The Web Launch: Single Take Per Unique Value setting restricts the survey to only one response per unique Custom Field 1 value. This feature is useful for integrating surveys into a 3rd party environment where only one response is allowed for a certain unique value (such as help desk Ticket ID, CRM event ID, etc).
For a general overview of custom fields, see our separate help article.
Let’s look at a hypothetical example:
- Your customer submits a help desk ticket for an issue they encountered.
- Your help desk software generates a ticket ID for the case and the ticket is assigned to a technical representative, who helps the customer resolve the issue.
- Once the issue is resolved, the ticket is closed.
- When the ticket is closed, the help desk system will automatically generate an email to send to the customer with a survey link to gather feedback on the customer support team. The survey link that is generated will be the base survey link with the ticket ID appended as custom field 1 as well as up to four other custom field values (for example, you may choose to append the name of the customer service rep that handled the ticket). You can insert these custom field values into the email body, the survey web greeting, or even into questions in your survey. For more information on the mechanics of appending custom field values to the survey web URL, visit our help article using web URLs with custom fields. We also provide complete instructions below.
- The customer completes the survey and provides feedback on his/her experience with the representative who helped resolve the issue. SurveyMethods will ensure that only one response is provided per ticket ID. The ticket ID and any other custom field values provided are stored along with the survey response.
- You can filter results or create segments based on custom field values if, for example, you want to compare performance of one customer service representative vs. another.
- If the same customer submits another help desk ticket, the process is repeated and the same survey is sent to the customer. However, this survey will have the new ticket ID and potentially new custom field values (if, for example, they were helped by a different representative this time). The customer will be able to provide a single response for this new Custom Field 1 value.
How to Configure Web Launch: Single Take Per Unique Value
- Create and launch your survey using the Web URL Deployment method.
- After your survey is launched, navigate to Survey Settings and click “Web Launch: Single Take Per Unique Value”.
- Check the “Set Custom Field 1 as Unique Value” setting and click Save. This feature makes the first custom field that is appended to the survey URL into a unique key and restricts the survey to be taken only once for each web Custom Field 1 value. The survey can now be taken multiple times but only once per Custom Field 1 value.
- Determine which value would be used as the unique value and if you want to associate any additional values (up to 4) with each response that is taken.
- In your CRM, ERP, or Help Desk systems, configure your emails to go out to customers when the desired event occurs (in this case, when the issue is resolved, the ticket is closed and an email is sent to customers). Embed the survey web URL into your emails and append the unique value (e.g. help desk ticked ID) beginning with the prefix “&1=”. The additional 4 custom fields can also be appended to the survey URL using the prefixes “&2=”, “&3=”, “&4=”, “&5=”.
** Important note: if you are using a Custom URL for your survey, you will need to use a question mark (?) prior to the first custom field value, rather than an ampersand (&).
Let’s say the 5 custom fields to be appended to the survey web URL and their corresponding values are as below:
| Custom Field | Value 1 | Value 2 | Value 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ticket ID (Unique Value) | TK112 | TK113 | TK114 |
| Representative ID | RJ2948 | RJ2949 | RJ2949 |
| Product Name | Product1 | Product2 | Product1 |
| Customer ID | C147 | C295 | C1027 |
| Priority | Normal | Urgent | Normal |
- After appending the custom field values, these would be the survey URLs:
- https://www.surveymethods.com/EndUser.aspx?8BREW1Q2YX6D7DE81&1=TK112&2=RJ2948&3=Product1&4=C1&5=Normal
- https://www.surveymethods.com/EndUser.aspx?8BREW1Q2YX6D7DE81&1=TK113&2=RJ2949&3=Product2&4=C2&5=Urgent
- https://www.surveymethods.com/EndUser.aspx?8BREW1Q2YX6D7DE81&1=TK114&2=RJ2949&3=Product1&4=C3&5=Normal
If you’re using a custom URL, you the example URLs would look like this:
1. https://acme.com/s/acmesurveys/feedack-survey/?1=TK112&2=RJ2948&3=Product1&4=C1&5=Normal
2. https://mycompany.srvy.pro/feedback-survey/?1=TK113&2=RJ2949&3=Product2&4=C2&5=Urgent
3. https://acme.com/acmesurveys/feedback-survey/?1=TK114&2=RJ2949&3=Product1&4=C3&5=Normal
(the difference is the first custom field is prepended with a question mark (?) rather than an ampersand (&))
If you’re using a short URL, you also need to prepend with a question mark (?) instead of an ampersand (&). For example:
1. https://srvy.pro/2PB7X6C/?1=TK112&2=RJ2948&3=Product1&4=C1&5=Normal
2. https://srvy.pro/2PB7X6C/?1=TK113&2=RJ2949&3=Product2&4=C2&5=Urgent
3. https://srvy.pro/2PB7X6C/?1=TK114&2=RJ2949&3=Product1&4=C3&5=Normal
- Once a customer completes the survey, the custom field values will be stored along with their response. You can then filter by any of the custom fields when analyzing results, or create segments for different customer fields to compare values (e.g. compare satisfaction levels for different representatives). To learn more about segment analysis, visit our Custom Report Builder help article.
Important Notes
- The following characters are allowed in custom field values:
- Numbers (0-9)
- Letters (A-Z, a-z)
- Hyphen (-)
- Single quote (‘)
- Comma (,)
- Brackets (), {}, []
- Period (.)
- Characters with umlaut (ä, ë) are not supported in custom field values.
- A single space is allowed between two words within a single custom field (labels or values).
- Each custom field label should contain a minimum of 1 character. For example, &1=Betty is valid, but &=Betty is not valid.
- Each custom field (labels or values) can contain a maximum of 30 characters.
- If the first custom field value is blank, it is counted as a null value. If more than one survey is sent out with a null value for the custom field 1 value, only the first respondent would be able to complete the survey.
- A respondent with a unique custom field value will be able to take the survey only once per Custom Field 1 value. If a respondent takes the survey by clicking on the survey web URL without the Custom Field 1 value, their response will be captured but with a blank Custom Field 1 value.
- The option to allow Single or Multiple Responses is overridden if the “Single Take Per Unique Value” setting is checked. The system will ignore this setting and allow the survey to be taken multiple times but only once per Custom Field 1 value.
- The system will automatically store the respondent’s progress as he or she completes the survey. If a respondent exits from a partially completed survey and clicks the same URL to access the survey, he or she will be returned to where they left off with previous responses saved.