Non-profit demonstration on Wednesday 3 Feb...

Clicktools and Salesforce Implementation partner, Westbrook, and non-profit 'Diana Awards' will be presenting at the NY non-profut user group meeting on Wednesday 3rd February at 9am-11am EST

See more details on the Salesforce community posting

It's always great...

when customers say positive things about you. It's even better when they are unsolicited. So, I was delighted to see Clicktools mentioned as Brian Vass's (Sant Corporation) favorite app in the recent AppExchange newsletter. 

Read more about Sant Corporation's use of Clicktools and Brian's other favorite AppExchange apps here.

Clicktools Spring 2010 release notes...

Release notes for the Spring 2010 release of Clicktools are now available at:

http://www.clicktools.com/documents/spring_2010_release_notes.pdf

Spring 2010 release is coming....

This weekend sees the release of new Clicktools functionality for Spring 2010.

The major addition is enhanced email capability including full wysiwyg design of emails, use of organization emails, bcc/compliance capability and full bounce/delivery management.

We have also been working hard on a video training library and the first courses (focused around the new capability and building content) will be available through the help.

In addition, features added on (or soon after) 1 February include automatic deployment of secure and personal URLs, ‘on demand’ rebuild of the CRM cache and Document upload.

Users will be sent a release note today and more details will be included on the blog shortly.

Downtime will be a maximum of 30 minutes on 06:00 GMT on Sunday 31st January 2010 (22:00 PDT on Saturday 30th January 2010)

Clicktools wins AppExchange Customer Choice Award

For the 2nd year running, I am delighted to announce that Clicktools has been voted "Best Survey App" in the Salesforce.com AppExchange Customer Choice Awards.

Read Salesforce.com blog and find out the other winners here

The awards are based solely on customer reviews & re-affirms our leadership in the market. To win this for the 2nd year running makes it very special BUT we will not be resting on our laurels - watch out for exciting news in the coming weeks!

Clicktools is at Cloudforce 2 in London on 8 December 2009

Clicktools is pleased to announce that we are sponsoring Cloudforce 2 in London at the start of December.

If you haven't booked your place yet, then unfortunately it is too late as all the guest book is closed.

If you are going, please stop by booth #17 and say hello. If you aren't going and want to see what you are missing then click here

Hope to see you there!

USA Sales Executive vacancy

Clicktools has a vacancy for a 'Work from Home' Sales Executive.

The Sales Executive will become an expert and an advocate of Clicktools products to drive revenue for the company. The ideal candidate will be well versed in technology sales and have a proven track record of meeting and exceeding quotas. To be successful, the Sales Executive will have the ability to think outside the box and provide the appropriate value proposition based on the prospect or customer needs. He or she will have a strong understanding of CRM tools and ideally Customer Feedback programs and must be able to articulate technology and product positioning to both business and technical users. They must be willing to wear many hats and be comfortable in several roles from pre to post sales stages.

This is a home-based position reporting remotely to our VP of Sales. This is a great opportunity to join a dynamic and forward thinking team of talented professionals in this emerging industry as we shape and grow our business.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Qualify and identify prospect immediate needs, introduce new ideas and explore value proposition and additional product offerings with prequalified leads.
• Demonstrate the Clicktools product within the Salesforce.com and other CRM integrated environments and as a standalone solution based on requirements and the competitive sales situation.
• Understand product functionality/capability gaps and define ways to address gaps.
• Accurately maintain prospect information for processing sales, and keeping comprehensive and accurate client information in CRM tool.
• Speak to all tiers within an organization to work through sales cycle from opportunity creation to close.
• Build and maintain a consistent pipeline to meet and or exceed quarterly revenue goals and objectives.
• Prepare in depth proposals and present innovative solutions to meet prospect objectives.
• Manage top 10 Tier 1 accounts to retain and up-sell additional Clicktools products.
• Qualifications and Requirements:
• BA/BS and/or 5-7 year experience in technology sales, specifically SaaS/OnDemand
• BtoB sales experience with participation in contract negotiations
• Proven track record of meeting and exceeding quotas and goals
• Ability to manage sales cycle from lead to close
• Proven skills qualifying prospects and matching offerings with customer needs
• Strong listening skills, consultative selling practices and exploratory info gathering skills
• Excellent time management and follow up skills
• Excellent PC and Internet skills, including proficiency in all MS Office applications, web meeting tools and salesforce.com – disciplined in capturing all communication and notes
• Experience with online demos, ability to develop and present effective sales presentations
• Knowledge of CRM & on demand software, experience with survey & customer experience a plus
• Sales Engineer or Implementation experience a plus
• Ability to think strategically and utilize excellent judgment, and exude a strong presence to create, influence and drive customer vision
• Desire and ability to embrace new technologies and become proficient quickly
• Excellent interpersonal skills, both written and verbal
• Availability for travel, some international
• Highly motivated and self-directed with the ability to work well both independently and as proactive team member – must be able to work and report remotely to supervisor
• Sense of humor a must

