Custom Surveys Overview
Custom surveys can be used for customer satisfaction, renewal sentiment, ease of implementation, capturing product requests, or even one-off use cases.
For example, you may want to capture information once for a particular time, specific reason, or individual customer. But, for something like satisfaction, you may want to track that evolution over time, and using our surveys, you can! You could keep it open forever and collect customer responses in one place to compare the results. Even more powerful, you could remove or add new questions over time without impacting your data.
Custom Surveys is an add-on product available for purchase directly from Settings > Account & Billing (Admins only), or through your Vitally CSM. Try out Custom Surveys for free with up to 100 survey responses. Once you surpass 100 responses, any further responses will be unavailable until you upgrade.
How to Create a Custom Survey
How-To | How-To Visual |
How to Create a Custom Survey
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Deleting a Custom Survey:
Navigate to Surveys in your Settings page, then via a meatball menu “…” you'll see an option to delete the survey in its entirety, including all content and results data. |  |
Editing a Custom Survey
Once a survey is published, you can un-publish it and anyone who opens that survey moving forward will not be able to access it.
You can add or delete questions at any point, but if you're editing an existing question where you've already gotten responses, you cannot change the 'type' of the question. The drop-down will be greyed out.
Please note that edits to a published Custom Survey won't retroactively apply to already submitted responses; they will only apply moving forward. If you open a response from the Surveys setting page, and that person responded before a new question was added; you'll see a call out (see photo on right). If a question is deleted before it has responses, it will not show up in the results, but if you've already received responses to a deleted question, you do not lose those responses. |  |
Previewing a Survey
You can preview a survey from the Preview tab in the surveys setting page or you can preview a survey when embedding it into a Conversation or Doc. When you type "/" to embed the survey, if you hover over the survey you are thinking about embedding, you'll see an icon to the right of the survey name that will open the survey in another tab to preview |  |
Custom Survey Branding
Apply branding and greater personalization settings to your content for Custom Surveys! This will make Custom Surveys look and feel more like your brands and less like Vitally's, helping to maintain brand consistency in the experiences that you create for your customers.
There are three things you can do for Custom Surveys to use the branding feature:
Set a Brand Color in settings - this will be inherited Custom Surveys as the color for the primary CTA in the invitation emails.
Set a company logo using your organization or your customers' logo in Surveys. This is supported for Docs, Doc Templates, and Surveys.
Upload a custom banner image to your Custom Surveys. Access recent uploads to make the entire process smoother when you have many accounts to manage. This is supported for Docs, Doc Templates, and Surveys.
How to Set a Brand Color in Settings
If you're setting up Custom Surveys Branding for the first time starting off with your Brand color is your first step. This setting will be used as the default color for calls-to-action in the invitation emails that are sent when a user receives a Custom Survey.
Setting the default color for Branding:
Navigate to your Settings (⚙️) by selecting your Account Logo on the top left
Select Account and Billing
Select Edit next to Brand Color and choose your default brand color
You can change the brand color within an individual Doc or Doc Template by selecting Branding on the top right. This button will not show up for customers when the Doc is shared with them.
How to Set a Banner Image in a Custom Survey
Add a banner image for your Surveys to personalize it even more! We'll keep the most recently uploaded images to make them a little easier to reference. You'll see recent images that anyone in your org has uploaded, not just you.
How to set up a banner image in a Doc or Doc Template:
Navigate to your Settings (⚙️) by selecting your Account Logo on the top left and under Vitally Objects select Surveys then Custom Surveys
Select an existing Custom Survey, or create a new one
Select the Branding button on the top right and select Add banner image
Upload your image or go to the recents tab to. We'll keep track of recently uploaded images from anyone in your org.
Images greater than 700px in width work best
If you hover over the banner image in a doc you can select Edit or Move.
If you Edit you can reset (i.e. clear) the image
If you select Move, you can move it vertically. We'll automatically fit it to the width.
How to Set Your Icon in Templates
Lastly, after setting up a Banner Image, you'll set your icon in your Doc Templates. You'll be able to select from 3 options in addition to the original emoji capability.
Use your company's logo
User your Account/Org's logo
Or upload a custom image
How to set up an icon in a Custom Survey:
Navigate to your Settings (⚙️) by selecting your Account Logo on the top left and under Vitally Objects select Surveys then Custom Surveys or go to an existing Doc
Select an existing Custom Survey or create a new one
Select the Branding button on the top right and select change icon (or just select the actual icon!)
Choose an emoji or switch to the image tab to select your customer's logo (i.e use the Account's/Organization's logo), or upload a custom image.
The recommended size is 100x 100 pixels.
Branding FAQ
Q: Who can set up default branding? A: Only admins in can set up default branding. Anyone who can create a Doc can change the colors, icon, or banner for individual Docs.
Q: Can I change the to / reply to email? A: Not currently. The sender email / reply to email will be support@vitally.io
Q: How can I remove an image from the recent uploads? A: Currently you can not manage recent uploads therefore you can not delete images.
Q: I can't find one of the recent uploads? A: We only display the most recently 9 images, nothing more. It may the 10th image. You'll need to upload the image again.
Sharing a Custom Survey
There are 4 ways you can share a Custom Survey:
Embed in a Conversation: When you send a Survey through Individual Conversations, each recipient receives a special link that automatically verifies their email. To embed your survey, type “ / ” in a conversation and choose the “Custom Survey” block.
Add to a Playbook: Embedding your Survey in a Conversation within a Playbook is the easiest way to automate your send outs at-scale. To embed your survey, type “ / ” in a playbook conversation and choose the “Custom Survey” block.
Send a personal link: Personalized links are unique to a single user and do not require any additional steps to verify their email. They’re great to quickly share with one person, but, because they’re individual they can’t be used at-scale.
