Why didn't Tend capture a certain contact?

You may find that on occasion, Tend does not collect data from a visitor. Although we make our best effort to collect 100% of the visitors, occasionally some may slip through the cracks. This could happen because:

• Browser limitations - Browser software that is outdated, or has limited features could contribute to Tend not being able to track the visitor.
• JavaScript not enabled -Browsers without JavaScript enabled won’t be tracked.
• Redirects - Immediate page redirects can often prevent Tend from tracking the visit.

HTTP referer

The HTTP_REFERRER is provided by the browser, and contains the address of the page which referred the visitor to your website. By it’s nature the HTTP referrer is not always available, so there could be some referrers marked as “Direct,” even though the visited from another resource.

Here are some examples of when the http referrer isn’t available:

• Entered the site URL in browser address bar itself.
• Visited the site by a browser-maintained bookmark.
• Visited the site as the first page in the window/tab.
• Switched from a https URL to a http URL.
• Switched from a https URL to a different https URL.
• Has security software installed like, antivirus or firewall, that strips the referrer from all requests.
• Is behind a proxy which strips the referrer from all requests.
• Visited the site programmatically (scraping or searchbots) without setting the referrer header

Things you can do:

1. Manually assign a visit

There also may be times where the visitor was anonymously tracked in Tend, however, they were not properly assigned to a contact. This could happen when a visitor enters their email and immediately leaves the page.

If you know the day/time that a contact was missed, you can assign them to the anonymous visitor in Tend.

To do that, go to the visitor log in your Tend Dashboard > Contacts > Visits.

From there, you can match the visit date of an anonymous visitor, to your contact. You can also use the pathname and geo-location to help identify the proper visitor.

Once you identify the anonymous visitor that should have been assigned to a contact, you can select the “Anonymous” name, and then Assign to Contact from the anonymous profile page.

2. Use TendID TendID is a more reliable way to push contacts into to Tend.

If you want set up TendID, just follow the instructions here: https://tend.io/docs/TendID

Advice from Avinash

Ensure your analytics strategy is to reduce data inaccuracy as much as possible. Don’t focus on getting 100% accuracy. That does not exist.

I believe that.

There are no “right numbers”. I am a part of a generation that believed that and we always tried to reach that goal (I grew up in the world of data warehouses and business intelligence and ERP and CRM systems). But painfully I have learned that you can either focus on that, or you can use the data you got. Analytics data gives you 900% more information than you have through traditional channels. It is only 90% “right”, but the missing 10% is outweighed by the fact that you can now make decisions that are so much better informed.

It will take a while for the current crop of business leaders to “get it” – and sadly many many web analytics practitioners / consultants / vendors to get it. We need to realize there is more money to be made not peddling our services that make things “accurate” but rather peddling our ability to find raw awesome insights (whatever the tool the company has).

–Avinash Kaushik’s Web Analytics: An Hour A Day

Something’s still not right… If you suspect that Tend is missing more visits or contacts than is normal, contact us. We’re happy to help investigate the problem.