Product Tip - Are you using the correct URL?

If you are including a link to your survey on a website, blog or social media, make sure to use the correct URL. In Clicktools, the URL is located on the the Deployment Setup tab.

To copy the link, hover over it with your mouse and right click (PC) or CTRL + click (MAC) and copy the shortcut. DO NOT click on the "Survey URL" link and copy the resulting browser link as this will generate an error message to your customers that looks like this: http://goo.gl/OTgGb.

In Clicktools, you can also generate a unique URL for your survey to target individual contacts. This enables you to personalise the questions and content. In addition you can track responses and send email reminders.

Stay tuned for more useful product tips.

Rose Cruse
Product Manager

Product Tips - Did you know you can use '%' in Conditions?

This useful tip went almost viral (around our office at least).

Perhaps you are building a complex survey where Question Condition Definitions are used to present further content. Did you know that you can use the wild card character '%' to represent anything?

For example, let's say a question requires a respondent to enter a text response to identify their favorite store. If they don't want to answer, they can leave the text area blank. Later on, you may want to present a question to all respondents that entered something (anything) in the text field for their favorite store. In this case the '%' means anything.

Alternatively, you may want to present a question to those who entered nothing (blank) as a response to a previous question. In this case, you would simply leave the text area blank.

Do you use any other wild card characters in Clicktools?

Rose Cruse
Product Manager

Product Tips - Out With the Old...In With the New!

The beginning of a new year always seems like the appropriate time to do a little clean-up. You know, out with the old, in with the new. Now might be a good time to consider doing a little "early spring" cleaning in Clicktools as well.

For example, do you really need to keep responses from a survey from that took place in 2005? Regular (or even once a year!) housekeeping can help you free up much needed storage space.

Here's a way to remove unwanted individual survey responses:

1. By accessing the "Individual" tab in the results area for a survey instance, you can select a response and delete it from Clicktools using the [Remove] button. You can use any of the filtering options if you only want to delete a certain group of responses (those before a certain date for example).

2. By accessing the "Participants" tab in the deployment area of a survey instance, you can select responses and [Remove].

Deleted responses are held in the recycle bin for a period of 7 days in case you need to restore them. The recycle bin is available in the "Administration" area of Clicktools.

Don't forget! Deleting a complete survey instance from the set up area, or the survey itself from the Builder tab will also delete any associated responses. However, responses will remain against your account storage for a period of 7 days. Therefore, it's always advisable to remove results using one of the two options mentioned above.

Rose Cruse

Product Manager

Product Tips - Forgotten your password?

You know you've had a great holiday when you get back to work and can't remember any of your passwords.

In Clicktools, if you have a Principal role, you can determine what happens after 3 consecutive unsuccessful login attempts. You can:

• take no action
• lockout the account for a given period of time
• lock the account permanently until a user with a Principal role unlocks the account

The Lockout Policy may be set at any time by a Principal using the Organisation: Preferences menu. To unlock a locked user account a Principal user must:

1. Click Administration on the main menu
2. Click Users
3. Click the User Name
4. Click View
5. Click the Unlock button.

Don't forget! Once logged in, if there is no activity for a 30 minute period, you will be automatically be logged out.

Happy New Year!

Rose Cruse, Product Manager

Product Tips - Preventing Spam Attacks

Who doesn't hate spam?

Did you know that Clicktools can help you prevent spam attacks and multiple submissions on your forms? Typically, attackers who access your survey or form will attempt to respond multiple times. This type of attack could be either automated or from a single malicious user.

Here are some tips to help reduce the impact of these attacks:

1- Create a unique link.

Using a unique link (called a personal URL in Clicktools) means that re-accessing the link will just overwrite the previous response. A single response can only be synched once into your CRM environment. You can also have the link expire after the first submission to prevent subsequent completions.

Unique links are available when deploying from Clicktools. If you are deploying directly from your CRM environment, it is possible to create a personal URL with a bit of customization.

Remember that personal links relate only to specific contacts from your CRM or Clicktools environment. If you have a survey or form accessible externally on a website, a Personal URL would not be used.

2- Set multiple responses to 'No' when using a shared URL.

This places a cookie on the respondents browser preventing multiple responses being submitted from the same computer within a 30 day period. Clicking the link again would bring up a previous response.

3- Utilize an introduction page in your survey or form.

Add an introduction page so that the submit button is not available on the first page of the survey. This can help prevent automated attacks.

4- Ask a validation question.

Add a question at the beginning of the survey to validate the response. Something like a text question asking, "What color is a banana?" You can then add a condition to your survey mapping that will only synch data to your CRM environment where the correct value (i.e. 'Yellow or 'yellow') has been entered.