Use a generic link: Generic links require recipients to verify who they are via additional steps, so we know who to map their response to. We don’t recommend this method, as it could lower your response rate due to the additional steps.
Custom Survey Use Cases
Gather Feedback: Sentiment-based Surveys - You need to know how the customer feels about you (product or service) to make better decisions about your offering.
Inform Work: Collaborative Surveys - You need to know details about the customer’s business to craft better experiences that drive desired outcomes. Send a custom survey to inform by capturing critical information related to complex projects, like implementation, to streamline the process and increase efficiency.
Deliver Value: Differentiated Surveys - You need to use feedback to drive meaningful engagement in a tailored yet scaled approach to unlock more customer value. Leverage Surveys to gather insights around customer objectives and use cases to trigger powerful automation that meets customers where they are.
And many, many more!
Custom Survey Customer Experience
Authentication screen
Similar to docs, when a user receives a link they will need to verify their email before responding. This involves them entering their email. If they are indeed a tracked user in Vitally (email input must match email in Vitally), they’ll receive an email with a unique link to respond. The image above is what the customer will see, your company name and logo will appear on the top left.
If the user already has a personalized link that is unique to them, they should bypass the verification screen and go straight to the survey screen.
If a Custom Survey is been unpublished, Users should see a screen explaining the survey is no longer available.
Viewing & Using Custom Surveys
Viewing Custom Survey Responses
You can view responses to your Custom Survey(s) in a few ways. Depending on what you're trying to visualize will depend on what you want to look at. You can view responses:
Surveys List Page: This will be found under Settings > Surveys and is that first page you arrive at. It gives you data such as status, created at, last response, and more.
Results Tab: This can be found when you navigate to a specific Custom Survey from the Survey Settings page. You'll see data like recipient, submitted date, and the responses to all questions in your survey.
Table View: Create a table view to view Survey responses
Dashboards: Visualize with Dashboards to track Surveys
360's: View in an Organization, Account, or User 360
Surveys List Page
The surveys list page (found in Settings > Surveys) contains important analytics regarding the survey’s performance. These include the number of people who viewed the survey, how many began answering, the number of responses, and the overall completion rate.
Status: Will state if the survey is published or unpublished
Created at: When Custom Survey was created (not published)
Last Response: Date of latest response received
Viewed survey: Those who verified (or were pre-verified) and viewed the survey. Regardless of if they submitted it or not.
Began answering: Those who answered at least one question. Regardless of if they submitted it or not.
Submitted responses: Those who successfully submitted the survey
Completion Rate: Is the calculated by (Completed survey) / (Seen survey)
Results Tab
The results tab can be found when you're in a custom survey in settings. Here you'll see:
Who viewed the survey (regardless of whether they submitted or not)
Began answering (regardless of whether they submitted or not)
Submitted responses
Completion rate (which is calculated by (Completed survey) / (Seen survey))
A table-like view of all responses
Table View
You can create a table view with responses for specific custom surveys. You can filter to narrow down who's results you want to see as well as pick and choose the columns you want to see in this view. A few things to keep in mind:
You will be required to select the survey whose responses you want to display (No cross-survey table views)
The columns will be the questions on the survey (You can still add account-level columns)
Calculated traits are a great solution to display cross-survey data!
Dashboards
You can create widgets of survey data similar to how you create any other widget. A few things to keep in mind:
Metric values are restricted to Survey object data (No account level calculation using Survey as source)
Sum & Average functions are limited to questions with scales (#️⃣, ❤️, ⭐️ are supported - emojis are not)
Organization, Account, and User 360
Go to any Organization, Account, or User 360 and under Related Objects, select Surveys to see all the Surveys sent to that object.
Using Custom Surveys
How-To | How-To Visual |
Deleting responses
Deleting this response will remove it and its data from the survey, and anywhere it is leveraged.
To delete a response:
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Response tray
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Formula Traits
You can create Formula traits of survey data similar to how you create any other calculated trait.
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Triggering Playbooks from Custom Surveys
Trigger off custom survey responses to update or perform actions such as following up via email. This will work as most other objects in Playbook. |
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Add a Custom Survey to a Conversation
Embedding a Custom Survey in a conversation is the best way to share with your customers. This can be hyperlinked or a button in your conversation by simply typing backslash "/" > selecting custom survey > then select the survey you want to embed |  |
Add a Custom Survey to Docs
Similar to conversations you can hyperlink or add a button in your Doc by simply typing backslash "/" > selecting custom survey > then select the survey you want to embed
When embedding the Survey in the Doc, you can edit the size, button alignment (left or center), or change the color!
You can not add a Custom Survey to a Team Doc. |  |
Custom Surveys FAQ
Q: Who can create Surveys?
A: To create and send surveys, you must have an Admin or Leader role in Vitally. Team Members and Observers will not be able to create surveys, but Team Members can send Surveys.
Q: Why is there is a warning that I'm over my 100 free survey responses?
A: There is a banner to warn you if you are approaching or have exceeded your allotted number of survey responses. You get 100 free survey responses but you have the opportunity to upgrade if you wish (Admins only). You can reach out to your CSM or support@vitally.io to learn more! You can also self-serve and add Custom Surveys from your Account & Billing page in settings.
Q: If we got more than 100 responses then what happens to the other responses? For example, if I send the survey to 200 users, then received 150 responses, what happens to the 50 responses?
A: Those will be hidden. To unhide them, you'll need to upgrade.
Q: What is a Surveyed User?
A: A surveyed user is anyone who views a survey via Vitally. Users who receive a survey link without ever accessing it will not count as a surveyed user. You can send unlimited surveys to surveyed users.