In this article, you will learn how to create a simple survey template and a mechanism that will automatically send an invitation to complete the survey for the person indicated in the form.
You can use the survey template and mechanism for various surveys, e.g. Exit Interview, Pulse check or Assessment 360, where you do not have a database of respondents created in advance.
Survey collecting data about the respondent
At the beginning, we must consider what data about the respondent we will need to use in our research. Assuming that our study will be the Exit Interview study, it is worth adding questions about:
name
last name
e-mail adress
job title
date/month of leaving the company
The above data will be used as the respondent's attributes on the basis of which we will be able to analyze the results, but they will also be used as the address data to which the invitation to the main survey is to be sent.
Creating a mechanism for sending invitations.
When we have already made a survey in the data collection form, we need to move on to the next step, in which we created an alert after completing the webhook to send the invitation.
To do this, go to the Create tab --> Alerts and webhooks --> Create a new alert.
In the next step, we complete the name of the alert and set the sending channel "Send as webhook.
In the Webhook address field, add the previously prepared URL with the parameters that we collected in the form.
An example address looks like this:
https://www.startquestion.com/webhooks/[id_account]/[webhook_key]/[webhook_auth]/[webhook_name]?additional_parameters
https://www.startquestion.com/webhooks/190380/MTYzNz/ce4b01cbb4cde9c70c279d08c022/send-invitation?id_survey=887302&id_template=2048&email=[ANS_1]&l1=[ANS_2]&l2=[ANS_3]&l3=[ANS_4]&l4=[ANS_5]
In the address above, we can see values such as:
id_account – ID of your account on the Startquestion platform.
webhook_key and webhook_auth – Webhook key and authorization. Parameters available after logging in to the user's account in the Account -> Settings -> Integrations tab. After generating the keys, you will get their values.
webhook_name - in this case it's send-invitation
Id survey - the id number of the survey to which we want to send an invitation. You will find this value in the PROJECT tab under the title of each project.
id_tamplate - the id number of the invitation that needs to be created beforehand. Here's how to find this value.
l1,l2....l15 - attributes of the respondents have been used in the url address, which will be forwarded to the proper survey.
[ANS_NR] - these are macros under which, after completing the form, the data that we have filled in and we want to pass along with the respondent's e-mail address and attributes to the second survey in which we will collect data from respondents will be substituted.
Optional Parameters:
delay – delay in sending the invitation in minutes. Optional parameter.
footer – the ability to disable the footer with information about the sender. By default, the footer is enabled.
reminder_delay - the number of hours after sending a reminder to be sent to respondents who have not completed the survey. When the parameter is not set, the reminder will not be sent.
IMPORTANT - the survey to which we want to provide additional attributes must have an individual link to the survey set.
If we have already managed to create a webhook for sending the invitation and at the end save the changes by selecting the SAVE button.
Collecting results in a right survey
This is the last step in which we can check our invitation sending mechanism without adding respondents manually in the target survey.
1. First of all, check if you have saved the webhook correctly in the alerts and webhooks section.
2. Check if your survey, for which you will collect results from respondents, has access to the survey from an individual link.
3. If you want to check if your webhook is properly matched with data, copy it and paste it into the thank you page.
4. Fill in the test form with your data, so that the invitation will be sent to your e-mail address.
5. Check the webhook on the thank you page to see if all the fields are filled with the data you filled in the form.
6. If the webhook provided the correct data, remove it from the thank you page.
7. Check in the target survey whether a respondent with attributes has been added.
8. If all the above points have been met, your mechanism is ready :)