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Set up for targeted communications for your frontline

  • Article
  • Applies to:
    Microsoft Teams, Microsoft 365 for frontline workers

Important

This feature is currently in public preview. You can map your frontline attributes to enable targeted communications and view your mapped values in the Teams admin center. However, automatic tags isn't available in the Teams client yet. Soon, your users will be able to use automatic tags in Teams to reach groups of people by department or job title.

Overview

Setting up targeted communications in Microsoft Teams enables you to deliver personalized communications experiences, such as automatic tags, to your frontline teams.

To set up targeted communications, you identify and map your frontline attributes by choosing one Microsoft Entra attribute each for Department and Job title that represents the departments and job titles in your organization. The mapped attribute values, which are pulled from user profile data stored in Microsoft Entra ID, are used to identify, and target communications to specific groups of people based on their department or job title.

Streamline and simplify communications for your frontline. After you map your attributes, your frontline teams can use targeted communication features, like automatic tags in Teams channel conversations, and additional frontline capabilities that are coming soon.

Prerequisites

  • Your frontline teams must be created through the deploy frontline dynamic teams experience in the Teams admin center.

    Note

    Mapping frontline attributes is part of the setup process when you deploy frontline dynamic teams. It's an optional step. If you want to allow your frontline to easily reach each other by department or job title, map your attributes to enable targeted communications.

    If you've already deployed your frontline dynamic teams and you want to enable targeted communications for those teams, go to the Dynamic teams settings page, and map your attributes.

  • To use automatic tags, tags must be turned on for your organization. In the Teams admin center, go to Teams > Teams settings. Under Tagging, check that the Who can manage tags setting is set to an option other than Not enabled. Learn more about how to turn on tags for your organization.

Set up targeted communications

Map your frontline attributes

Map your attributes on the Map frontline attributes page of the deploy frontline dynamic teams experience. Select the Microsoft Entra attribute for Department and Job title that best represents the departments and job titles in your organization. You can map one or both attributes.

Screenshot of the Map frontline attributes page of the deploy frontline dynamic teams experience in the Teams admin center.

View your mapped attribute values

After you mapped your attributes, you can view your list of mapped values. These values are used for targeted communications and represent the unique departments and job titles in your organization.

  1. In the left navigation of the Teams admin center, choose Frontline deployment > Manage frontline apps.

  2. In the table, next to Targeted communications, choose Review.

  3. Your mapped values are listed under Values status.

    Screenshot of the Targeted communications page in the Teams admin center, showing list of mapped attribute values.

    If your organization has new departments or job titles that aren’t in the list, choose Refresh values to update the list. Keep in mind that this process can take several hours to complete.

    Note

    If you want to change or remove the Department or Job title attribute, go to the Dynamic teams settings page, edit your attributes, and then come back here to view the updated values.

Automatic tags

With automatic tags, your frontline workers can reach each other by department or job title in Teams channel conversations. Anyone on the team can use the tags in @mentions to notify those people who are associated with that tag.

Your frontline can quickly and easily reach the right groups of people. And because the tags are automatically created based on your mapped attribute values, team owners don’t have to manually create and assign tags or manage them locally.

For example, a regional store manager who oversees all Northwind Trader stores in their region needs to notify all store associates and supervisors about a potentially harmful product that must be immediately removed from all stores. The manager @mentions the Store Associate and Store Supervisor tag in their channel post to notify all store associates and supervisors.

Screenshot of automatic tags used in a Teams channel conversation.

Automatic tags are created and available after you map your attributes.

Team owners

To allow frontline teams to use automatic tags in Teams, team owners must select the Show members the option to @mention groups based on job title or department. This will notify everyone in that group. check box in team settings for each of their respective teams.

Screenshot of the option in team settings to @mention groups based on job title or department

Learn more about using tags in Teams.