The preferred delivery methods (or preferred contact methods) are member-specific settings added in the 2012.7 release. Its intended purpose is to show which method of delivery that a member prefers to receive "on-demand" communications.
There are two independent settings, one pertaining to offer related Emails and the other pertaining to non-offer related Emails, such as "password help" and "welcome Emails". The valid options are "Email" and "Text", with the availability of the "Text" option being dependent on having a Text Provider setup.
Within "on-demand" messaging, the Email address will be used as a "backup" in the event that the member has "Text" as their preferred option and does not have a mobile number, but has an Email address. However, text messaging will not be used as a backup method in the opposite situation.
These options can be altered in the Clienteling Services or on the customer web portal via the general settings module type. There are also web service methods to support this.
