Organization Attributes

What are Organization Attributes?

This feature introduces snippets of reusable information - dates, urls, key words, and more - that can be inserted into multiple Knowledge Base understandings. When it comes to maintaining your Knowledge Base, these Organization Attributes mean you don't need to find and update several answers. Just update the value of an Organization Attribute (ex: Add/Drop Deadline) and all answers that reference it will automatically reflect this change.

View your Organization Attributes

1. Log in to the Mainstay platform and navigate to the Knowledge Base tool in the navigation bar.
2. Click on the Attributes tool in the sidebar.
3. This shows the list of Organization Attributes, including the Name, Type, Value, and the # Locations Used (that is, the number of Knowledge Base understandings or Scripts that reference this Attribute).
4. You can also Download your Organization Attributes from the ... menu in the top-right.

Import Organization Attributes

1. Click Import Attributes to launch the importer modal.
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2. Select a valid CSV file with the following columns:
   • ID (for matching to existing attributes)
   • Name
   • Type (URL | Email | Text | Date | Phone | Number)
   • Audience 1 ID
   • Audience 1 Value
   • ...
   • Audience N ID
   • Audience N Value
3. The Audience ID and Value pairs are optional columns. All other columns will be ignored.
4. After the upload, the modal will show a report of the number of attributes that were created or updated, as well as the number of validation errors.
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5. Click Download Error Report for additional details. You can correct them in this spreadsheet and re-upload it; the Error Details column will be ignored.

Add or Edit an Organization Attribute

1. From this list, click on an existing Attribute to edit it, or click the Add Attribute button in the sidebar to create a new one.
2. This slides out a drawer on the right.
3. Enter a display name in the Name field. This is what will appear in the list, when searching, and within the Knowledge Base.
4. Select a Field Type to ensure the value is properly validated. Available types are:
   • URL
   • Email
   • Text
   • Date
   • Phone
   • Number
5. Enter a Value. This is what contacts will see when they receive a message that contains an Attribute. (Note that if the value does not match the Field Type, a warning will appear.)
6. Click Save to submit your changes, or click Cancel or the X in the top-right to cancel.

Set Different Values for Different Groups

Some institutions have an additional feature available: Audience-specific values. In this section, you can define additional values for this Organization Attribute that are relevant for particular groups of contacts. If you do not have this feature enabled but would like it, please contact your Partner Success Manager or support@mainstay.com.

1. Click the + Add Audience-Specific Value to add a new row.
2. Enter a value in the Value field. Note that this uses the same data-type validation as the primary value field.
3. Select an Audience to determine which contacts should receive this value instead.
4. If you add multiple Audience-specific values, you can use the drag-and-drop handler on the right side to rearrange them.
   • Note that in some cases, a contact may meet the criteria for multiple Audiences. This sort order determines what value they receive for the Organization Attribute. That is, if the contact meets the criteria for the first listed Audience, then they'll get that value; if not, the next value, and so on. If they don't meet the criteria for any of the listed Audiences, then they will receive the primary / default value.
5. Click the - button to remove an Audience-specific value.
6. As before, click Save to submit your changes, or click Cancel or the X in the top-right to cancel.

An important note: in order to ensure timely message sending, there is some level of caching (~ 5 minutes) with Audiences. So if an Audience-specific Organization Attribute is used in a Campaign Script, we will use the cache to determine which Audiences each contact is in and therefore which Organization Attribute value to use. In practice, this means that changes during the Campaign - manual edits, imports, Save Actions, and more - may not propagate in time.

Also, these values are not available in Live Chat. The default value will be inserted instead.

Shorten URLs

For URL-type attributes, you can use the mainst.ai link shortener tool to condense long URLs down to shorter pieces of text. This is available for both the main value and Audience-specific values.

View a list of Knowledge Base answers containing an Organization Attribute

1. From this Organization Attribute drawer, you will also see a list of all Knowledge Base understandings that reference the Attribute.
2. If you click on one of these links, you will be taken to that Knowledge Base understanding.
3. Note that you can only delete an Attribute if it is not being used in any locations. To delete an Attribute, click the overflow menu (3 dots) in the top-right and select Delete Attribute.

View Attributes in the Knowledge Base or Scripts

1. Navigate to the Knowledge Base tool or Scripts tool and select the understanding or script you wish to edit.
2. In both the list and the editing view, you will see Organization Attributes as a pink rectangle containing a puzzle-piece icon and the Attribute Name.
3. From this view, you can verify the value of an Attribute by hovering over it.
4. Clicking on the arrow icon will open the editing drawer for this Attribute in a separate tab.

Insert an Attribute into a Knowledge Base understanding or Script

1. Open the editing drawer for the Knowledge Base understanding or Script you wish to change.
2. Click the puzzle-piece icon in the lower-left corner of the text area of the KB answer or Script message.
3. This pops open a searchable list of your Organization Attributes. Click on the one you'd like to use.
4. This closes the searchable list and inserts to the Attribute into the text area, at your cursor.
5. You can delete an Attribute like any other text, by selecting it or placing your cursor after it and pressing the backspace or delete key.
6. Note that the character counter does include the Attribute; it counts the number of characters in the Value of the Attribute, since this is what is ultimately sent out in a message.

See Attributes in Conversations

1. Navigate to the Conversations tool and select a message thread.
2. Click on the "Understanding" dropdown on a message that was handled by the bot.
3. This opens the expanded view, which includes a card displaying the name of the Understanding. Clicking this will slide open the Understanding drawer.
4. Below this is the full message that was sent to the student.
5. If any Attributes were evaluated in generating this message, there will also be an option to view them. An Attribute will again appear as a pink rectangle containing a puzzle-piece icon and the Attribute Name.