Scenario Modeling Tip #7: Assign every customer within a household to the same agent if you specify a Household ID column in the input data.
Example
If you specify a Household ID column in the input data, then every customer within a household must be assigned to the same agent. This is required because a problem that has household-level constraints or contact policies is transformed into a customer-level problem that has a larger number of communications. As is the case with any customer-level problem, each “customer” (in this case, each household) must be assigned to a single agent.
However, this restriction in the input data is required only if you plan to create constraints or contact policies at the household level. If you plan to use only customer-level constraints and contact policies, even though you do have household information in the input data, then it is acceptable to assign customers within a household to different agents. In other words, if you do not use the household information to create household-level policies, then SAS Marketing Optimization treats the problem like any other customer-level problem, and there are no restrictions on the customer-agent assignments. However, if you later add a household-level constraint or contact policy, the optimization will fail with an error if there are any households that are assigned to more than one agent.
Note: This post was adapted from Michelle Opp’s “Scenario Modeling Tips” document. For more information, see SAS Marketing Optimization User’s Guide.