Clicktools offers a competitive salary and a comprehensive benefits package. If you would like to be considered please submit a cover letter demonstrating your understanding of our business and how you can contribute along with your resume and salary history/expectations to patty.hopper@clicktools.com

USA Account Management Vacancy

Clicktools has an opening for an 'Work from home' Account Manager.

The Account Manager will be responsible for cultivating and expanding relationships with current clients, gaining intimate knowledge of their business needs and acting as a liaison between the client and sales/support. He/she will identify clients’ needs and requirements in order to define the scope of solutions to meet and exceed client expectations.

The ideal candidate will be well versed in technology and have a proven track record of identifying sales opportunities within existing accounts. He/she will be adept at problem solving and be able to explain technical concepts to non-technical people in an easy to understand manner. To be successful, the Account Manager will be well organized and detail oriented with superior customer interfacing skills. He/she must be able to multi-task and prioritize. He/she will have a strong understanding of CRM tools and ideally Customer Feedback programs with a keen interest in providing technical solutions to meet business needs.

The Account Manager possesses a range of capabilities in order to perform a hybrid role of account representative, client liaison and technical support, this is a great opportunity for a motivated candidate with a positive, can do attitude.

This is a home-based position reporting remotely to our VP of Sales.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Manage an assigned portfolio of existing clients
• Ensure clients are successfully using Clicktools products by working with clients to understand business objectives and recommend strategies to achieve those goals
• Develop strong relationships with clients to protect ongoing revenue stream and identify upsell/cross-sell opportunities
• Consistently achieve and surpass quarterly quotas through additional products & services and renewing customer contracts
• Provide insight on clients’ needs to internal teams on a regular basis; represent clients’ views, requirements and experience throughout the organization
• Assist in design and implementation of customer solutions to include gathering business requirements, identifying needs and developing program scope
• Coordinate day to day activities in support of client
• Use salesforce.com to record and maintain daily customer activity
• Qualifications and Requirements:
• BA/BS required
• 3-5 years experience in account management or client services within technology environment
• Proven track record of meeting and exceeding quotas and goals
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills – must be good on phone
• Strong listening skills, consultative selling practices and exploratory info gathering skills
• Excellent time management and follow up skills
• Excellent PC and Internet skills, including proficiency in all MS Office applications, web meeting tools and salesforce.com – disciplined in capturing all communication and notes
• Must be extremely organized and detail-oriented
• Ability to work tactfully through challenging client issues
• Knowledge of CRM & on demand software, experience with survey & customer experience/customer feedback and/or a salesforce integrated product a plus
• Desire and ability to embrace new technologies and become proficient quickly.
• Highly motivated and self-directed with the ability to work well both independently and as proactive team member – must be able to work and report remotely to supervisor.
• Problem solver who takes initiative to get things done; an enthusiastic go getter!
• Sense of humor a must

Clicktools offers a competitive salary and a comprehensive benefits package. If you would like to be considered please submit a cover letter demonstrating your understanding of our business and how you can contribute along with your resume and salary history/expectations to patty.hopper@clicktools.com

Clicktools integration with Oracle is now validated!

