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.