As my colleague Aatif Awan shared a few months ago, we’ve made changes so that the emails you receive are more infrequent and more relevant. As a result, we are now sending 50% fewer emails and have reduced complaints by more than 65%.
But it doesn’t stop there. We’d like to ensure that we only send you messages that you want to read no matter how you hear from us. That’s why we have been working on developing a new email and notifications platform called Air Traffic Controller (ATC).
ATC is a single platform for all communication to our members across LinkedIn, including email, mobile and SMS. Our platform uses learning algorithms, which take into account member interactions to better determine the right frequency of communication you get from LinkedIn, at the right time, and through the right channels.
So what does this mean to you? In short, there should be an immediate improvement to both the quantity and quality of communications you receive from LinkedIn. Imagine seeing only the messages you want based on how you’re interacting with LinkedIn. This is what we’re striving for.
Our first priority is to determine the right balance of mobile notifications and emails. ATC will help us understand the best time for you to hear from us and which channel you prefer; be it email, push notification or SMS, as well as determining the right amount of messages we send you. We are doing this by paying close attention to your communication-setting preferences and by building intelligence around how you interact with LinkedIn. For example, in the past, we sent an email for every connection invite you received. Now, if you receive a handful of connection invites in a short period of time, our platform will automatically roll that up into a single email.
ATC helps us address some of the top pieces of feedback we’ve heard from you:
- Volume: We've already made improvements in lowering email volume by more than half, and this platform will allow us to further fine tune the volume of communications across channels. For example, we don’t need to send as many emails and notifications to users who are on the site all the time because they've most likely already seen what we wanted them to see.
- Frequency: We're putting daily and monthly limits on notifications. This will come as a welcome change to those of you who are highly engaged on LinkedIn. With ATC, you'll receive notifications that are most important to you on the channel that you prefer.
- Quality: We're getting smarter about curating our communication with you. ATC gives us more information to help us understand your preferences so we can deliver quality content and the right experience, according to your activity on LinkedIn.
ATC will help us create a more personalized experience on LinkedIn for everyone. We realize that a one-size-fits-all method doesn’t work. We want to give you emails and notifications based on what your prefer, not what's best for us. ATC is a huge step toward that goal, and as we continue to improve and build new features, we'll enhance the experience for everyone who uses LinkedIn.