After much work, we are pleased to announce that Clicktools integration with Oracle CRM On Demand has been validated, meaning that the Clicktools integration is scalable, secure and works in the correct way.

Clicktools is the only provider with officially approved Salesforce, Oracle CRM On Demand and SugarCRM integrations. and it emphasises as our position as one of the leaders in integrating surveys with CRM.

Come see us at OpenWorld

Further to our post yesterday about Dreamforce, I wanted to let people know that we are also exhibiting at Oracle OpenWorld this year (our 1st year!).

We will be in the CRM On Demand Pavilion with the other Inner Circle partners.

More details here: http://www.oracle.com/us/openworld/index.htm

Dreamforce 2009 - we are there on booth 218

Just a short note to let everyone know that Clicktools will be at booth 218 at Dreamforce.

This will be our 6th year (we missed the first Dreamforce) and we invite you to join us at the could-computing event of the year with a special discount of $100 USD off your registration fees. To receive your discount, register at www.dreamforce.com and use the promotional code EXH12670 during the final step of the Registration Process.

Hope to see you all there!

Sales Executive vacancy

Clicktools has a vacancy for a Sales Executive in the UK.

The Sales Executive will become an expert and an advocate of Clicktools products to drive revenue for the company. The ideal candidate will be well versed in technology sales and have a proven track record of meeting and exceeding quotas. To be successful, the Sales Executive will have the ability to think outside the box and provide the appropriate value proposition based on the prospect or customer needs. He or she will have a strong understanding of CRM tools and ideally Customer Feedback programs. They must be willing to wear many hats and be comfortable in several roles fro pre to post sales stages.

The Sales Executive will have the opportunity to work from home with 1-2 times a week in office in Poole, UK reporting to our VP of Sales located in the US. We are looking for a highly motivated self-starter. This is a great opportunity to join a dynamic and forward thinking team of talented professionals in this emerging industry as we shape and grow our business.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Qualify and identify prospect immediate needs, introduce new ideas and explore value proposition and additional product offerings with prequalified leads.
• Demonstrate the Clicktools product as a standalone solution as well as within the Salesforce.com and other CRM integrated environments.
• Accurately maintain prospect information for processing sales, and keeping comprehensive and accurate client information in CRM tool.
• Speak to all tiers within an organization to work through sales cycle from opportunity creation to close.
• Build and maintain a consistent pipeline to meet and or exceed quarterly revenue goals and objectives.
• Prepare in depth proposals and present innovative solutions to meet prospect objectives.
• Manage top 10 Tier 1 accounts to retain and up-sell additional Clicktools products.

Qualifications and Requirements:

• 4 year University degree and/or 5-7 year experience in similar position, preferably in SaaS technology sales
• Experience selling BtoB with experience participating in contract negotiations
• Proven track record of meeting and exceeding quotas and goals
• Ability to manage sales cycle from opportunity to close
• Proven skills qualifying prospects and matching offerings with customer needs
• Strong listening skills, consultative selling practices and exploratory info gathering skills
• Excellent time management and follow up skills
• Excellent PC and Internet skills, including proficiency in all MS Office applications, web meeting tools and salesforce.com - disciplined in capturing all communication and notes
• Experience with online demos, ability to develop and present effective sales presentations
• Knowledge of CRM & on demand software, experience with survey & customer experience a plus.
• Ability to think strategically and utilize excellent judgment, exude a strong presence and create, influence, and drive customer vision.
• Desire and ability to embrace new technologies and become proficient quickly.
• Excellent interpersonal skills, both written and verbal.
• Availability for travel, some international.
• Highly motivated and self-directed with the ability to work well both independently and as proactive team member - must be able to work and report remotely to supervisor.
• Sense of humor a must.

