website logo
⌘K
Platform Guides
Retail Quick Start Guide
Mission Control
Alerts Manager
Personas
Audiences
Campaigns
Discounts
App Wallets
Analytics
Alpine IQ Integrations
Brands Platform Settings
Loyalty Financial Reporting
Release Notes
April 2023
March 2023
January 2023
December 2022
November 2022
October 2022
September 2022
August 2022
July 2022
API
API Reference
Common use cases
Store locations
Personas
Audiences
Campaigns
Discounts
Terms & Conditions
Alpine IQ Services Agreement
Acceptable Use Policy
Charge policy
EULA (Apple and Google Play Apps)
Sunset features
Smoke Signals Archive
Docs powered by archbee 

Retail Quick Start Guide

80min

This guide will help you get the nuts and bolts of your account squared away.

1. Add team members

Document image

  • Username - must be a working email address that the user has access to so they can set their password.
  • Roles - Create users and assign them a role based on their responsibilities. See the table below for a list of Roles and what parts of the platform those roles have access to.
Document image


2. Add your store(s)

Document image

  • Store name - if you have multiple locations, we suggest using [company name] - [location name] as your naming convention to keep things consistent.
  • Store nickname - if you have multiple locations, we suggest using the above [location name] as the store's nickname.
  • Online shop URL - this is the URL for your e-commerce website, not your company's main website.

Click Complete Setup and continue setting up your account below.



Alpine IQ Settings

Now that your account is created, visit lab.alpineiq.com and log in using the username you created. You're in! Click on Settings in the top left-hand corner and start setting up your account.

Your Profile

Update your contact information and/or password as needed

Document image



Single Sign-On

Enable SSO for your users to seamlessly log into their Alpine IQ accounts using their Google or Microsoft emails.

1.A user with Owner permissions should head to Account Settings > Account toggles, add your Microsoft or Google domains and flip the toggles to green, & Save account settings.

Document image




2. Log out of Alpine IQ and when you log back in you'll see the option to sign in via Google or Microsoft. Any new user you add will now have the ability to enable Single sign-on when they log in to Alpine IQ.

Document image

Document image




Document image


Single sign-on will not work if the user's email does not match the domain you added in Step 1



Account Settings

  • Change profile/cover pic - these will be the default images for your Wallet App. For more information on customizing the wallet, check out Configuring Alpine IQ. Image sizing requirements available on PDF below.
Branding-options-spec (1) (24).pdf

  • Company Name - the name of the actual store unless you're operating multiple brands from one Alpine IQ account in which case you'll input the name of the parent company.
  • Walled garden - leave this (ON) to be compliant with the most up-to-date SMS marketing regulations.
  • Require phone number captcha - set to (OFF) for a seamless and secure way for customers to view your SMS campaigns.
  • Loyalty points - set this to (ON) to let your customers see their available points in their digital wallet. For more information, check out [Loyalty Settings].
  • Automatic UTM tracking - set this to (ON) to track clicks and traffic via Google Analytics or similar platforms that store and follow UTMs.
  • Referred By - if applicable, choose the company that referred you to Alpine IQ.
  • Sales Rep - the Account Executive (sales person) you worked with.


Retail stores

Store name(s) -

Document image




Edit location - if your stores' contact information changes or if you change e-commerce platforms, update it here

Document image




Customize location

Document image

  • Map store names - after you've connected your POS, ensure data is being linked to their respective stores by clicking on the field and selecting the corresponding location.
  • Club signup - this location's unique Main Sign-up form URL.
  • Store Review links - Add any location-specific links (Google Place ID, Yelp, Leafly...) here. Any brand-wide links should be uploaded in the Reviews section under [Configure Alpine IQ].


Team Members

Create users and assign them a role based on their responsibilities within your organization. See the table below for a list of Roles and what parts of the platform those roles have access to:

Document image


Only users with Owner permissions can create, edit, and/or delete users. If you are not a user with this permission level and need access to other parts of the platform, contact the member of your organization with Owner permissions and request a change to your role



To create a new user, click Add user in the top-right hand corner of the page and a popup will appear. Add the necessary information to each field and click the green Add User button.

