Blog

In our final post of the 1.3.0 release we show you the value of up-sell.

What’s the best way to get someone to upgrade? Show them the value.

With Userplane’s integrated up-sell flow your free users will see the value of your site and receive an immediate call to action.

On a regular dating site a free user receives countless promotions listing all the reasons to upgrade. Soon these promotions become wallpaper for that free user.

But what if you served the free user value via another user who wants to connect with them via chat? With Userplane’s integrated chat, a free user can receive a chat request from another user and with a few quick clicks can quickly upgrade and begin chatting with the person who initiated the chat request. THAT is showing the value.

As mentioned in our last post, in the Userplane Dashboard you have the controls to define roles and preferences based on the various users on your site. Maybe the above example would work for your site. Or maybe you want to let everyone chat but only allow premium users to make requests or see activity feeds. Or maybe free users can only text chat while premium users can user video chat. Not only can you create roles and preferences but Userplane provides various incentives you can leverage for an up-sell.

You can also measure which of the above scenarios work best for your site with our enhanced analytics coming soon within the Dashboard.

In this second post of our three part series highlighting the key features of our 1.3.0 release we tell you why Userplane’s Role-Based Preference System is a game changer for dating/social networking sites.

You now have the power to customize your website’s Userplane experience with Roles and Preferences. These optional settings can be used to classify users, grant or restrict privileges, determine the inter-relationships that users have with one another, and adjust application characteristics. These settings are based on the roles that have been assigned to users (or have been paid for by users) on your site. These can be easily customized to suit your business goals by logging into your Dashboard account, adding or selecting the domain you wish to modify, and visiting the Settings tab within the Configure section.

User Roles

The introduction of user Roles to the Userplane experience allows for classifying different types of users. Your Userplane account already has a single role, simply entitled Default. This role initially applies to all users, and has full privileges to utilize all default aspects of the Userplane experience(s) you’ve chosen for your website. In your Dashboard account, under Configure / Settings, you’ll see the Default role and all of it’s associated preference settings in a single column. Additional roles can be created, and appear next to the Default role, with their own column of preference settings.

Custom Roles

If the Default role alone is not sufficient to achieve your website’s business objectives, you can create additional roles. For instance, you might want to have a “non-premium” user with limited privileges, and a “premium” user with full privileges. The existing Default role could serve as the base for the “premium” role, as the Default role already has full privileges. You could then create a new role, called Free, to serve as the “non-premium” role, and turn off or reduce preference settings for that role, to restrict their privileges.

Preferences

The introduction of Preferences to the Userplane experience allows you to specifically tailor the use of Roles on your website. Not only that, Preferences can be used to grant and restrict user privileges, control user inter-relationships, provide an upgrade call-to-action, enable or disable site-wide application settings, customize locale text labels and messaging, and even setup custom sounds. By setting specific preferences for particular roles, you can control not only the user experience, but also, user inter-relationships. Just below are two examples covering the most common use cases for Roles and Preferences…

Example 1: Paid and Free Users

A common use case for Roles and Preferences follows the basic concept of a website with Free users who have restricted privileges, and Paid users, who have paid for full privileges. To dovetail Userplane with this concept, your first step is to visit your Dashboard account, and create the roles required. As mentioned above in the Roles section, the Default role can serve as the Paid role, since it is already fully privileged by default. You can create the Free role by clicking the New Role button.

Once the roles have been created, you can begin setting Preferences for each role. The first step is to set the Upsell URL path to your upgrade page, to provide link information for upgrade buttons within the Userplane experience. Add an upsell title and message as well, to be displayed when users do not have sufficient privileges to communicate with one another. Next, for the less privileged, Free user, you’ll want to restrict their ability to initiate, send, and receive chat messages – which are privileges reserved for paying users. To do so, find the Chat Initiate, Chat Send, and Chat Receive preferences, and set them to No. Those preferences are each accompanied by a “with Whom” preference, and those should be left as null. For the fully privileged, Paid user, leave the Initiate, Send, and Receive preferences set to Yes, and set the related “with Whom” preferences to Default, Free. This allows them to chat with both Default and Free users. “But wait a minute!” you might be thinking, “A Free user cannot receive, so why allow the Paid user to send messages to them?” This is done so that the Paid user can effectively nudge the Free user towards upgrading.