Clicktools offers a competitive salary and a comprehensive benefits package. For immediate consideration submit CV, and salary history/expectations to patty.hopper@clicktools.com

Integration through file import/export

Integration through file import/export
Clicktools provides comprehensive integration with the most popular on‐demand CRM packages that allows real time, automated transfer of data between Clicktools and CRM. Whilst this level of integration is with a limited number of software packages, data can be exchanged with other systems using Clicktools Import and Export functionality.

The data that is used as the basis for Clicktools surveys often sits in other systems; for example a customer list may sit in an ERP, E‐Commerce or Accounting system. Equally, a company may want to take some of the Clicktools’results and embed these into core systems. Exchanging this information with Clicktools can be done using functionality to support file import/export.

IMPORTING CONTACTS
Clicktools includes a Contact database used for deploying surveys via email. A Contact record holds up to 28 data elements for each contact, 22 of which can be defined by the user: email address is used as the unique identifier and must be present. All of the data items can be used to personalise the content of a survey in two ways:

• Personalise survey/form content. Different Questions in the survey/form can be presented based on the data in a contact record. For example if a Contact field holds information about product type, different questions can be presented for different types of product.
• Information from the Contact record can be ‘piped’into the survey/form. For example, in a survey following a call to a help desk, the subject of the call (imported into the Contact record) can be inserted into the introductory title of the survey.
  

Bulk import is done using a file (typically a .csv file) that matches the structure of the Clicktools Contact record. It is important that the data matches this structure or surveys may not function correctly. Clicktools provides a header file for this purpose. Where a record with an email already exists, Clicktools will overwrite any of the associated data, ensuring that each record is unique. There is no limit to the number of contacts that can be imported.

EXPORTING RESULTS
Whilst Clicktools provides a low cost ‘iewer’license for people that only need to see results of their forms/surveys, some companies want to include selected results (e.g. overall satisfaction) in their core systems.

Clicktools provides an export facility, which produces a file that can then be imported into other systems. The Clicktools Export facility provides extensive flexibility for selecting which results to export:

• Select questions to be exported
• Filter records to be exported using contact data, question responses, dates or any combination of these.
• Contact data associated with the results.
• Data about the survey such as completion date and survey title.

Clicktools provides a file (a comma or tab separated values file) that most systems can import.

SCENARIO
Acme wants to send a survey to customers that have purchased products via their web site in the past month. Whilst Clicktools is used for detailed analysis and reporting, Acme want selected results to be visible in their accounting system, the primary system for their product and customer data.

The list of customers to be surveyed, their names, a unique customer ID, email address and the product they purchased are exported from the accounting system and imported into Clicktools.

Personalised email invitations are sent from Clicktools. The survey references the product they purchased (using piping) and, (using Conditional questions) presents different questions based on which of the six product families their purchase involved.

On completion of the survey each month, selected data are exported using Clicktools Export functionality:

• Customer ID (originally imported into Clicktools Contact record from the accounting system), which is used to associate the data with the correct record in the accounting system.
• Overall satisfaction score.
• Date the survey was completed.
• A data filter was set in Clicktools that selected only data captured in the last month into the export file.

The resulting .csv file was passed to IT for uploading the data into the accounting system. If you would like to discuss your requirements in more detail, please contact your account manager or sales@clicktools.com.

Deploying Forms/Surveys via email and web

Deploying Forms/Surveys
Clicktools provides a number of ways of deploying forms/surveys including web, Clicktools email, third party email, phone, CRM web link, IVR and kiosk. This post outlines the most popular of these methods – Clicktools email and web.

EMAIL DEPLOYMENT
Clicktools includes a Contact record that holds up to 28 data elements for each contact, 22 of which can be defined by the user. The process for email deployment is:

• Extract customer/contact list from your core system including email address and any associated demographic/segmentation data.
• Structure the data using a header file provided by Clicktools.
• Import data into Contacts using Clicktools Import facility.
• Deploy form/survey using a plain text or HTML email invitation created in Clicktools. Invitations can be personalised using Contact data.
• Unique form/survey URL is sent to each participant. Content can be personalised using Contact data or responses to previous questions.
• Results are visible in real time in Clicktools and can be filtered (segmented) using Contact data, question responses and/or dates and any combination.

