What are the best practices for Surveys?

Anonymous Blackbaud User

New and Enhanced Questions Help You Build Your House File

Convio is continuously improving the tools available to help you build your constituent database. One tool often overlooked is Surveys, and some exciting new features were added this spring to this vital component of Convio's suite of products.

For Convio users, surveys are more than opinion polls. They represent an easy way to develop relationships with existing constituents and to move them into a more active status. The Survey module allows you to build forms to collect information about people and to register them on your site. You can use surveys to find out how to make your site more valuable to constituents, and even to turn a prospect into a volunteer or a donor! Convio has set up special types of questions to help you unlock the full potential of your surveys as a constituent development tool.

Enhanced Options for Constituent Registration Information Questions

One key recent enhancement to Surveys concerns the Constituent Registration Info (CRI) question type. Previously, when a constituent answered a survey question of this type, their contact record could be automatically be updated with name, address and email. You now have more options and more specific control over exactly what is captured with a CRI question, including a longer list of fields and the ability to choose whether the information is required or simply requested of your survey respondents. Try it in your next survey:

Select the Constituent Registration Information question type and click the Add Question button.

Note: you won't see this option if your survey already contains a CRI question. Each survey may have one CRI question.

Question Text: enter the text you want your survey responders to see. Whatever you say here should sound more like a friendly invitation to tell more about themselves than a mandatory demand for personal information.

Select from the newly expanded list of fields to update - Name, Email, Address, Additional Fields and Opt-in Fields. For each, choose whether the data will be required or just requested.

Remember, if your constituent does not want to give you this data yet, and you required it, you may lose a survey response! If you are requiring fields, try to reward them with a discount, giveaway or special status.

Layout: you can now select from three options for the layout of your entire survey.

Hint: after saving your survey, you can preview the layout from the survey list using the Preview button.

The last four fields determine whether and how a survey responder's record is added or updated, and whether they will be logged in after the survey. Be sure to choose the options that create the most convenient and friendly experience for your constituents.

New Questions Make Relationship-Building Easy

Two other question types have been recently added to Surveys which allow you to immediately reward survey participants with a more customized experience on your site:

Hidden Interest Update - when a constituent submits their survey, their profile is automatically updated with interests you have defined, with no additional action on their part. It's easy to use this kind of question in your survey:

Select the Hidden Interest Update question type and click the Add Question button.

A list of any email or website interests you have previously defined in your database will be displayed. Check all that you would like to apply to your survey respondants.

Click Update/Preview Question. Notice that unlike most questions, this type won't display anything to the person taking the survey. Instead, a hidden line of code will be stored which is activated when the person clicks the Submit button.

Save your question.

Hidden Text Update - a survey submission can automatically update a field in their profile with a value you define. For example, you can enter a special promotional code to reward their survey participation.

Select the Hidden Text Update question types and click the Add Question button.

For Set This Value, enter the value you want to use to update their record. Be sure it is consistent with the values that are normally entered for this field. For example, if you are updating state, and your contact records usually have a two-letter abbreviation like TX, don't enter Texas or Tex. in this field.

Check Yes, update the following field with the answer to this question.

In the first drop-down menu, select the section of the user's profile which contains the field you want to populate.

In the second drop-down menu, select the field you want to populate.

Click Update/Preview Question. Notice that unlike most questions, this type won't display anything to the person taking the survey. Instead, a hidden line of code will be stored which is activated when the person clicks the Submit button.

Save your question.

Unlock the full potential of Surveys by taking a convenient eLearning class! Check the schedule and sign up today!

Not using our Survey tool yet? Maybe it's time to get the most out of Convio! Contact your Account Manager for more information.