Document image


An email will be sent to the one listed above for the user to set their own password so

be sure to use a working email address



App Settings

Here is where you will be able to customize the customer-facing pages that we generate. The left side of the screen contains all the settings that able to be altered and will update the preview on the right with sample information.

Document image


Important Note: settings can be applied to all stores or individually!

Document image

  • Consumer alert - shows on the top of the web wallet/ login page/ and signup page.
  • Header (Logos, cover area, brand) - change the top of the wallet and sign up page, hide/show logo and brand name.
  • Captcha, landing page and consumer alert - Change a store's texting logo or alter the captcha logo and text.
  • Basic style / colors - manipulate the colors of the wallet includes buttons and progress bars. *must be CSS-friendly!
  • Wallet Web-app login settings - customize the text fields that display on the customer wallet login page.
  • Wallet Web-app main settings - Hide or show certain functions of the wallet based on your store needs.
  • Wallet Web-app icons - replace default icons with your own icons.
  • CSS (Advanced overrides, fonts, etc.) - Inject custom CSS to override styles, use the right section as a reference.
  • Discount settings - Disable whether your customers can redeem on their own phone, change redeem button text .
  • Sign-up page settings - Alter the text for the Address field on the signup page.


Signup Form

Using our signup form is the recommended way to capture new loyalty members and trigger opt-ins.

1. Head to Settings > Design > Sign Up Forms

2. Create a new or Edit an existing signup form of your choice:

Document image


3. Choose the fields you want to capture:

Document image




  • Required will display with a red asterisk (*) , Optional will be accepted blank and, Disabled will keep the field hidden.
  • We recommend 3-5 pieces of info for quick and meaningful captures.
  • Phone number + email should at least be optional in order to target via marketing.

You have the option to automatically opt customers into SMS marketing via this sign-up form by enabling specific toggles. For a guide on how to do this, click HERE.

4. Set your custom branding (keep blank for default account images):

  • Header Photo - Set your header photo/logo to appear on the signup form.
  • Cover Photo - Set your cover/background photo for the sign up form.

5. Style your Signup form:

  • Customize the style and color of your signup form buttons and text.

6. Enter and Custom CSS you would like (not required)

7. Enter custom text for your sign up form:

Document image

  • Sign-Up From Name - Naming the form.
  • Page title - Displays at the top of form under the banner.
  • Body text - Describe what they are signing up for.
  • Consent text - Used to legally cover that you are asking for sign up consent and age-gating.
  • Signup Button Text - The title for the form submit button.
  • Thank You  Title - The thank you title text for after the form is completed.
  • Thank You Message - The thank you message text that shows after the form is completed.
  • Redirect URL - Redirect to URL after sign-up is completed.



8. Share your page:

Document image

  • Store URL - Select the store to receive the store-specific url , QR code, and embed.
  • Download Store-Specific Links - Download all store-specific urls in a CSV file.
  • Main signup URL - best used on your tablet in-store check out, auto refreshes after each signup.
  • Main signup QR Code - download the image and use it for scanning in person, print out and put up.
  • Main signup embed - show the form on your own store site and encourage signing up there.

Add custom fields to the sign-up form

Document image

  • Add your own custom fields to the sign-up form. If you want customers to select their favorite category of products, you can now enable that via "custom input fields".
    • Click Create sign-up form
    • Navigate to the Advanced tab
    • Field label - Name the field
    • Input type - Select the type of field
      • Input - user types in their answer
      • Select - user must select one option from list
      • Multi-select - user can select multiple options from list
  • If using Select or Multi-select, add labels individually and click Add option
  • Click Create field

You can create audiences around custom inputs using the audience requirement

Custom brand trait / [label name] / contains / [option name]



Email / Domain

Before you can start sending emails through Alpine IQ, you must authenticate your domain. Navigate to your Email / Domain settings page. Using the left nav menu got to Settings > Email / Domain. Domain authentication shows Alpine IQ that you do in fact own your domain name that you want to send from. To give Alpine IQ permission to send using this domain, you point DNS entries from your DNS provider (like GoDaddy, Rackspace, or Cloudflare) to Alpine.

