Overview

Metered delivery spreads a large nudge® send over a planned window instead of sending every notification at the same moment. It helps protect your mobile banking app from the burst of activity that might follow a large, simultaneous send.

Receiving a nudge can trigger back-end processing in your mobile banking app and at your provider's systems. When a send reaches tens of thousands of recipients at once, that processing can all arrive at the same moment. Systems that add capacity in response to demand can't always keep up with a spike that rises this fast, which can lead to app issues for app users at the moment they are most engaged. This does not happen on every send. It depends on how many app users you have and how your provider's systems are provisioned.

Pacing the send gives that capacity time to catch up. Metered delivery is most useful for organizations with large numbers of app users, or when your mobile banking provider has recommended spreading out large sends.

Signs that metered delivery may help

After a large send, you or your app users may notice:

• The app is slow to load, or appears to freeze
• Error messages when opening the app from a notification, such as "No healthy upstream" or a generic "unknown error"
• Unexpected prompts to log in after tapping a notification
• Reports of problems that start shortly after a large send

If you see these patterns, email Larky Support at support@larky.com and we can help determine whether metered delivery is a good fit.

How it works

Metered delivery changes when notifications leave Larky, not what recipients receive. Every recipient gets the same nudge; only the arrival time is staggered.

1. Your organization is set up with a delivery pattern (see Delivery options below).
2. When you send a nudge, Larky prepares the whole send as usual.
3. Starting at the scheduled send time, Larky releases notifications in paced groups that follow your delivery pattern, until everyone has been sent to.

Organizations without a delivery pattern are not affected. Their nudges go out immediately, exactly as they do today.

Delivery options

Two delivery patterns are available. Which one fits depends on how your digital banking provider's systems respond to spikes in traffic, and that can differ even between clients on the same provider. Larky doesn't choose a pattern for you. We work with you and your digital banking provider to determine the right one.

Flat rate sends a fixed number of devices at a steady interval until the send is complete, such as 5,000 devices every minute.

Accelerating ramp starts gently and increases through a series of steps, so traffic builds gradually instead of arriving all at once. It is designed for systems that add capacity gradually as demand rises.

See Configuration settings below for the settings behind each pattern and worked examples.

What metered delivery applies to

Metered delivery is configured once for your whole organization and applies to all of your nudges. It can't be turned on or off for individual nudges or sends. Two types of sends are never paced:

• Small sends: if a send has fewer recipients than your Minimum recipients setting, it is delivered immediately with no pacing.
• Location (geo) nudges: never metered. These are triggered by an individual app user's location, so there is no spike to smooth, and they are time-sensitive.

Because the pattern applies to all other nudges, recipients at the end of a send receive their nudge later than those at the start. Keep your most time-sensitive nudges in mind when your settings are chosen.

Getting started

Larky sets up metered delivery for your organization on request. To ask about it, or to change your settings later, email Larky Support at support@larky.com.

Larky will work with you and your digital banking provider to determine the appropriate delivery pattern and settings for your organization, and will enable them once they are agreed. Until metered delivery is enabled, your nudges are delivered immediately, as they are today.

Configuration settings

Larky configures these settings for your organization once they are agreed with you and your digital banking provider. They apply to all of your nudges.

Flat rate example. A send to 100,000 devices at 5,000 devices every 60 seconds is delivered in about 20 minutes. To estimate the delivery time for any flat rate, divide the number of recipients by the batch size, then multiply by the delay.

Accelerating ramp example. With four 5-minute steps, each step delivers more than the one before it: 10%, 20%, 30%, then 40% of the send. A send to 100,000 devices takes 20 minutes in total. The percentages are based on each send's own number of recipients, and the ramp always finishes in the number of steps multiplied by the step length.

FAQ

Does metered delivery change who receives a nudge or what it says? No. Targeting and content are unchanged. Only the time each recipient receives the nudge is spread out.

Can I use metered delivery for only some nudges? No. It is configured for your whole organization and applies to all of your nudges, except small sends and location nudges.

Will all recipients receive the nudge at the same time? No. Recipients receive it at different points within the delivery window, which depends on your settings. See Configuration settings for how to estimate it.

Do I need to update my mobile app? No. Metered delivery is handled by Larky, and no app changes are needed.

Can we adjust or turn it off later? Yes. Email Larky Support at support@larky.com at any time to change your settings or return to immediate delivery.