Given these privileges, Userplane will allow a Paid user to start and have a conversation with another Paid user. It will not allow a Free user to start a conversation with another Free user, nor with a Paid user. It will also not allow a Paid user to start a conversation with Free users. However, if a Paid user sends a Free user a message, even though the message will not be allowed to go through, Userplane will send each user a special note clarifying the inter-relationship between them. The Paid user will be informed that the user they are trying to contact needs to upgrade in order to chat with them. The Free user will receive a notification in Notify, telling them that another user would like to chat, but that they will need to upgrade in order to do so.

Example 2: Paid and Sponsored Users

Another common use case for Roles and Preferences allows for the idea of Sponsored users who have restricted privileges with exceptions, and Paid users, who have paid for full privileges. The setup for this scenario is almost exactly the same as Example 1, but with a few key differences. The Sponsored role preferences are set to allow chat sending and receiving, but only with the Paid / Default user, not other Sponsored users. This allows Paid users to communicate with anyone. It also allows Sponsored users to chat with Paid users, provided that the conversation is initiated by the Paid user. A Sponsored user is not allowed to initiate a conversation with the Paid user thereafter, nor with any other role on the site.

These two examples provide a peek into how the Userplane experience can be customized with Roles and Preferences. As the Userplane Dashboard and applications continue to evolve, additional preferences will be added.

Our 1.3.0 release is aptly named as it is comprised of three game changers, particularly for dating sites.

Up-sell: We have taken dramatic steps to improve visibility and control over conversation requests while integrating effective ways to prompt, execute and track an upgrade flow within the instant message experience. Your users now have so much more control over who they engage with on your site.

Notify: Userplane Notify bring real time updates to your users. Whether it’s an action taken by a friend on the site or an event trigger, our notifications make your site come alive for the user. These real time updates also help to drive your users around the site and help them discover other features of your site.

Role Based Preference System: Userplane’s one-of-kind preference system allows for granular control over features within the Userplane platform based on user roles. For example, you can establish different roles based on the different user levels within your site. And our configuration wizard makes it incredibly easy.

There is so much to say about each of these new features that one blog post will not do it. We will follow up this post soon with a blog post dedicated to each of these features.

Meanwhile, log in to your Dashboard to upgrade to 1.3.0!

Features and Issues Resolved for Release

  • SDK-258 – When a user is in an unauthorized state the user cannot access the roster list, their notification history is hidden, and the Presencebar displays “log in or sign up”
  • SDK-1114 – Blocked user status is not persistent
  • SDK-1147 – Message pane does not scroll to last message sent upon page load
  • SDK-1700 – Race condition, shows pending indicator for already received message, after closing and refreshing
  • SDK-1702 – Adding a user should not show the user twice
  • SDK-1858 – Create local block list for each Webchat Lite room joined (squelch)
  • SDK-1862 – Users with the same displayName cannot enter the same Webchat Lite room
  • SDK-1867 – After closing Webmessenger, the parent is unaware of current message history, and needs to ignore messages already received
  • SDK-1874 – Pending indicators on roster groups do not permanently dismiss upon clicking and viewing the messages
  • SDK-1875 – Multiple browser tabs are not receiving message broadcasts simultaneously
  • SDK-1879 – Clearing local storage breaks the subscription between two users
  • SDK-1924 – Refreshing in Internet Explorer 8 appears to break a user’s connection
  • SDK-1927 – Ellipsis behavior and positioning in tabs needs CSS work
  • SDK-1929 – User activity displays ‘Undefined’ for Internet Explorer 8 users
  • SDK-1942 – Users blocked via profile page links, are not blocked in the Buddylist
  • SDK-1946 – The ConnectClickHandler is not working
  • SDK-1952 – Enable event logging in the SDK
  • SDK-1984 – Webmessenger tabs are broken when launching a conversation
  • SDK-1986 – Presencebar disappears when the other user disconnects
  • SDK-1988 – Pending indicators do not appear for unfocused tabs receiving messages in Webmessenger
  • SDK-1989 – Presence status selector menu does not work
  • SDK-1990 – Users automatically connect after intentionally disconnecting, when refocusing the browser window
  • SDK-1992 – Setting block list to blank does not unblock everyone
  • SDK-1994 – Errors appear when disconnecting from live chat
  • SDK-1996 – Erroneous user join messages are shown in Webchat Lite when switching between tabs