Rose Cruse

Product Manager

Product Tips - Working With QR Codes

Do you use QR codes?

You've all seen them. They're everywhere. In magazines, catalogues, at trade shows. "Scan this code with your smart phone to receive a special offer!"

This type of technology is called "QR" or "quick response" codes. A QR code is a type of two-dimensional matrix barcode often used to represent a web link (URL). Anyone with a smart phone and one of the widely available free scanner apps can scan and read a QR code. Upon scanning on the smart phone, the user is immediately taken to the URL link. This is much quicker than having to type in a (sometimes long) URL.

QR codes are easily generated using one of the QR generators available of the web. Just Google "QR code creator" to find one. Several of them are free.

When creating your QR code, you'll have to know what URL you want to direct people to. This could be a specific survey URL, your web site, or a targeted landing page for a special offer. If you are using the Team and above editions of Clicktools, you could make use of the 'Actions' functionality to redirect respondents from a generic Clicktools landing page to a specific landing page or survey.

Once you have generated your QR code with the desired URL, simply load this into Clicktools as an image. This can be included in your Clicktools generated emails, newsletters, etc.

Scan this QR code to access the Clicktools page on the salesforceappexchange: http://appexchange.salesforce.com/listingDetail?listingId=a0N300000016aHQEAY

As the use of QR codes is not yet widespread, do not forget to give your respondents some guidance as to what to do and always provide an alternative means to access to the URL link.

You could implement the same approach for Blippar™ as well.

So, tell us! How are you using QR codes?

Rose Cruse

Product Manager

Product Tips - Sampling

When you see a chart in your dashboard analysing the responses received from one of your Clicktools surveys (i.e., Net Promoter), how do you know if the views are really reflective of those in your target audience?

The term 'sampling' is used to represent the number of people who must complete your survey in order for you to get a representative view of your target audience.
 
The term 'confidence level' represents how often the true percentage of the population would pick an answer that lies within the confidence interval. A confidence level of 95% means you can be 95% certain; the 99% confidence level means you can be 99% certain etc.

Combining the confidence level and interval in our example, we can be 95% sure that between 85% and 95% of the population would choose answer "A". The confidence interval is the plus-or-minus figure reported alongside survey results. For example, if 90% percent of your sample pick answer "A" and you are using a confidence interval of 5, it is fair to say that if the entire target audience had answered the question, between 85% (90-5) and 95% (90+5) would have picked answer "A" also.

The tables below outline how many completed responses you need to treat the results as reflective of the whole of your population for different combinations of confidence interval, confidence level and target population.

Most research is carried out using 95% confidence level with a 3% or 5% confidence interval (highlighted in green and orange).

		Confidence Interval
Population size	Confidence Level	+/- 1%	+/-2%	+/- 3%	+/- 4%	+/- 5%
100	95%	99	96	92	86	80
	99%	99	98	95	91	87
1000	95%	906	706	516	375	278
	99%	943	806	649	510	400
10000	95%	4,899	1,936	964	566	370
	99%	6,246	2,938	1,561	942	624
100,000 or more	95%	8,763	2,345	1,056	597	383
	99%	14,267	3,994	1,815	1,029	661

So, for example, if you have 1,000 customers, you need results from 278 customers to be 95% confident in your results to a level of + or - 5%.

Now that you have confidence that your responses are truly reflective, be sure to give all the responses you receive equal billing. If using NPS, use your detractor's views to make improvements and identify your promoters to spread the word.

Clicktools Analytics allows you to analyse your data by combining responses to questions and then publishing the results in the form of a chart. These charts can be grouped and presented in a dashboard, providing you with real time feedback. This functionality is available within the Professional, Enterprise and Global editions.

Rose Cruse

Product Manager

Product Tip - Customizing Browser Tab Descriptions

Did you know that you can customize the text of your browser tab in Clicktools? Well, you can, and it's quite easy to do! Simply enter the following HTML code in the head section of your Advanced Presentation Template:

<!-- Title below will show in Browser tab -->

<title>your text in here </title>

Don't forget to change 'your text in here' to the text you want to display. Here's an example of the HTML used to present the tab description 'Clicktools' seen in this screen snipit:

<!-- Title below will show in Browser tab -->

<title>Clicktools</title>

Advance Presentation Templates are available to those Clicktools users with Personal+ editions and above.

Stay tuned for more useful product tips and tricks!

Rose Cruse

Product Manager

Product Tips - Exit pages

As the Product Manager for Clicktools, I believe that one of our most underrated features is the ability to add an exit page at the end of your survey. It's nice to be able to add a "thank you" page, not only because it's considerate, but it also lets respondents know that they have properly completed the survey.

