If you have created at least one distributor (distribution list) for a survey, this will approximately look like this:
Each distributor is marked from left to right with the following information:
- The name of the sample from which members are invited and the date/time the invitation procedure was activated.
- The distribution channel used for the invitation: E-mail, SMS or Link list.
- The absolute number and percentage of members who have completed the survey. The number of selected members can also be indicated here, in case the survey invitation has not yet been completed.
- The status of the distributor:
- In field (the distributor is active and created, the invitation is sent and answers are collected);
- Draft (the distributor has been created, but is not yet active because one or more phases of the invitation procedure have not yet been completed);
- Closed (survey responses will no longer be collected for this distributor, nor will participants be able to complete the survey);
- Finished (the distributor is no longer active, e.g. when the sample is removed).
- The Send reminder button (will be displayed, if not all invited members have answered the active survey); the Proceed button (will be displayed, if one or more stages from the invitation procedure have not yet been completed).
When you click on a distributor (it will be highlighted in dark blue), the following data will be displayed in addition to the data described above (e.g. the name of the sample, the date and time of the invitation and the status of the distributor).
- Interviews
- Distribution log
- Invite more participants
- Response statistics
- Blue button
The number of invitations sent is shown here. If you click the Download list link, an Excel file will be generated. When you open this file, you can see to which sample members the survey was sent and which personal link they received.
You will be able to open this personal link, if a survey participant has problems with the survey.
Note: If the distribution channel of a distributor is a link list, then the downloaded Excel file (after clicking the Download list link) will include all information of the invited sample members, including the personal link, the status, the ID and the survey name. This personal link will then have to be distributed to the different members of the link list in order to fill out the corresponding survey.
This is the distribution log used to maintain the invitation history of the distributor. Once you have unfolded the Wave: 1 and Invitation data, you will find a variety of data in this log, including:
- The message that was sent for the invitation. By clicking on the arrow icon behind the indicated message, the invitation message used will be displayed.
- The number of recipients to whom the invitation has been sent. By clicking on the Download list link, an Excel file will be generated. In this file, you will find the e-mail address and the corresponding personal link of the recipients (sample members).
- The filter (if any) that has been set for selecting a particular group of sample members.
- The response statistics show the absolute and percentage number of people invited, categorised by status. Click here for a description of each status.
- The Download bounce statistics button allows you to retrieve the exact number of invitations which have not been received. When you click on this button, the email addresses where bounces occur are downloaded into an Excel file. In this file you will find, among others, the member ID, the e-mail address, the reason and the error code. For more information, see below under this tab.
- The Send reminder button allows you to send a reminder to members who have been invited to a survey, but have not yet responded. A different invitation text can then be used for this reminder. This procedure is described further on in this topic.
- The Delete Distributor button allows you to delete the collected answers of sample members/respondents who have already answered the survey and the invitation details of sample members who have not yet answered the survey. This implies that the data of all interviews conducted will be deleted; therefore, you will no longer find these answers in the raw data and the various reports. If a distributor has been deleted, a sample member who has not yet answered the survey, will also no longer be able to activate the corresponding invitation link.
PS: If you click the Delete Distributor button, you will be asked for a confirmation.
Types of bounces
- Hard bounces - If the receiving mail server reports that the e-mail address does not exist or the account is not active (e.g. due to a typing error) and, therefore, the message cannot be delivered, this will be considered a hard bounce by Survalyzer.
- Soft bounces - These are e-mails which temporarily cannot be delivered (e.g. if the mailbox is full). The reason for a soft bounce is always reported by the receiving e-mail server.
For more information, see https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3463 and https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5248.
Note: Undelivered messages are those messages which could not be sent as the e-mail address included non-permitted characters.
The Invite more participants button allows you, for example, to invite another group of members from the same sample to fill in the corresponding survey. For this, the filter functionality (stage 2 of the invitation procedure) offers a solution. For example, you can initially invite all support employees of an organisation, followed by all test engineers of the same organisation. The invitation procedures via the various distribution channels can be found in the Distribute Survey menu.
When this second invitation has been processed, the corresponding number of invited sample members will be added to the number from the first invitation. This new total number is also indicated on the distributor.
Under Wave: 2 - below the data of Wave: 1 - the data of this second invitation are displayed. Under Filter you can see that this time the invitation has been sent to a different group of sample members; in this example it concerns 6 test engineers.
A table lists the response rate of the distributor including the absolute and percentage number of persons invited, categorised by the various statuses. Click here for a description of each status. Below this, a graph shows the response rate per day.
This button can be labelled as follows: Send reminder, Proceed, Close or Delete.
Send reminder: You can send a reminder to the sample members from Wave: 1 and any other waves present (e.g. Wave: 2), if they have not yet answered the corresponding survey. If you only want to send a reminder to the sample members of e.g. Wave: 2, you will have to click the Send reminder button at the data of this wave.
For a reminder, two distribution channels can be used by default: E-mail or SMS (professional user). Both invitation procedures have already been described; the differences are emphasized below.
- In the Filter stage, you will generally not set a filter, as the reminder is supposed to be sent to all sample members who have not completed the survey.
- In the Message stage, you can select the e-mail message, i.e. another invitation text, to be used for the reminder. This message must have been created previously on the Messages screen (see the Library menu).
- In the Text stage, you can also check the text of this e-mail message and adjust it, if necessary. Make sure that the Subject field is filled with another text than in the first invitation.
After you have sent the reminder to the respective sample members, the distribution log will be updated with the reminder data. The reminder has been sent to the sample members from both Wave: 1 and Wave: 2.
Note: When sample members are initially invited to a survey via a link list, the reminder can then be sent via email (or SMS). Once this reminder has been sent, the distribution log will be updated. In addition, the link list icon on the appropriate distributor will be replaced by a Multi-channel icon.
Proceed: You can use this button, if one or more stages of the invitation procedure have not yet been completed. You will then continue the procedure at the point where you interrupted it.
Close: By default, a distributor is closed when the quota plan is full (third-party sampling project or Dynata sample) or when the specified survey end date has been reached. You can also close a distributor, when all sample members have answered the survey and all data have been processed.
Delete: You can delete a distributor, if the sample has been removed and the distributor is no longer active.