

The US mobile operators regularly inform OpenMarket about mobile numbers that have been disconnected from service.

When this occurs, OpenMarket removes any instances of the end user from all subscriptions within MEP. This includes end users in protected subscriptions; as the mobile number no longer exists, there is no benefit to storing it for blacklist (or other) purposes.

Users are removed regardless of whether they may have an email address identifier or any user variables associated with them.

For more information, see Handling Deactivated Phone Numbers.

If your account has been provisioned by your OpenMarket Account Manager, you can access MEP Deactivated Users reports through Reporting Insights on Customer Center. These reports return data about MSISDNs deactivated from MEP subscriptions.

  • Daily Detailed MEP Deactivated Users Report: This report returns details about the total number of deactivated users for the past 24 hours from the current date as they relate to subscription lists within MEP.
  • Daily MEP Deactivated Users Count Report: This report returns the total counts of deactivated users for the last 24 hours from the current date as they relate to subscription lists within MEP.

You can also generate a custom report containing only the data you want to see. For more information on these reports, see MEP Deactivated Users.