Key Terminology:

  • DNS - stands for Domain Name System. This is a naming system for domains on the internet. When we refer to your DNS, we are talking about your domain name that you want to send emails from, or that you want to link images from. When we talk about your DNS host/provider, we are talking about the service that hosts your domain name. For example, GoDaddy, Rackspace, or Cloudflare.
  • CNAME - The CNAME record creates an alias for subdomain.yourdomain.com.

How to authenticate your domain

  1. In Alpine IQ, using the left nav menu, select Settings > Email / Domain.
  2. Press Add Domain, fill in the domain that you want to send from and add advanced settings as needed. Make sure that you only enter the name of your root domain. (example: google.com)
Document image


Do not include www or http://www in this field. Your domain needs to match the domain of your FROM address on the emails you are sending out. For example, if I am sending an email from example@alpineiq.com, I would set my domain authentication domain to be alpineiq.com.



3. After clicking Save domain you will move onto the DNS section:

Document image

  1. This section will reload with 3 CNAMES.
  2. Next, you need to add all of the CNAME records on this screen to your DNS host. This process varies depending on your DNS host.
    • For Go Daddy instructions - click here
    • For NameCheap instructions - click here
    • For Rackspace instructions - click here
    • For Cloudflare instructions - click here
    • For Wix instructions - click here
  3. Once you add the CNAME records to your DNS host, return to the Email settings page and click Validate.

(It can take up to 48 hours for the records to verify after you upload them into your DNS host, so you will likely have to come back later to verify.)

Tip: If you click verify, and only half of your CNAME records verify, this usually means that you need to wait a bit longer. It's also possible that you entered one of your records incorrectly.

4. Complete the Sender Settings

  1. Sender Name: Input your brand/company name.
  2. From email: Input the email address you want your email campaigns to be from. Usually this is some sort of shared email address, i.e: Friends@alpineiq.com, Marketing@alpineiq.com.
  3. Reply-to-name: When a customer replies to one of your emails, what name do want to be used as the Recipient. i.e. Support Team, Alpine IQ.
  4. Reply-to-email: When a customer replies to one of your emails, input what email address you would like the responses to go to.
  5. Input your Address, city, state, zip and country. This information is required on the footer of all email campaigns.
  6. Click save.


Review Automation

Reviews are a great way to build your business and get more customers searching for you on the internet.

Document image


Use this section to fill in your links to your social media or review sites.

  • Page title changes the main headers.
  • Body text changes the copy you want to entice your customers to visit the pages.
  • Share this page contains the URL, QR code, and embed code exactly like your signup form and wallet.
  • Paste in username in fields to link to social media sites.
  • Google Places requires a Place ID.

TIP: Use the {{reviewWidgetURL}} macro in SMS and Emails to send this page to customers.

Store-specific sites can be added in Settings > Manage store(s) > Customize.

Document image



Billing History

See total spend and all individual invoices. You can also expand an invoice by using the + button to see a breakdown of charges.

Document image


If you ever see discrepancies or have questions about invoices, please reach out to generic accounting email.



Alpine IQ API

You can access your Alpine IQ API key if your login has an OWNER role. As an OWNER role, go to Settings -> API & Tracking. From there, copy and paste your AIQ API key into the integration partner’s platform. This also has more granular information about our REST API that you or your developers can use when creating custom systems integrations. For more information about our REST API, click here (REST API docu).

Document image



JS tracking pixel

Place this Javascript pixel within your website, e-commerce, GTM, or landing page code to track page views, link clicks, and other web engagements. Create Audiences based on customers that have clicked on specific products and send them targeted messages about that product.



Activity Logs

User activity: A section of the platform where you can see user activities and actions taken within the platform. Filter by Date Range to see a high-level view of all users' actions or add a User's email to see activity from that specific user.



The object is the part of the platform that was created, updated, or manipulated in any way by the user.



Points activity: Any changes to your customers' points are available on the graph and table below. A red block suggests an anomaly in points adjustment activity.

