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Send Survey via Text Message (SMS) Task


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About Sending a Survey via Text Message (SMS)

SMS tasks allow you to send a survey via text message when a workflow is initiated. This task lets you set a survey link expiration, use messages saved to your library, easily set reminders, and perform more advanced scheduling.

Example: Automatically text a satisfaction survey to a customer after they interact with a customer service representative.
Qtip: The number of SMS credits you have left will be displayed while you set this task up.
Attention: Make sure your survey follows all opt-in compliance guidelines.
Qtip: This task is compatible with both XM Directory and XM Directory Lite. However, this task is not available in all licenses, and may not include certain features when used with XM Directory Lite. If you’d like to upgrade to XM Directory, reach out to your Account Executive.

Creating an SMS Task

  1. Navigate to the stand-alone Workflows page or the Workflows tab of a survey.
    Creating a workflow
  2. Click Create a workflow.
  3. Select Started when an event is received.
  4. Give your workflow a name.
    Naming a workflow. Button in center to choose an event
  5. Click Choose Event and select the event that begins the workflow. Usually, this is a survey response event.
  6. If desired, click the plus sign ( + ) and select Conditions to add conditions to your workflow. Conditions help determine when a workflow fires. See the linked page for more information about building conditions.
    Adding a condition
  7. Click the plus sign ( +) and select Task.
    Adding a task
  8. Select Send survey via text message (SMS).
    New window where you search and select tasks
  9. Select between the 2 message types:
    Two buttons. One say survey invite: ask people to participate in a survey. The second says survey invite conversational: each question is answered via text message

    • Survey invite: Invite people to participate in a survey by sending them a link that they can open in a mobile browser. This is sometimes called “1-way” SMS.
    • Survey invite (conversational): Each question is answered via text message.
      This is sometimes called “2-way” SMS.

Invite people to participate in a survey by sending them a link that they can open in a mobile browser. This is also sometimes called “1-way” SMS.

  1. Select Survey invite.
    Selecting the survey invite button
  2. Click Next.
  3. Select a survey you want to send.
    Window where you select a project

    Qtip: Only active surveys are displayed.
  4. Click Next.
  5. Choose who to send the survey to.
    Selecting a mailing list from the list. There are drop-downs along the top where you can adjust the directory and whether you see lists, segments, or samples

    • Source: If you have multiple directories, choose the directory you want to choose contacts from.
    • Type: Choose between mailing lists, samples, segments, and transaction groups.
  6. Click Next.
  7. Write a text message, or use one from your library.
    A message greeting the customer, linking them to the survey, and giving them opt-out instructions

    Qtip: When you write your message, keep credit consumption and opt-in requirements in mind.
    Qtip: Click Preview message to see what it will look like before you send it.
  8. Click Next.
  9. If you want the link to expire after a certain amount of time, click Set survey link expiration. (Optional.)
    Section says survey link expiration - the link will remain active as long as the survey is active. Then a button to set an expiration
  10. Choose between the following link expirations:
    New window showing link expiration settings

    • Use survey expiration date: The SMS links will expire when the survey availability
    • Set custom link expiration: Specify how many days after the text is sent that respondents can still access and complete the survey.
  11. Click Save.
  12. If you want to make sure recipients only get messages during a certain time period, click Set delivery window.
    User interface says Delivery window - setting a delivery window will ensure recipients receive messages during a time period
  13. Select Set custom delivery window.
    Window where custom delivery settings are configured
  14. Set a start time, end time, and time zone for the delivery window.
    Example: You don’t want respondents to get bothered with texts late at night. You make sure texts only arrive between 9 AM and 5 PM.
    Qtip: Delivery windows also apply to reminders.
  15. By default, if a distribution is triggered outside a delivery window, the distribution will be sent in the next eligible delivery window. However, if you’d like the distribution to be cancelled instead, select Don’t automatically send messages in the next window.
  16. Click Save.
  17. If you want to set a delay period for your message, click Set delivery delay.
    User interface says delivery delay - select a delay period for your message. Example: 2 hours
  18. Select Set custom delivery delay.

    New window where delivery delay settings are set

    Qtip: Delivery delays apply to reminders, too.

  19. Enter the number of hours, days, or weeks the invitation should be delayed.
    Example: You want to send an SMS invite to a follow-up survey every time someone completes a satisfaction survey, but you don’t want to send your customers too many surveys at a time. You add a 1 week delay.
  20. Click Save.
  21. Click Next.
    Window showing survey link expiration, delivery window, and delivery delay settings has a next button in the bottom-right
  22. Read the summary of changes and click Edit next to anything you want to change.
    Summary fo changes with edit button next to each - then a button to create reminders below the summary
  23. If you want to send a reminder to people who don’t respond to the survey, click Add Reminder. (Optional.)
  24. Write your reminder, or use one from the library.
    Reminder message
  25. Click Next.
  26. Choose how many days or weeks after the first SMS invite is sent that your reminders should be sent.
    Window says the message will be sent a day after the workflow is triggered

    Qtip: If you already set a delivery window for your main invite, you won’t be able to select a time zone. The reminder’s delivery window will automatically match the invitation’s time zone.
    Qtip: If you have a link expiration or invite delivery window set, they will be displayed on this page.
  27. Click Next.
  28. You can edit the messages or add another reminder as needed. When you’re done, click Save.
    Save button in bottom-right of window

Previewing an Invite Message

For SMS survey invites, you can test what your text message will look like before you officially send it out. One of the benefits of this preview is that you can test different languages and piped text, too!

