Survey Basics

Prepare for Your First Survey

Determine whether you can create a survey. Enable surveys. Assign a profile to create and send surveys.
  • You Can’t Read Minds
    • Research shows customers give more honest feedback online than in person
    • Surveys can be used to determine if customer satisfaction is increasing or decreasing - a single survey isn’t enough
      • Necessary to poll customers over time
      • By comparing results over time, you can determine trajectory of customer satisfaction over time
    • Salesforce Surveys is a simple way to create beautiful, easy-to-use surveys
  • Requirements to Create and Send Surveys
    • An unlimited number of surveys can be created and sent out using Salesforce Surveys in Developer, Enterprise, and Unlimited editions
    • Just need to:
      1. Enable the Surveys component
      2. Assign one of the standard profiles that allows users to create and send surveys to the user who will administer them
  • Enable Surveys
    • For internal users (employees), just need to enable Salesforce Surveys
    • For external users (customers), need an Experience Cloud site that allows public access
    • To enable Surveys:
      • Setup > Quick Find > “Survey” > Survey Settings > Enable Surveys
    • Once enabled, two out-of-the-box surveys are added to your org:
      • Customer Satisfaction
      • Net Promoter Score
  • Select Profile
    • Users that will create and send surveys need to have specific profiles assigned: System Administrator or Marketing User
    • Custom profiles can also create and send surveys, see this help link:
      • User Permission: View Setup and Configuration
      • Object Access: Surveys, Survey Invitations, Survey Responses, Survey Subjects - Read, Create, Edit, and Delete access
  • Configure Survey Invitation Sharing
    • In general, Survey Creators should be able to see all the responses but not the participants, since surveys can contain sensitive customer info
    • To configure this access:
      • Setup > Quick Find > Sharing > Sharing Settings > Edit
      • Survey object: ensure Private for Default Internal Access, Private for Default External Access
      • Survey Invitation object: ensure Private for Default Internal Access and Default External Access

Build Your Survey and Select Default Settings

Create a survey and specify its style. Customize the Welcome and Thank-You pages. Insert images. Insert response from a previous question. Preview the survey.
  • Build Your Survey
    • Once enabled, Surveys show up in the App Launcher
    • See the “Build Your Survey and Select Default Settings” page in the Survey Basics Trailhead module for an example of how a Survey can be set up
  • To launch the Survey Builder:
    • App Launcher > Quick Find > “Surveys” > Surveys
    • Two basic parts to the Survey Builder:
      • Pages - actual questions and substance of the form
      • Branding - background, colors, general configuration
    • Pages can have multiple questions, and can reference responses to previous questions using merge fields
    • The following question types are available:

  • Survey Default Settings:
    • Click the ellipsis on the Survey Builder and select Default Settings
      • Email Settings - can embed a survey link or survey question in emails sent to customers
        • Can use email templates to include company branding
        • Can use Email Sender Address to send invitations from company’s organization-wide address
      • Language Settings - select the language used to create the survey
      • Invitation Settings - by default, only the survey owner has access to survey invitation records.
        • Possible to open up access by checking the box “Owner of records associated with the invitation” - this means that if the survey relates to a Case, the Case Owner will also be able to view the Survey response

Add Logic to Your Survey

Add a page branching logic to your survey. Add a question display logic to a survey page.
  • “Page Branching” and “Question Display” logic can be used to provide a personalized experience to participants. As examples:
    • If one question is rated 3 stars or less, another follow-up question can be shown
    • If certain participants had a great experience, certain pages or questions can be skipped
      • Depending on how its set up, branching logic either allows participants to move to a specific page every time or move to a specific page based on logic
    • Note that for “Page Logic” you have to “Create Rule” before saving in order for the rule to work

Send Out and Track Your Survey

Send out a survey. View survey results.
  • Send Your Survey
    • Can send out via a survey invitation link, for example posted on social media channels
    • Can send out via email
    • Can anonymize responses, which means sending the survey without revealing names or other identifying info
    • Can view survey responses if the survey is internal, but not external (customers, community users, etc)
    • Can authenticate participants, in which case participants outside her company must log in with Experience Cloud to take the survey. Otherwise, they can take the survey without logging in.
  • Generate Survey Invitation Link
    • Click “Send” at the top of the Survey Builder
    • Two options: Get Invitation or Send Email
      • Get Invitation entails copying and pasting a link or downloading a QR code
      • Email can mean sending the link to a particular survey question or to launch a survey
        • Can send to individuals or list of contacts/leads/members of a campaign
  • Send Survey Invitation by Email
    • Can send with an auto-expiration date, to individuals or groups, or anonymized
  • View Results
    • To view a small number of responses, you can click “Analyze” on an individual survey
    • To view more responses, Survey Results can be viewed in Salesforce Reports and Dashboards
      • May be necessary to create a custom Report Type
        • Primary Object: Survey Questions
        • Other related Object: Survey Question Responses