ChilliDB surveys can be implemented in several ways - they can be sent to a contact or organisation to fill out; they can be filled out by a staff member who is conducting the survey over the phone, or in a meeting; or they can be conducted via a link on a user's website which captures anonymous responses.
Send Survey links (Invitations)
Once a Survey has been published, invitations can be sent to contacts, organisations and distribution lists in ChilliDB. Users can also use the contact and organisation Search pages in ChilliDB to perform a search of their database, and then select 'Send Survey' from the Actions menu for the Search Results list to send surveys.
Basic Rules
Only Surveys which have been “Published” can be selected for use.
Only Surveys which are available (Survey Availability From / Survey Availability To) can be selected for use.
This section will discuss the mechanics of sending a survey invitation. Follow the below steps to send an invitation to participate in a survey:
1. Click on the 'Invitations' tab on the Survey Display screen.
2. Click on 'Create' link to search for respondent(s). A “Find Respondent(s)” pop-up box will display.
3. Use the radio button options to select the search criteria. Depending on the security options users choose for their survey, these radio buttons and filters can behave differently. For instance, if they have a login defined for the survey, then this search will return only contacts with an external user login. Once the search criteria has been entered, click 'Search'.
4. A list will populate in a drop down box. Click on the chosen respondent and then click 'Select'. This respondent will now appear in the “Survey Invitation List”.
5. Click in the checkbox next to the respondent's name and then click Actions and select 'Send Invitation' from the dropdown list. A “Refine Recipients of the Message” pop-up box will display.
6. Check the details of the recipient(s) and click 'Continue' if everything appears to be as it should. This screen allows users to choose the communications addresses for their recipient(s). If the recipient does not yet have a communication address, one can be added here against their contact or organisation record. A recipient can also be removed if necessary.
7. Next, a 'Send Message' pop-up box will display. Complete all mandatory fields, such as To, Subject, and Categorisation. Additional recipients may be added by clicking “Find” next to the “To” field and following the prompts.
8. Users then need to enter the content for their invitation. They have two options here:
1. Create Invitation Content now
Enter the necessary content into the HTML Content and Plain Text Content sections of the form. Plain Text Content is for those recipients who do not receive HTML emails, which usually do not number that many. It is best to copy the content from the HTML field into the Plain Text so the way your recipients receive the invitation can be controlled, regardless of how they read their email. Users will need to keep the link part of the existing content so your recipients can use the link to access the survey. If the existing content is lost, users can use Mail Merge Tokens and select the 'Survey' token.
OR
2. Use a Message Template
Select Action > Use Templates.
When the Message Templates popup appears with a listing of all message templates in the system, click the checkbox for the template you wish to use, then click 'Load'. Clicking on the template name allows users to review the message template to decide if it is the one they are looking for.
When the 'Load' link is selected, the message template selected will populate the email invitation with the template
Users view a template by selecting the template name.
They can use the 'Create Like' link to duplicate an existing template, then make changes and save it to use.
They can 'Load' an existing template.
They can 'Overwrite' an existing template with the content back in the Send Message window to use again in future.
For this example, select 'Load' to load a template. The 'Send Message' screen will confirm that a user wants to replace its content with the content from the template and then load all of the content from the template into the 'Send Message' screen. Message templates also include 'Subject' and 'Categorisation' selections which, if chosen, change the layout of the screen.
9. Test your message!
If users select the 'Send Test' option from the Send Message screen and attempt to send it to their own organisation, it can lead to unexpected results when it tries to pre-populate the survey. The sent test in this scenario is only useful to review the Message Templates until users are happy with it. To test the defaulting of information into a survey, users need to create a Test Contact or Organisation in their system and actually send the invitation to that contact or organisation.
10. Once you are happy with your Invitation, click Send. Your invitation to complete a Survey has now been sent to your chosen respondent(s).