Build a Survey

In order to send an email survey from Zoho CRM, you must first create a survey using Zoho Survey. Go to https://survey.zoho.com/and choose from three options - Blank Survey, Template and Existing Survey - to build your survey.

See also: How to build a survey using Zoho Survey

Send a Survey

After you have created your survey in Zoho Survey, you can send it to all your contacts from Zoho CRM via email. You must create an email template that has a link to the required survey. This template can then be inserted in your mails to your contacts.

To create a survey email template

1. In Zoho CRM, click Settings > Setup > Customization > Templates > Email Templates.
2. In the Email Templates page, click New Template
3. In the New Email Template page, select the Record Type.
4. Fill all the required fields.
5. As you draft the mail, click Insert Survey Link. 
   
   
   
   
   • In the Insert Survey Link popup, select the survey you wish to insert from the Select the Survey drop-down list.
     
     
     
   • Change the text that will be displayed as the survey link, if required.
   • Click Insert.
6. Click Save.

Note

• While creating an email template, the Insert Survey Link button appears for Leads/Contacts/Cases module or any other custom module in which you have a list of email addresses. Eg. Vendors. It also appears for Potentials, Sales Orders and Invoices.
• Only Zoho CRM users for whom the Manage Email Templates permission is enabled in their profile can Insert Survey Link and create an email template.
  

Once you have created an email template with the survey links, you can send email surveys to your contacts. Email surveys can be sent using all emailing options available across Zoho CRM. They are as follows:

• Automated Emails
• Individual Emails
• Mass Emails

Automated Emails Using Workflow Rules

You can automate sending email surveys by creating a workflow rule for the required module. For example, when you win a potential, you may want to send the associated contact a generic email survey on their purchasing experience with your organization. You can do this by setting up a Workflow Rule. Every time the Stage field is updated to Closed Won, the contact associated with the potential will receive your email survey. See Also Create Workflow Rules

Individual Emails

You can also send an email survey to a contact manually. You can send these surveys to your leads and contacts from the Send Mail option in the Record's Details page or List View.

In the compose email page, simply select and insert the survey template from the Email Template drop-down list and send the mail.

Alternatively you can click the Survey icon ()to browse and send a particular survey. An email template is not required to do this.

Mass Emails

There are two ways to send mass survey emails to your Zoho CRM contacts.

• Send mails from Zoho CRM using the Mass Email feature
• Send mails from Zoho Campaigns (Integrate Zoho CRM with Zoho Campaigns)

Mass emails can be sent to your CRM contacts from Zoho CRM using the Mass Email feature. However, there are limits to sending mass emails from Zoho CRM. If you are required to send mails to thousands of contacts at one go, you can do so by integrating Zoho CRM with Zoho Campaigns. Using Zoho Campaigns to send your emails also ensures that you gain access to useful email marketing statistics such as number of opens, clicks, bounced emails etc.

To send mass emails from Zoho CRM

1. Click the required module (leads/contacts/custom module).
2. Select the mass email option from the Module Tools
   
3. Select the required email survey template and click Send. See Also Send Mass Emails 
   
   

To send mass survey emails from Zoho Campaigns

1. Integrate Zoho CRM with Zoho Campaigns, if you haven't already. See also: Configuring Zoho Campaigns Integration
2. In your Zoho Campaigns account, sync Zoho CRM contacts with the appropriate Zoho Campaigns mailing list.
   
   
3. To create a survey campaign, under the Email Campaigns tab, click Advanced Campaigns > Survey Campaigns > Zoho Survey Campaign.
   
   
4. Under The Basic Information tab, enter the Name of the campaign, select the survey you wish to send to your contacts from the Surveys drop-down list and fill all other required details.
   
   
5. Click Create Content.
6. Choose the desired email template.
7. Edit the content of the email as required and click Save & Close. 
   Note that clicking on the Call-to-Action button takes a user to the survey that has been selected. This CTA button can be edited.
8. Once you have reviewed the content, click Recipients.
9. Choose your mailing list(s) to which you wish to send the survey. Click Proceed.
   
   
10. Review all the actions and Send Immediately or Schedule the campaign as required.
    After you send the campaign, you can view responses to these surveys in the corresponding lead/contact details page under the Zoho Survey section in Zoho CRM.
    
    You can also enable automatic update of CRM fields with the survey responses. To do so, you must have mapped CRM-Survey before sending the campaign. See also: Automatically Update CRM Data with Survey Responses

View Survey Responses

One of the major benefits of Zoho Survey integration is that you can view the survey responses of contextually from within Zoho CRM. This saves you the trouble of manually looking up a contact's response in the survey results. If you are going to pitch a deal to a contact, you can view their contact number and their survey responses in the same page.