SIMPLE WEB DEPLOYMENT
Clicktools provides a URL for each form/survey which can be placed anywhere on a web site and controlled like any link. Common approaches to launching this URL include:

• Simple button or link
• Launch script that presents the form/survey as Pop up
• Pop under
• On exit – Message is presented at the beginning of a session asking the visitor if they will complete a form/survey on completion of their visit. If they agree, the form/survey is presented at the end of the visit or a point defined by the script.

NB It is wise not to interrupt a user’s core task when presenting a form/survey as this could lead to abandonment.

COMPLEX WEB DEPLOYMENT (INTEGRATED)
Whilst not part of core Clicktools functionality, it is possible to capture data from cookies into a Clicktools survey to personalise the content or associate a response with an individual. This is dependent on the information being accessible to Clicktools in a session or persistent cookie. For example, a cookie may hold a unique customer identifier that can be used to link survey results to a specific customer record in a third party system.

The launch script is more complex: on being triggered, the script reads the cookie and parses the required information from the cookie text. This text is used to dynamically annotate the basic survey URL with the information, which in turn populates a hidden question in the survey. As with other surveys, this data can be used to personalise the survey content (using conditional questions) and/or form part of the survey response. When the results are exported from Clicktools, this data can be used to associate the data with records in another system.To exploit this method, the script has to be launched from the same site that the cookie resides on.

Adding or displaying Clicktools analytics charts and question results in a Salesforce dashboard

Adding/Displaying Clicktools analytics charts and question results in a Salesforce Dashboard.

Here is the process for putting Clicktools question views and analytics dashboards into Salesforce dashboards. The process uses a web-link for each element you want to display in your Salesforce dashboard and a custom S-control.

1- Grab the URL of the Clicktools element you want to display in Salesforce
2- Customize the URL to make it compatible
3- Create a custom S-control in Salesforce
4- Add the custom S-control component to your dashboard

1. Log in to Clicktools directly – not through Salesforce.

2. Go to the question by question view and look at the results for the question you want to display in Salesforce. Copy the URL from Clicktools – you can get this from the address bar in your browser.

Here's an example:
https://www.clicktools.com/dashboard/instance_question.jsp?instanceId=b41180e8866741d&questionId=b41180e60a4ad3b

For an analytics dashboard:
https://www.clicktools.com/dashboard/report.jsp?reportId=b611d53e4dac5ff&rgId=b611d53bb6f2eb3

3. You next need to customise the url by adding “_plain” to it before the .jsp, and ‘email={!User_Email}&sfsid={!User_Session_ID}&’ after the .jsp? as shown below. (Click on the links to see what this actually looks like – you may be presented with a login screen before you can view the link)

https://www.clicktools.com/dashboard/instance_question_plain.jsp?email={!User_Email}&sfsid={!User_Session_ID}&serverurl={!API_Partner_Server_URL_120}&instanceId=b41180e8866741d&questionId=b41180e60a4ad3b

https://www.clicktools.com/dashboard/report_plain.jsp? email={!User_Email}&sfsid={!User_Session_ID}&serverurl={!API_Partner_Server_URL_120}&reportId=b611d53e4dac5ff&rgId=b611d53bb6f2eb3

4. You next need to create a custom S-control in Salesforce. If you give it a name and then select the URL radio button and copy the URL itself into the content that is it! Don’t forget to save!

5. Next when you add a component into your SF dashboard select the custom S-control option and select the one you have set up.

That’s it! You can adjust the height of the chart using the Height in pixels setting as shown in the screenshot above. There is however a limitation in Salesforce dashboards that you cannot edit the width.

How to improve response rates...

We are often asked how Clicktools can help improve Response rates. Whilst Clicktools can help in one or two areas; the most impact you can have on your response rates is entirely within your control. There are three areas that influence response rates and this blog gves out top 10 tips to improve them.