Document image



Native App Settings

Alpine IQ deploys native apps with push notification functionality to facilitate loyalty, e-commerce, and messaging without interuption from cell carriers. Effective spring 2021, Apple no longer disallows facilitating cannabis sales through the app store. Our apps are compatible with iOS and Android devices.

In order to get an app for your brand live, you will need to provide Alpine IQ with access to both the Apple store/ Google play store developer accounts. Normally, we could create these store accounts for you, but both accounts require your organization be the administrator.

For more details check out the full guide here https://support.alpineiq.com/native-apps



How to integrate Alpine

I. Connect your Point of Sale

II. Connect your E-Commerce



If you're having trouble integrating one of the platforms listed or don't see one listed, click the Help button in the bottom right-hand corner of your Alpine IQ dashboard and we'll help you out!



Import customers into Alpine IQ

Import customers or audiences from another loyalty, SMS, or email provider via .csv spreadsheets using the Import Personas page. This helps fill in any missing customers/functionality not provided by your POS or other Data Integration.

Document image


Import Personas is also commonly used for:

  • Segmenting specific customers into an audience
    • Customers uploaded automatically have an audience generated for them
  • Bulk adjusting (read further below for example templates):
    • Loyalty signup dates
    • SMS opt-in statuses
    • Loyalty points


Getting started on importing personas

  1. Prepare your Excel sheet or .csv file (or use one of our popular example upload templates below)
  2. Navigate to your Alpine IQ dashboard
  3. Click Settings -> Import Personas in the Sidebar
  4. Click Upload Contact List and follow the steps in the dialog!
Document image


Popular example upload templates

Download, manipulate, and upload these templates to Alpine IQ's Import Personas page. Appropriate column mappings are provided in the screenshots! Click to expand the titles below.

Import customers from an SMS, Loyalty or Email provider

This demonstrates the usual usage of Import Personas.



aiq-import-normal.csv




Document image


Set SMS opt-in and opt-out statuses

In this scenario, jane@company.com is currently opted in, and we need them opted out. The column Explicit SMS Opt-out must be set to TRUE.

john@company.com and mburns@company.com are currently in Alpine IQ, but are not opted in. We will use the Opt-in SMS column and ignore the Explicit SMS Opt-out column. Make sure you have consent before opting-in someone!

Only these three personas will have their opt statuses affected by this upload

aiq-import-sms-statuses.csv

Document image


Adding or subtracting loyalty points

The Points column indicates points to be added (or subtracted) from a persona's balance. This does not set their total balance to the value provided!

In this scenario, we are subtracting 200 points from john@company.com and adding 50 points to jane@company.com's balance. mburns@company.com remains unaffected

aiq-import-points.csv




Document image


Set customer type (veteran, police, medical/recreational)

In this scenario, we are setting the medical cannabis and recreational status of a few customers. We're also specifying if they are veterans or police officers so we can segment them into audiences later to offer them special deals.

The column mapping Customer Type is designated specifically for medical and recreational statuses.

Custom Attribute is used for any other attribute - veteran or police status in this case.

aiq-import-customer-type.csv




Document image




Veteran and Police traits are available 24 hours later in the audience builder
Veteran and Police traits are available 24 hours later in the audience builder




Important Notes on Importing Personas

  • A phone or email must be included to address duplicate personas
  • Single excel sheets (.xls) files are supported, not all sheets in a full excel file
  • Imports take 24 hours to process
    • File deletions also take 24 hours to process
    • Generated audiences are not populated for the 24 hours
  • Send SMS double-optin requests to contacts imported after: applies to ALL uploads
  • The Points column indicates points to be added (or subtracted) from a persona’s balance. This does not set the total balance to the value provided!
  • The Explicit SMS Opt-out column must be set to TRUE to opt a persona out of receiving text messages





Additional settings

How do Pin Codes work

To ensure that your messages are getting delivered to the customers who want to hear from you, Alpine has created several delivery assurance solutions and escalations

Aside from our Waterfall Delivery Assurance, we also have Walled Garden to support SMS/MMS deliverability

With Walled Garden, there are two different options you can choose from; Light or Premium. Both prevent carriers from reading keywords and blocking your domain