To view survey responses

1. Click the module.
   The Zoho Survey related list is available for any module that supports email field, including custom modules.
2. Select a record to go to the Records Details page.
   Under the Zoho Survey section, the details of the email surveys sent to the records will be listed. The Sent By and Source columns tell you if the campaign has been sent from Zoho CRM via Individual/Mass Email/Workflow Alert or from Zoho Campaigns.
   
   
3. Click the View Response link for the corresponding survey.
   If the recipient has not responded to a survey, there will not be a View Response link. Instead you will see an entry called "Yet to respond".
4. In the Survey Results popup select the following to view the details of the responses:
   
   • Individual Report- Click Individual Response to view the details of exact response by the lead/contact.
     The details include the actual response by the lead/contact, response time and IP address.
     
     
   • Summary Report- Click Summary Report to view the details of the overall response to the survey.
     The details include total visits to the survey, total number of responses, the response with the maximum votes, etc.
     
     

Note

• The View Response link may not be displayed in case the respondent has taken the survey but you have used an email service other than Zoho CRM to send mass emails.
  

Take Survey on Behalf of a Customer

Besides sending surveys to your customers, you can also take a survey on behalf of a customer. For instance, you are on a call with a customer and he/she chooses to answer your survey questions over phone rather then answer an email. In that case, you can take the email survey on the customer's behalf and submit the survey.

To take a survey

1. Click the required lead or contact.
2. In the Details page of the lead or contact, scroll down to the Zoho Survey Related List.
3. Click the Take Survey link.
   
   
4. In the Attend Survey popup, Select the Survey you wish to attend on behalf of the lead or contact.
   
   
5. Answer the questions in the Survey popup and Submit the survey.

The survey taken by a CRM user on behalf of a lead or contact are treated as any other regular survey. To distinguish surveys taken by CRM users from those taken by customers, look for the "Taken by User" entry for a survey under the Source column in the Zoho Survey Related List.

Note

• Besides taking a survey, you can also create a survey or send a survey to customers from the Zoho Survey Related List by clicking the Create Survey or Send Survey links respectively.
  

Automatically Update CRM Records with Survey Responses

Zoho Survey integration with CRM enables automated updating of CRM data with Survey responses. When you put the CRM and Survey data together, you can draw insights from the combination of data and make better, informed business decisions. This is a powerful feature that lets you automate your post-survey action plans efficiently without manual efforts. Once you map CRM fields with the appropriate Survey questions, depending on your customers' responses, you can trigger all workflow based actions such as 'Sending Alert, Field update, Assign Owner, Custom Functions'.

For example, you have sent out a survey to your customers about the performance of your sales rep. The Survey has a question that asks the recipient to rate the sales rep's communication skills. You want to view all users who have rated the skills "Excellent". All you have to do is apply a filter and search for all records in which the value for the custom field "Sales Rep's Communication" is "Excellent". Voila! All records that meet the criteria will be displayed.

This is achieved by mapping the CRM fields with the respective survey questions before sending out the survey. The answer to a particular question is updated as the value for the mapped field. To map CRM fields with Survey questions, follow the steps below:

1. Go to https://survey.zoho.com/ andbuild a survey.
2. Under the Integration Tab, click Zoho CRM.
3. In the CRM Integration section, click Integrate Now.
4. Select the required module.
   
   
5. Map all the fields to the respective Survey questions.
   For example map the field "Sales Rep's Communication" to the question "How do you like our sales rep's communication skills?"
   
   If you do not have a suitable field, create a custom field in Zoho CRM and then map the field to the question.
6. Select the Action Type as Update Record. This means that Zoho CRM will simply update the fields of the existing record.
   Select Add Record if you want Zoho CRM to create a record despite duplicates.
   Select Add/Update Record if you want Zoho CRM to check for duplicates. If there is a duplicate, only the existing record will be updated. If there is no such record, a new record will be created and the responses will be added.
7. Select Pre-populate mapped fields from CRM to Survey if you wish Zoho Survey to display the existing value of fields already available in Zoho CRM.
   For example, if the Name of the lead/contact is already available in CRM, the recipient need not type in their name while taking the survey. Their name will be pre-populated and displayed.
8. Click Save.
   Now Zoho Survey questions are mapped with CRM fields.

To send this survey to a lead/contact

1. Create a new Email Template.
2. Insert Survey Link in the template.
   
   The Lead Id is appended automatically to the survey URL. This is instrumental in fetching the particular record's survey responses.
   
   If you do not wish to have this id, you can remove it manually. Please note that if you remove this id or tamper with it, the survey responses will not be fed automatically to CRM.
   
   
3. Save the template.
4. Select this template while sending the survey email to a lead/contact.

To view the record updated with Survey responses

1. Click the desired lead/contact
2. In the Record's Details page, you will see that the Survey responses have been updated automatically in the respective fields.
   
   

As you can see, the survey responses are now available as CRM data. You can filter specific records based on certain criteria. For example, to see who has rated the sales rep's communication skills as "Excellent", create a custom view with the appropriate criteria.

The records that match the criteria are displayed.