Within the deployment page, which is accessible when creating an instance, you can enter a URL to be used as an 'Exit Page' which will be displayed at the end of your survey/questionnaire. This URL could be one of the following types:

• An exit page of your own design
• An existing page on your website
• Any page that is accessible as a public URL

You can create a single landing page with Clicktools to be used as your exit page. This page can also include your specific branding if you wish, depending on the template you choose and could be re-used again and again with different surveys. Once you've created this page in Clicktools, all you have to do is enter the specific URL as your exit page.

Don't forget that when you define your exit page it is a good idea to test the link to make sure it works so that your respondents don't receive an error message when completing your survey.

Can't remember how to find a URL for a Clicktools page? It can be found within the deployment details. (See below)

So, there you have it. That's how to add an exit page to your survey or form. I'd love to hear from you as to what you believe is the most underrated feature for Clicktools. Feel free to comment!

Rose Cruse

Product Manager

Teaching Matters! Help Us Give Back!

Last month we launched the "Paying it Forward" campaign where Clicktools donates $5.00 to charity for each review we receive on the AppExchange. This month's chosen charity is Teaching Matters, a non-profit organization that partners with educators to ensure that all students can succeed in the digital age. If you are a Salesforce user and would like to participate in our "Paying it Forward" campaign, click here to give us a quick review and we'll donate $5.00* to Teaching Matters.

Teaching Matters targets common challenges to student success with educational innovations made possible through the use of technology. Research has shown that technology in the classroom can positively affect student achievement and attitudes toward learning. Teaching Matters offers comprehensive services to enhance school performance, instruction and student learning. In collaboration with front line educators, content experts and technologists, Teaching Matters develops innovative and engaging educational content that pursues a new standard for student success. This standard strikes a balance between core academic and 21st century learning environments to prepare students for their future.

As a technology company ourselves, Clicktools is proud to support the mission of Teaching Matters. We value learning. We value technology. And of course we value feedback. We hope our Salesforce customers will give us feedback and join our Paying it Forward campaign this month to help Teaching Matters. Click here to participate.

For more information on Teaching Matters, visit their website here at www.teachingmatters.org.

*up to $5,000.00

Product Tips: Spacing Out Response Options

Sometimes when creating your survey or form, you might want to set up your questions in a table format, as seen in the example below.

To vary the distance between the response option columns, insert this example CSS code into the <HEAD> section of your advanced presentation template:

<style type+"text/css">
.ct_td_choice { width: 150px; }
</style>

The width in pixels can be modified to suit your requirements. If you would like to restrict this type of spacing to a specific question or set of questions, assign a CSS identifier to the question layout and then add it to the above CSS like this:

<style type="text/cs">
.my_image_question .ct_td_choice { width: 380px }
</style>

The ".my_image_question" is your CSS identifier. You can add CSS identifiers within the question edit screen on the 'layout' tab by double-clicking on the question in the builder.

I find this feature most useful when using images for labels.

The use of advance presentation template is available to those using editions Personal+ and above. If any of this sounds too technical for you or you are not familiar with HTML and CSS, I'd suggest you find a qualified web developer to help with these custom modifications.

Keep following the blog for more useful tips and tricks and be sure to leave me comments as to what type of information you'd like to see in future posts.

Rose Cruse
Product Manager

Product Tips - personalizing your questions

When creating a survey or web form, the more you can personalize the content specifically to your target, the better response you are going to get. Clicktools offers all levels of users the ability to personalize their survey questions.

By including a previous answer to a subsequent question, you can re-enforce the feeling that you know your respondents and are tailoring your services to them. We call this process piping answers into text. The formula is ${question_n} - where 'n' is the question number.

Here's an example:

Here's a simple survey that asks a person to enter their name and then select their favorite color. We can pipe the person's answer from question 1 into questions 2 and 3.

Q1 What is your name?
Q2 Hi ${question_1}, what is your favorite color? [Red, Blue, Green]
Q3 Why is ${question_2} your favourite colour?

If the person enters Sarah as their answer to Q1; Q2 will look like this
'Hi Sarah, what is your favorite color?’

If Sarah then selects Green as her favorite color; Q3 will look like this
'Why is Green your favorite color?'

It is possible to get much more detailed with this process, for example:

Q3 Tell me ${question_1}, why is ${question_2} your favorite color?

It will look like this....'Tell me Sarah, why is Green your favorite color?'

One thing you'll need to remember is that for the answers to appear in a future question, the page must have first refreshed. The easiest way to be certain that this takes place is to display questions in a new section.

Keep following the blog for more tips and tricks.