Features and Issues Resolved for Release

  • SDK-1137 – Minimize / maximize state for groups in the roster should persist between page refresh
  • SDK-1279 – Roster items should be grouped by “online” status and then alpha ordered after inside those groups
  • SDK-1688 – Buddylist maximize state does not persist through page refresh
  • SDK-1792 – Add or Remove Buddy does not immediately move the user into the proper group in Chrome
  • SDK-1794 – Users on different servers are initially not able to successfully subscribe to one another
  • SDK-1812 – Stringify userIDs provided via custom IM launchers
  • SDK-1816 – Tall avatars show beneath the AV video pane
  • SDK-1820 – Adjust message notifications to acknowledge / remove pending state upon timeout
  • SDK-1849 – Create the ability for publishers to disable avatars
  • SDK-1850 – Add Brazilian Portuguese locale file
  • SDK-1851 – When 2 users join a room with the same displayName, Webchat Lite breaks
  • SDK-1869 – Recently received messages that have been read are triggering pending indicators in Presencebar when refreshing
  • SDK-1870 – Embedded Webchat Lite tabs take focus in the Presencebar upon refreshing
  • SDK-1871 – Group names are missing from the BuddyList roster
  • SDK-1880 – Only one message with pending indicator comes through after closing a Webchat Lite room for the first time
  • SDK-1881 – Group chat items in overflow need CSS polish
  • SDK-1884 – Only 1 message at a time appears in the message pane
  • SDK-1885 – Minimize buddylist button requires 2 clicks to minimize for the first time
  • SDK-1887 – Webchat Lite pending indicator inaccurate when minimized and performing a refresh
  • SDK-1888 – When a Webchat Lite room is closed and reopened, only the first unread message displays
  • SDK-1889 – Webchat Lite pending indicators in Buddylist disable after successive room closings
  • SDK-1890 – Closing and re-opening a Webchat Lite room prevents the message sender from seeing their own messages
  • SDK-1891 – User receives a pending indicator for their own message in Webchat Lite
  • SDK-1893 – Chrome user sees pending indicator next to wrong group in Buddylist
  • SDK-1900 – Presencebar minimizeLocation setting is not being honored
  • SDK-1901 – Custom containers need to be re-enabled
  • SDK-1902 – Message recipient does not see sender’s messages when users are on different servers
  • SDK-1903 – Message sender does not see recipient’s status in the message header
  • SDK-1904 – Webchat Lite history visible in other Webchat Lite rooms
  • SDK-1906 – Messages do not get delivered if a user refreshes or navigates
  • SDK-1907 – Close button is missing from Presencebar notifications
  • SDK-1908 – Advertisement widget is missing from Presencebar buddylist
  • SDK-1914 – In Internet Explorer 8, chat rooms present in the Presencebar will lose their group name upon refresh
  • SDK-1915 – The overflow button is missing in Presencebar, in Internet Explorer 8
  • SDK-1916 – Overflow menu positioning needs the ability to be customized via the embed
  • SDK-1919 – In the overflow menu, pending indicators have become decoupled from their menu item
  • SDK-1920 – Pending indicators are styled incorrectly for Presencebar in Internet Explorer 8
  • SDK-1921 – CSS class setters needed for blocked user styling on roster items
  • SDK-1922 – Pending indicators do not persist through refreshing for Presencebar
  • SDK-1925 – Presencebar minimized state covers custom containers when the publisher chooses to expose them
  • SDK-1926 – Pending indicator count on rooms increases upon page refresh