  • Light - Hides your long-form message behind a link that is placed within a basic SMS (text only) message body. You will pay standard per segment SMS rates based on the length of your default SMS notice message.
  • Premium - Send your messages via the same methodology as the light version but it leverages MMS to showcase your brand logo front and center to consumers. This not only helps from a delivery standpoint but also appears far less "spammy" to your consumers. Since Walled garden is rarely more than a 1 segment message, it's highly recommended and depending on your volume, to use Premium to avoid filtration. Premium also removes your brand name from the actual text body that is scanned by carrier filtration system
Document image




Pin Codes

If you are sending multiple text message campaigns to large audiences daily, or are continuing to have filtration issues with Premium Walled Garden, the next escalation would be moving to Pin Codes.

Pin codes are an extra layer of protection against carrier filtration and prevent human auditors from being able to access and flag your message landing page or domain.

How pin codes work:

Document image

  • Your customer will receive a text notifying them that they have a notification from your brand.
  • They will click the link in the message and will be sent to the Pin Code page
  • Your customer will enter the last four digits of their phone number to unlock the message
  • They are then sent to the landing page with your message



There are two types of pin codes

Please reach out to your Account Specialist and they will get pin codes turned on for you.

After turning on pin codes:

You will need to make sure you update or remove the captcha message that is currently set up for Walled Garden. Do this in your dashboard by heading to Settings > Branding / Design > Captcha, Landing page, & consumer alert and adding copy to the Captcha message field

Document image




Document image




You can test the pin code functionality via the Campaign builder by clicking the preview link in the SMS builder and using 1234 which is the test pin code for all SMS previews

Document image






How to add a new location to your account

1.If your point-of-sale requires separate API keys for each location, refer to our Point of Sale guide for steps needed to request those keys from your POS representative. When you get the keys, upload them on the appropriate integration card in the Connect Data in your Alpine IQ dashboard.

If you need assistance uploading the API keys into Alpine IQ, contact your Customer Success Manager for Premium Support accounts or support@alpineiq.com for Standard Support accounts.

2. Add your new location in Alpine IQ by heading to Settings > Retail Stores > Add location and filling out the necessary information and click Add store.


  • For the Online shop URL field, make sure you're using the URL for your actually online menu and not the URL for your main website.

3. Next you'll need to "map" the API key to your recently added store. This associates transactions from that location to the location in Alpine IQ giving you valuable analytics and segmentation opportunities. On the Retail stores page, click Customize, click on the empty field next to the POS option, click on the location/key that appears in the dropdown, and click Save settings.



After adding your API key under Connect Data, it may take up to 24 hours for the option to "map" the key to appear. Additionally, transactions must be flowing through the POS in order to "map" the API key so if the location isn't fully live, run some test transactions to be able to map the key to Alpine IQ.



How to create multiple sign-up forms


  • Click Settings in the top-left corner of the dashboard.
  • Click Sign-up form in the settings dropdown.
  • Edit the sign-up form text and fields you want included in the sign-up form.
  • Click Save as new template and you'll see a new sign-up form available in the dropdown next to Club sign-up page settings (Form ID: at the top of the page



Find the unique sign-up URL & sign-up QR code for the forms your create by clicking Share this page on the left

Document image





Updated 01 Jun 2023
Did this page help you?
Yes
No
PREVIOUS
Platform Guides
NEXT
Loyalty Settings & Reporting
Docs powered by archbee 
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Add team members
2. Add your store(s)
Alpine IQ Settings
Your Profile
Single Sign-On
Account Settings
Retail stores
Team Members
App Settings
Signup Form
Email / Domain
How to authenticate your domain
Review Automation
Billing History
Alpine IQ API
JS tracking pixel
Activity Logs
Native App Settings
How to integrate Alpine
I. Connect your Point of Sale
II. Connect your E-Commerce
Import customers into Alpine IQ
Getting started on importing personas
Popular example upload templates
Import customers from an SMS, Loyalty or Email provider
Set SMS opt-in and opt-out statuses
Adding or subtracting loyalty points
Set customer type (veteran, police, medical/recreational)
Additional settings
How do Pin Codes work
How to add a new location to your account
How to create multiple sign-up forms