Rose Cruse
Product Manager

Product Tips: Save time using the scheduler function

If you're managing your organization's feedback program, you probably spend a lot of time exporting survey results and publishing the analyses of those results. If you are using the Clicktools Team or above edition, did you know that you can set up a schedule to publish your results automatically by email? This feature is available within the "Publish" and "Export" functions.

All you have to do is enable 'Schedule Settings' by selecting the check box. Then choose how often you'd like this process to take place and give it a start time. Now you can select the email addresses of those people within your organization you'd like to receive the results. (These email addresses would have been set up already in your "Organization Emails.")

The screen capture to the left demonstrates how I set up a schedule to publish results and have them sent directly to my CEO on the last Friday of every quarter at 5:00 p.m.

Keep following the blog for more tips and tricks each week!

Rose Cruse

Product Manager

Product Tips: Don't lose your non-standard ASCII characters!

When importing contact information into Clicktools, if you happen to have a lot of foreign names with non-standard characters (i.e., Øvermo Björn), make sure you're not saving your .csv document as an Excel file because it will strip out these characters in transition. Excel's .csv format does not support UTF-8 encoding.

To ensure you don't lose your non-standard (non ASCII-128) characters such as e.g. Ø and ö, save your spreadsheet as 'Unicode Text.'

If you are importing from Google, then it is okay to save the Google doc as a .csv because Google adopts the UTF-8 encoding and protects all the letters.

Clicktools will always maintain the character encoding as it exists in the import file. You can import Contact details into Clicktools the following file types:

• UTF-8,
• UTF-16,
• Comma Separated (CSV)
• Pipe | delimited

Stay in touch for more useful hints and tips. If you have any ideas for what types of helpful information you'd like to see here, please leave a comment and let me know!

Rose Cruse
Product Manager

Product Tips: Recycling your work

Clicktools offers several features that can save you time by allowing you to re-use and recycle your content. Here are three examples:

1. Re-use a question (or questions) from an existing survey

Did you know that you can copy a question or questions from an existing survey? When creating your new survey, simply select "Copy Content." You can then select the existing survey that you wish to copy the question from. Clicktools will present you with all of the questions within that survey. Make your selection by checking the box next to that particular question, or if you want to copy all of the questions from that survey, simply check "Select All."

After making your selections, click on "Copy" and the questions are imported into your new survey!

2. Copy an entire survey

Perhaps you have created a fantastic survey with comprehensive questions and conditioning and you'd like to re-use this content for another survey. Just go to the original survey and use the "Copy" function within the builder. You can find this on the set-up tab.

This will present you with a named copy of your survey. You can rename your new survey and it will maintain all the question groups and conditioning of the original. You can then edit the [copy] and make it unique.

3. Copying your CRM mapping

It is within an instance that you are able to map your survey questions to the correct CRM fields for integration. If you wish to re-use a particular mapping, then all you need to do is copy an instance.

Select the survey deployment with the mapping you want to copy. You will be presented with the deployment details page.

Using the copy function at the bottom of the page will create an identical copy of the instance. You can rename this [copy] and edit it as required. For example, you may wish to add a different presentation template.

Don’t forget that a Clicktools survey can also be created as a call script, a landing page, an exit page and many other types of forms. For more use cases, check outour website at www.clicktools.com.

Look for more hints & tips in future postings.

Rose Cruse, Product Manager

Product Tips: HTTPS Secure URLs With Clicktools

Depending on the content in your survey, call script or web form, you may need to make sure the data is protected from hackers. Using the protocol https (hypertext transfer protocol with a secure socket layer) ensures that data is encrypted when transferred via the web.

To do this in Clicktools, add the following code to your email template:

add ${survey_url_secure} instead of ${survey_url}

for a pre-populated url, use ${survey_url_secure_pp} instead of ${survey_url_pp}

In the instance template, you must select to use the Clicktools.com url.

Stay in touch for more hints and tips. If you have an idea or a request, please leave a comment and here and I will be happy to respond.

Rose Cruse
Product Manager

Give us Feedback & We'll Give Back!

For the last three years in a row, Clicktools has won the AppExchange Customer Choice Award for "Best Survey App." We're in the running again this year, but we need our customers to give us feedback in order to win! If you're a current or trial customer, and if you'll take just a minute to give us a review, we'll say "thank you" by giving back!

Starting today, for every customer review we receive on the AppExchange, we'll donate $5.00* to one of our non-profit organizations. This month's randomly chosen charity is Fight Colorectal Cancer. Colorectal cancer is the second leading cancer killer in the United States, and Fight Colorectal Cancer demands a cure.