  1. Click Preview message.
    Preview message text in blue above the invite message
  2. Under Phone, select a country code and enter a phone number to send the test message to.
    New window where you set the phone number, language, customer name, and survey link you want to test with
  3. Click the language dropdown to choose the language of message you want to send.
    Qtip: To see this option, you must be using a message saved to your library that has been translated.
  4. All of the piped text you have used in your message will appear under Recode values. If you’d like piped text to change into specific values, enter them here.
    Example: Here, instead of the piped text for full name, we want it to say an actual name, Barnaby Smith.
    Qtip: The survey link will be a preview link. You cannot edit this field.
  5. When you’re finished, click Send.

Sending a Conversational Survey

Send the survey directly over text, so that respondents text their responses. This is sometimes called “2-way” SMS.

Qtip: Before you send a conversational survey, make sure your survey meets 2-way SMS requirements.
  1. Select Survey invite (conversational).
    Selecting survey invite conversational
  2. Click Next.
  3. Select a survey you want to send.
    Selecting a project from the list

    Qtip: Only active surveys are displayed.
  4. Click Next.
  5. Choose who to send the survey to.
    Selecting a mailing list from the list

    • Source: If you have multiple directories, choose the directory you want to choose contacts from.
    • Type: Choose between mailing lists, samples, segments, and transaction groups.
  6. Click Next.
  7. If you want to make sure recipients only get messages during a certain time period, click Set delivery window.
    User interface says Delivery window - setting a delivery window will ensure recipients receive messages during a time period
  8. Select Set custom delivery window.
    New window where you configure delivery options
  9. Set a start time, end time, and time zone for the delivery window.
    Example: You don’t want respondents to get bothered with texts late at night. You make sure texts only arrive between 9 AM and 5 PM.
  10. By default, if a distribution is triggered outside a delivery window, the distribution will be sent in the next eligible delivery window. However, if you’d like the distribution to be cancelled instead, select Don’t automatically send messages in next window.
  11. Click Save.
  12. If you want to set a delay period for your message, click Set delivery delay.
    User interface says delivery delay - select a delay period for your message. Example: 2 hours
  13. Select Set custom delivery delay.
    Window where you configure delivery delay
  14. Enter the number of hours, days, or weeks the invitation should be delayed.
    Example: You want to send an SMS follow-up survey every time someone completes a satisfaction survey, but you don’t want to send your customers too many surveys at a time. You add a 1 week delay.
  15. Click Save.
  16. Click Next.
    Page where you set delivery window and delay has a next button in bottom-right
  17. Read the summary of changes and click Edit next to anything you want to change.
    Summary of changes with edit button next to each item
  18. If you’re finished, click Save.

Creating Contacts and Distributing SMS in a Single Workflow

You can add contacts to your directory and send them an SMS invite, all in one workflow.

  1. Navigate to the stand-alone Workflows page or the Workflows tab of a survey.
    Creating a workflow
  2. Click Create a workflow.
  3. Select Started when an event is received.
  4. Give your workflow a name.
    Naming a workflow. Button in center to choose an event
  5. Click Choose Event and select the event that begins the workflow. Usually, this is a survey response event.
  6. If desired, click the plus sign ( + ) and select Conditions to add conditions to your workflow. Conditions help determine when a workflow fires. See the linked page for more information about building conditions.
    Adding a condition
  7. Click the plus sign ( +) and select Task.
    Adding a task
  8. Add a contact task. Your options are:
    New window where you select a task. The ones highlighted are the ones described below

  9. Configure your tasks.
    single profile update to Experience ID task with add new contacts to a list selected and a mailing list selected from the dropdown

    Attention: If you chose Update XM Directory Contacts, you must select Add new contacts to a list.
  10. Add another task.
    Workflow started by a survey response event with a single profile update to experience ID task
  11. Select Send survey via text message (SMS).
    New window where you search and select tasks
  12. Select between the 2 message types:
    2 options: survey invite and survey invite conversational

  13. When you choose who you want to send the message to, click Source, and select your contact task.
    Source says T-ID 1 and then the name of the contact task
  14. Finish configuring your SMS task. At the end, you should have a workflow that looks similar to this:
    Workflow with survey event, single profile update task, and SMS task

Other SMS Resources

Details on SMS distributions sent right inside the Distributions tab of a survey can be found on the SMS Distributions support page.

Here is a list of resources that are relevant regardless of whether you’re distributing from the survey or workflows: