The Two Methods of Salesperson Attribution

Approximately every 10 minutes, Salespath pulls transaction data from your POS. For each of these transactions, we analyze the presentation data and determine which salesperson, if any, were present for that particular transaction. We call this salesperson attribution. 

There are two methods of attribution you can choose. You can switch back and forth to see which method feels right for your organization. Changing methods does not change any underlying data and you can change it at any time. This is set per location, and can be changed by any admin user under the Location Manager page.

Method #1: First To Last Attribution

With "First to Last" attribution we look at a salesperson's first presentation and their last. We then attribute all POS transactions in between to that salesperson. If we saw a presentation given within 5 minutes of a POS transaction, then we put their name on it. If we do not see a presentation within 5 minutes, we put their name on it, but mark it as "missed". This lowers their individual Engagement Score.

For example, we see John Smith give a presentation at 8:00am, and this last for the day at 2:00pm. We would then attribute John Smith to all POS transactions between 8:00am and 2:00pm. As long as John is using the tablet to give presentations, he will get normal credit for all. Then we see Mike Peters give a presentation at 2:01pm and his last at 6:00pm. We would then do the same, and attribute all POS transactions between 2:01pm and 6:00pm to Mike.

But let's say Mike only gave a presentations from 2:01pm to 3:00pm and then stopped using it before using it again for the last car of the day at 6:00pm. In that case he will get full credit for the POS transactions from 2:01pm to 3:00pm, but then all the cars between 3:00pm and that last one for the day at 6:00pm would show as "missed", thereby lowering his Engagement Score.

This method is best when you keep your pay lanes manned for the whole day. For example, let's assume John Smith gave presentations all morning from 8:00am to 12:00pm and then took a lunch break from 12:00pm to 12:30pm. Let's also assume no one covered for him when he went to lunch and customers used the pay stations themselves. Then John returns and starts using the tablets again at 12:31pm. Since we see a presentation at 8:00am, and then more after 12:31pm, we would attribute all of these to John and since we did not see presentations given between 12:00pm and 12:30pm all of those POS transactions would be counted as "missed" and would count against John's Engagement Score. In this case, it might not seem fair to dock him.

However, if during that lunch break, Mike Peters logged in and covered for John, then John would not be docked since those transactions would be attributed to Mike.

Method #2: Windowed Attribution

With "Windowed" attribution we look at each POS transaction and see when the last presentation given was. 

• If there was a presentation given within 5 minutes of that POS transaction, then we put the salesperson's name on it and they get full credit.
• If the closest presentation was within 6-10 minutes of that POS transaction, then we put their name on it, but mark it as "missed". This lowers their Engagement Score.
• If the last presentation was more than 10 minutes apart from the POS transaction, then we do not put the salesperson's name on it, and instead mark it as "unattended". This does not effect the salesperson's Engagement Score, but instead lowers to location's Coverage Score.

We recommend this method if you cover your pay stations for only parts of days. This is because if John is at the pay stations for a couple hours, then gets pulled to be a loader for a couple of hours while the pay stations remain unmanned, then returns later in the day, then he will be docked for those hours when he was not there. This would not seem fair since management asked him to load instead of sell and it is not a reflection of him not using the tablet.

Also, in this method Engagement Score is not a very useful metric because in reality very few cars fall between that 6-10 minute window. You can have a salesperson that uses the tablet for a few cars and then stops. In that case they would only be docked for those cars within 6-10 minute window since after 10 minutes they are all marked as "unattended" which does not get tied to the individual salesperson. In this method, Coverage Score becomes more useful to see if presentations are being given, but it applies more to the location, than to individual salespeople.