Creating Personalized Notifications: A Glimpse at Our Internal System
- Peter Johnson
- Dec 6, 2023
- 4 min read
Sota Fujimoto, who works as a Backend Software Engineer at WealthPark, has written this piece.
Greetings! I'm excited to take you on a journey of discovery as I recount my experiences since joining a new team last October.
This post, although not as technical as others on our tech blog, allows readers to get an insight into my first project — creating personalized notifications. Readers of all levels, whether you are just starting to follow our tech blog or experienced, follow along as I uncover the essential elements of our own solution.
My recent team is part of a company that operates in the domain of our customers within the “B2B2C” business design. In such an arrangement, our organization serves as the first “B”, allowing intermediary businesses (our customers) to interface with viewers (“C”).
Our main emphasis is on providing for the requirements of our customers, but our strategy is multifaceted. We join forces to not only create client-oriented outcomes but also address the needs of the final user and deal with shared technical problems that affect both areas. Our aim is to create all-encompassing back-end solutions that will help our customers manage and optimize their B2B2C relationships, leading to prosperity for everyone involved.
As we explore the complexities of digital communication, the necessity of personalization stands out. Our B2B2C model necessitates our clients often sending notifications to their customers, via emails or other forms of communication.
Notifications are a key way to keep customers up to date on activities by our clients or the clients themselves on our digital platform. Our clients need an adaptive approach to messaging which permits individualized notifications that relate to specific events, guaranteeing a steady exchange.
This underlying necessity served as a booster for us to initiate the development of a service, giving our staff the capacity to effectively control and customize the notification material based on their exclusive needs.
Our Notification Management App serves as a single point of control for our team to adjust and look after notifications on behalf of our customers with ease.
Every customer is assigned a unique version of the service, giving our team a special area for customizing according to each customer's needs. Every instance is provided with preset templates already meeting the typical requirements of the customer's business practices, acting as a useful beginning point for additional customization.
This solution is geared to provide non-engineers with the ability to easily alter the components of notification templates. Intended for people involved in direct interaction with customers, this solution simplifies the template customization procedure, thereby saving precious time and energy.
The following fields can be tailored to individual needs:
Both the Subject and Content sections of our notifications allow dynamic placeholders, which are automatically replaced with up-to-date information from our database when the notification is sent.
To make customization easier, we implemented a real-time preview feature. This gives operators the chance to immediately view how their changes will look, creating a smooth and appealing experience for engineers.
Acknowledging the importance of having a variety of content in notifications, we have implemented the capability to add PDF files. This means operators can include extra info or paperwork in notifications, which will enhance communication.
This App puts great emphasis on delivering notifications. Featuring an activity monitoring tool, notifications are monitored closely. If one of the notifications does not get through, operators have the possibility to easily press a button to resend it. Through this tracking system, the dependability of our notification delivery is significantly improved.
Our Notification Management App offers manual control, enabling operators to initiate notifications at their discretion. This allows for custom selection of parameters, use of templates, and selection of recipient addresses. The manual control enables notifications to be dispatched quickly and reliably, even if the automated processes have any issues.
We see the possibility of extending the functional scope of the service to create a more comprehensive solution.
We are devising advanced customization options which surpass the basic content and layout. These options involve us attaching metadata to emails, for example:
We acknowledge the importance of providing more than just email support and are currently looking into integrating other communication channels, such as SMS and In-App Notifications. This will expand our service to offer comprehensive multi-channel support.
This expansion aims to give the option to pick the most suitable communication channel for various circumstances, guaranteeing a consistent brand experience on different platforms. By incorporating these extra transport types, we intend to develop a more adaptable solution.
To conclude this article, our homegrown solution might not stand out in terms of appearance, but it is the unsung hero that makes things happen in the background. It is combined with the capability to monitor activities and manual control, expressing our dedication to providing consumers with the precise options they need. As we continue to look forward in the future, we are devoted to developing our solution to include options such as additional personalization, multi-channel support, and so forth.
Make sure not to miss out on this excursion as we proceed to investigate developments, making sure our notices keep up with the shifting needs of our business sector.
I'd like to extend my gratitude to Mark Tanca for his mentorship and initiative on this project.
Abdul Aziz and Rihito Arai are to be commended for their great teamwork and assistance with this project.
Chris McDonald and Shoumei Yamamoto offered their feedback and helped with the deployments.
The SRE Team has been instrumental in providing us with support relating to infrastructure.
Comments