A. Show you are serious about collecting feedback - be professional.
If it isn't clear to the customer that you are serious about their opinion then one of two things will happen. They won't answer the survey or they won't give a serious response. In a lot of ways the second is far worse than the first.

B. Ask the right questions at the right time
If I asked you to tell me on a scale of 1 to 10 (where 1 is Not At All and 10 is Completely) how satisfed you were with your evening meal on 15 November 2008, I doubt you could tell me. In fact, if you did, I wouldn't be too confident about the answer. So, why do so many organizations take this approach to customer feedback. You can run a statistically sound survey to give you this information but come on people, apply the common sense factor - it ain't gonna work!

C. Build a relationship with the customer
Capturing feedback from a customer should be part of your overall operation business improvement process. This is by far the largest single influencer on response rates.

Here are Clicktools top 10 tips for improving response rates:

1. Reflect your brand - Show your customers you are serious about their feedback by reflecting your brand. You wouldn't use a landing page that had yellow background with purple comic font so why run a survey like that. Out of the top 5, this is the one where Clicktools can help. Clicktools doesn't provide templates called 'spring meadows' or 'summer flowers' but what it does do is enable you to completely match your website and/or brand guidelines.
   
   
2. Ensure correct spelling/grammar - The amount of emails I see that are poorly worded and/or misspelled never ceases to amaze me. At the very least turn your spell checker on.
   
   
3. Get feedback is as soon as possible after the experience or event you want feedback on. So, if someone raises a case/ticket then ask for feedback as soon as (perhaps an hour) after that case is closed.
   
   
4. In terms of relationship surveys, don't just bulk email customers once or twice a year - use an event such as license start date or date they became a customer to trigger and run a constant pulse of surveys.
   
   
5. Make the survey specific to the thing you are measuring. Don't overpad the survey with superfluous market research questions or try to sell me things.
   
   
6. Don't ask me things you should already know. If I am a customer you should know what products I have (certainly in a B2B environment) or what service/support program I have or, perhaps even worse, what country I am in. Please don't ask me this in a survey - it just shows me you don't really care. If you must ask do it in a survey intended to do just that - update the information you have. Asking for people to update one or two pieces of information in a survey can be acceptable - perhaps a phone number at the end of a survey.
   
   
7. Act on feedback. Give the opportunity for customers (or whoever) to request talk to someone or, based on their response ask them if they are willing to talk to someone.
   
   
8. Share internally. Integrating feedback with your CRM system will give everyone in your organization an understanding and picture of your customers' mindset the last time they gave you some feedback and over time. This can help Account Managers when making calls thru to call-center agents who are dealing with the customer
   
   
9. Share externally. Nothing frustrates someone more than completing a survey and not knowing (ever) what happened. Telling your customers what the feedback was and, more importantly, what you did because of their feedback will actively engage them in the feedback program and encourage them to be open and honest (and complete) in their responses.

Oops, that's a top 9. My final tip for survey success is, you guessed it - use Clicktools!

Implementation Consultant wanted

We are rapidly expanding our operation in the USA and have an opportunity for an Implementation Consultant to join our team.

The Implementation Consultant will become an expert and an advocate of Clicktools products in order to provide expertise and technical support to users. The ideal candidate will have a strong understanding of CRM from a power user and product integration perspective, and have demonstrated success supporting and implementing technical solutions. To be successful the Implementation Consultant will have the ability to understand customers' business needs and effectively develop, communicate and deliver solutions that meet those needs.

This is a telecommute position for a highly motivated self-starter and a great opportunity to join a dynamic and forward thinking team of talented professionals in this emerging industry as we grow our presence in the US.