Fight Colorectal Cancer is the leading colorectal cancer advocacy organization in Washington, DC, empowering survivors to raise their voices, training advocates around the country, and educating lawmakers and pushing them for better policies. Fight Colorectal Cancer offers support for patients, family members, and caregivers, and serves as a resource for colorectal cancer advocates, policymakers, medical professionals, and healthcare providers.

Find out how you can get involved at FightColorectalCancer.org. And help them get a quick $5 donation right now by reviewing us on the AppExchange. Fight Colorectal Cancer will receive the $5 donation for each review until the end of October, at which time another one of our non-profit organizations will be randomly chosen.

We sincerely value your feedback. Thanks for helping us out, and for helping us give back!

*up to $5,000

Meet the Phoenix Team

Last month in our newsletter, we told you about our new office location at 2575 East Camelback Road in Phoenix. Now we'd like to introduce you to the staff at our new location.

KC Dekorte, Marketing Campaign Manager

In my world, marketing is not just building a brand and advertising it. It's about driving results, getting to know your customers and providing them with a solution to their problem. This is why I was so attracted to Clicktools.

You can’t be a good marketer if you don’t first get information from your target market and then actually do something with that information. That is why the integration between Clicktools and CRM is so important. After nearly 20 years in marketing, I am excited to find a company that shares my passion for data driven marketing.

When I am not mapping out new marketing programs for Clicktools, I spend my time changing diapers, chasing toddlers, helping with homework and running kids to and from soccer practice. With five kids, there is not much time for anything else. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Kevin Hoyle, New Business Sales Executive

My background has almost been entirely in sales and I am now going on 10+ years in the industry. I enjoy and have focused mainly on software and technology.

Prior to Clicktools, I worked with Citrix and Fetchback, a marketing retargeting company. I’m very excited about the opportunity at Clicktools, but more importantly the chance to work with with the people and clients of Clicktools.

I was just married last year in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico which is an indication of how much my wife and I like to travel. I am passionate about golf and snowboarding as well as cheering for my beloved Univeristy of Arizona Wildcats in basketball and football (American).

Paul Lathrop, Business Development Representative

I have been a Business Development Professional since 2003. Prior to my career in business development, I was a technical specialist on UNIX and Linux systems.

For me, the best part of the job is overcoming objections and being able to offer valid solutions. Throughout my career, I've learned that some of the most difficult prospects in the beginning have turned out to be my best customers.


Drew Seifried, New Business Sales Executive


I joined Clicktools with over 15 years of sales experience of selling IT Hardware & Services, Media and SaaS based solutions. Before that, I worked at Bulbstorm, an emerging Social Media SaaS application that focused on creating engagement between brands and their customers.

The real draw for me when it came to Clicktools was the opportunity to sell a respected application focused on customer feedback and to provide an organization the ability to make immediate decisions on that feedback.

I lived in Phoenix for over 10 years enjoy travel, golf, outdoor fitness activities, and spending time with good friends.

Product Tips: Publishing to PowerPoint

When reviewing customer satisfaction scores, or anything else for that matter, wouldn’t it be easier if the results you obtain using Clicktools could be easily and automatically produced in a PowerPoint presentation?

Well, we are happy to announce that our new feature "Publish to PowerPoint" is now available to Team edition and above. Here’s how you do it:

1. Go to the "Publish" tab.

2. Select the radio button for "Powerpoint (Graphics and tables).

3. Select preferences for your Headings and enter a title for your PowerPoint presentation. You can also add an image to display on the first page if you like.

4. Choose the style and color format for your Charts. There are 4 color palettes to choose from. Your chart can be presented in either 3d or flat.

5. Select how you would like to number your slides (none, sequential or using the original survey question numbers.)

6. If your questions had any type of help information included, this too can be published into your slides.

7. Identify which question results you wish to publish.

8. Do you review published results routinely? Would
you like to receive this information regularly by email? You can schedule your slide deck to be emailed using the Schedule Settings options.

9. Once you have entered your parameters, then click "Apply."

Clicktools then* creates a PowerPoint file with the extension .pptx including the charts as pictures. This slide deck can be accessed and edited within Microsoft PowerPoint.

*or at the scheduled time

If you have any ideas for more useful hints or tips please leave a comment.

New Release Notes

You can read the latest Clicktools Release notes here.

The Release available from 25th September and contains the great time saving feature 'Publish to Microsoft PowerPoint'.  This is available for editions Team and above.

• Transferring your results to MS PowerPoint automatically
• Saving you time: producing your slide decks reducing your time in meeting preparation.
• PowerPoint slide decks of your results can be emailed directly without intervention in
  readiness for your presentations.