Responsibilities:

• Analyze the needs of customers, and translate those needs to determine how Clicktools products can best be adapted and utilized to provide individual client business solutions.
• Manage the implementation of Clicktools projects and solutions on behalf of customers.
• Provide customers with technical support & training primarily via email, phone and online across all US time zones, with some onsite as needed.
• Organize and manage interdepartmental activities and resources to complete solutions projects according to agreed specifications within defined budgets and time constraints.
• Facilitate and manage communication between project team members and customers.
• Institute administrative processes and procedures, including maintenance plans, logs, and status reports.
• Develop an advanced knowledge of company products, policies, and programs and maintain in depth knowledge of the current market conditions and competitors.
• Support US Sales by interfacing with existing and prospective customers to determine their technical requirements and to discuss and develop solutions.
• Cultivate and maintain productive relationships with US customers.

Qualifications and Requirements:

• BA/BS in related field.
• 5-7 years experience in a similar position preferably supporting and implementing SaaS/OnDemand CRM solutions
• Demonstrated use of excellent project management skills, proficiency in PRINCE2 and project management methods a plus.
• Demonstrated proficiency providing technical support and training to customers via email and phone in a timely, efficient and accurate manner.
• Knowledge of CRM best practices; Knowledge of Survey & Customer Experience best practices a plus.
• Ability to think strategically and utilize excellent judgment, exude a strong presence and create, influence, and drive customer vision.
• Desire and ability to embrace new technologies and become proficient quickly.
• Excellent interpersonal skills, both written and verbal.
• Flexibility to provide support to customers in all US time zones.
• Availability for travel, some international.
• Ability to remain calm and positive while multitasking to meet customer needs.
• Organization and attention to detail.
• Highly motivated and self-directed with the ability to work well both independently and as proactive team member - must be able to work from home and report remotely to supervisor.

To apply please email patty.hopper@clicktools.com including a resume/CV.

Net Promoter calculations in Salesforce..

We are often asked about how you can calculate Net Promoter scores in Salesforce. For those who don't know (where have you been??), Net Promoter was conceived by Fred Reichheld and is a common approach for measuring customer loyalty.
[Net Promoter is a registered trademark of Satmetrix Systems, Fred Reichheld and Bain & Co.]

To set up Net Promoter scores in Salesforce one approach is to:
(This should be tested in either a Sandbox or Development account prior to deployment in a production org)

1. Set up a custom 'number' field to collect the survey responses. This will usually be in a custom object linked to the Account (and any other relevant object such as a Contact etc.)

2. Set up 3 custom 'number' fields to convert the survey response in to a promoter value (Promoter, Detractor or Passive) using the following formulas:

Promoter: IF(score__c > 8, 1, 0)

Detractor: IF(score __c < 7, 1, 0)

Passive: IF(AND(score __c <>6), 1, 0)

The above formulas assume a custom field to collect the survey response called "Score". Obviously, amend to your own requirement.

3. In a report use a "Custom Summary Formula" to calculate the overall Net Promoter score. Net Promoter score is defined as %Promoters - %Detractors. The following formula calculates the required percentage:

Net Promoter Score: Feedback__c.Promoter__c:SUM/RowCount*100)-(Feedback__c.Detractor__c:SUM/RowCount*100)

The formulas refer to two of the three fields defined in step 2 and will be automatically in the correct format if you use Salesforce to insert the field names. Obviously, amend this to match your own requirement. Depending upon the way the survey responses are stored you may need to amend this formula to calculate 'RowCount' in a different way.

4. This formula can then be used in any report to display overall and segmented Net Promoter scores in Salesforce.com dashboards.

5. You can also use a similar approach using summary roll-up fields in Parent objects (such as Account) to display overall Account scores and graphics (such as a traffic light where red is Detractor, Orange is passive and Green is Promoter).

Good luck!

Customer Experience - State of the Nation survey

In association with MyCustomer, Clicktools is running a global survey on customer experience practices. We are keen to gather views from as many people as possible and in return for completing the survey, we will send you a free copy of the final report.

You can complete the survey at MyCustomer.

I look forward to hearing your views and sharing the findings with you.

Advanced Salesforce Synchronization Management

Following feedback from and discussions with customers, earlier this year we changed the way that users managed responses and synchronizations with their CRM solution.

Want to know exactly what these changes mean for Salesforce users? This article explains how the new Advanced CRM Synchronization works and then goes on to highlight the answers to some of our Salesforce users frequently asked questions.


So what's new?

1. Clear identification of Synchronization status.
Previously, Clicktools simply told you how many responses were available for synchronization. It was not possible to find out whether these responses had been completed or failed synchronization. The only way to see error messages was to manually synchronize but this could result in synchronization of empty responses, and matching errors to responses was difficult.

Clicktools now separates responses in to multiple columns, enabling you to clearly identify the exact status of your synchronization and easily correct any errors before synchronizing again manually. The columns displayed are:

• Not Complete – the number of ‘incomplete’ survey responses, i.e. the Submit/Close button has not been pressed or are in the process of being completed.



• Ready For Sync – the number of ‘completed’ responses, i.e. The Submit/Close button has been pressed but the response has not yet been synchronized. This will be zero if synchronization is set to ‘Automatic’.
  


• Failures – the number of responses that have failed to synchronize because of an error that needs correcting.
  


• Retries – the number of responses with temporary errors (see bullet 2. below for further detail). Will always be zero if synchronization is set to ‘Manual’.
  


• Successful – the total number of responses for the survey instance that are currently stored in Clicktools and have been successfully synchronized.
  


• Sync Type – no change; shows ‘Automatic’ or ‘Manual’ synchronization.
  


• Last Sync – no change; shows the date and time of the last successful synchronization.

2. Re-try of Automatic synchronization.
Previously, if Automatic synchronization failed due to a failure to connect to Salesforce (e.g. during standard maintenance periods, temporary connection problems) Clicktools would simply place the failed response in the “Responses to Synch” column. Now, these responses will be visible in the new “Retries” column and Clicktools will re-attempt the synchronization once an hour for another 4 hours. If a response has failed after this period it will be placed in to the new “Failures” column.


3. Clearer separation of Surveys.
Rather than placing all surveys in one list, the CRM control panel now places surveys in to their respective tabs easing identification and management.


4. Visible error management and tracking.
Each column in bullet 1 will contain a number representing the relevant total of responses for each survey instance (rows) that meet that criterion. Each number greater than zero in the ‘Not Complete’, ‘Ready for Sync’ and ‘Failures’ column links to a page that will display the relevant individual responses. From there, you can View, Edit or Delete responses and select one or more responses to manually synchronize. In addition, when the ‘Failures’ screen is displayed you will see two additional columns; ‘Fail Message’ and ‘Fail Date’. Fail message will show the error message returned by Salesforce whilst an icon to the right of the message may be visible which will show more information when you hover over the icon. Fail Date will show the date and time of the last failed synchronization for that response.


FAQ’s

Q. Why do I have a large number of 'Not Complete' responses, where previously they were marked as available for syncing?
A. Only newly created responses (post the application update) can be identified as being complete. All previously completed or part completed responses cannot be identified as complete and will therefore appear in the 'not complete' column.

Q. Why don't I see all my failed responses yet?
A. Only responses which have failed to synchronize after the application update will be listed against the 'failures' column. You will need to manually synchronize responses first.

Q. Can I just synchronize all the 'not complete' surveys?
A. Yes, but this requires qualification. The count of 'not complete' responses includes responses which have been abandoned (truly not complete), pre application update completed responses that have not yet been synchronized with Salesforce, as well as responses which are in the process of being completed at the time the page was accessed. This last set of responses should not be synchronized as this may cause incomplete information to be populated into Salesforce. To exclude these responses from synchronization, a date filter can be applied which excludes for example those created in the previous 24 hours, the remaining can then be selected for synchronization.

Q. When I manually synchronize responses for a survey marked as 'automatic', it doesn't use my current Salesforce credentials.
A. This is part of the new functionality in the latest release. If a survey is marked as 'automatic' for Salesforce synchronization, then the credentials specified for that survey instance will be used whenever responses are synchronized, either automatically due to a survey response being completed or a response being manually synchronized.

If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact us on: USA: 1-800-774-4065, UK: 0800 0432587 or click here to e-mail us