Introduction

Surveys are a means of collecting feedback throughout the mentoring process. The embedded survey tool makes it very easy to create, share, and track responses.

On the Manage page at the track level, click the Engagement card, then click Surveys. This will take you to a list of pre-built surveys. The default questions have been developed with the help of extensive customer feedback.

We highly recommend using the pre-built surveys because they are already embedded in the Connection Plan Template. Using these surveys will greatly reduce your setup time and reduce the risk of error. Their content can be modified to suit the specific needs of your program. In addition, the delivery schedule can be modified, though that is done elsewhere (from the Mentoring Connection Template).

If you do need to add an additional survey, this guide will help you through the process of creating and sharing it effectively, so you can be guaranteed a great response rate.

Create New Survey

Step 1: Select "New Survey" at the top right corner of the "Surveys" tool.

Step 2: Choose your survey settings.

You will find the following 4 items labeled on the image below.

Survey Name: Enter the name of the survey
Type: Choose ‘Program Survey’ or ‘Connection Survey’. It's important to choose the right type because the type cannot be changed after you create the survey. For help choosing the right type, read our Back to Basics article. If you have flash mentoring turned on you will see an additional option for 'Meeting Survey.'
Survey Closes On: Choose a date from the calendar if the survey should expire on a specific date. This is only available with Program Surveys.
For: Select who the survey is meant for - e.g.: Mentors, Mentees or Mentors and Mentees. This is only available with Program Surveys. Role control for Connection Surveys is done via Connection Plan Template settings.
Create: Click the 'Create' button on the lower right to begin creating your survey. You will get redirected to the next step - adding questions.

Creating Survey Questions

Step One: Click 'Add New Question' and enter:

Field Name: The field name is the survey question such as, "Are you satisfied with your mentoring match?"
Field Type: Select the type of field:
- Single line: Single-line text box input
- Multiline: Paragraph text box input.
- Multiple Entries: Option for user to enter multiple single-line entries
- Pick One Answer: Dropdown selections from which the user can choose only one
- Pick Multiple Answers: Dropdown with the ability for user to select multiple answers.
- Rating Scale: Provide radial buttons for selection
- Matrix Rating Scale: Answer multiple rating scale questions with a single set of answers (see next section).
- Field Description: Help text regarding this field for the end user
- Mandatory: Make queston mandatory so that the survey cannot be submitted unless a user response is provided.
Click 'Save to add each new field to the survey.

Creating matrix scale rating

What is a matrix rating scale?

A matrix rating scale is a group of questions that all share the same pool of potential answers.

You can more efficiently ask survey question that use a rating scale by compiling them into a single matrix, rather than ask each question individually.

Best Practices

Matrix rating scales are a fantastic option for collecting survey data. Here are some best practice tips for getting the most out of this feature.

Limit choices to five or fewer options
Keep the item wording short (items are the X-axis)
Keep response options short (response options are the Y-axis)
Organize your rating scale from high to low
You usually do not need to include an "N/A" option
Always consider that someone may be taking the survey on a mobile device!

Some best practice examples:

Distributing a Survey

The method for distributing a survey varies by its type.

Distributing a Program Survey

The Share option is available under ‘Manage’ on the top of the survey page. Clicking "Share" does NOT trigger anything to your users. It simply gives you two options to how to send out a link to the survey:

Share through an announcement: We provide a quick-link option to draft an announcement. When you select this option, it does NOT automatically trigger anything. It simply inserts a link to the survey in an announcement draft. You can further modify the announcement text and manually share it.
Share through email: This option simply allows you to copy the link and paste it elsewhere for distribution. For example, you could grab the URL, head over to the All Users tool, isolate your desired segment of users, and send a message in bulk in which you would paste your URL.

Distributing a Connection Survey

Connection Surveys must be distributed via a special survey prompt in the Connection Plan. There are already survey prompts pre-configured within the Connection Plan Template. If you prefer a different delivery schedule, you can edit these existing survey prompts to alter due dates. If you need to add additional surveys, follow the instructions below.

Email reminders will be sent to users who are overdue on a survey. These emails reminders can be modified from the Surveys tool for each survey independently.

The image below shows how the survey task will look to an end user.

Adding a Survey Type Task

In your Connection Plan Template, click "Add a new action", then select "Add a survey." The "Add a new action" button is always located at the bottom right hand side of each milestone area. You can edit existing survey tasks and swap out surveys, but you cannot edit non-survey tasks to include surveys.
When you click "Add a Survey" a new page will load.. The image below will help you follow along with the next few steps.
(A) Add a title to the task (e.g.,: ‘Complete mandatory survey’). We recommend using imperative action verbs in all task titles, the same way you would in your own to-do list. For survey tasks, it's important to note that the actual survey name will appear to the right of the title in the ultimate end user view, so you'll want to avoid redundancy. For example, if your survey name is "Mentoring Midpoint Survey," that name will appear to the right of the task title as the link to take the survey.
(B) Add a description. It is okay not to include a description for survey tasks. If you do add a description, consider saying something such as, "Click the link above to take the survey. We will also send a link to you via email as a reminder, but you only need to complete it once. Thank you for taking the time to provide your feedback."
(C) Choose who the task applies to (mentor, or mentee, or both) - only the role selected will be able to access the survey (4). You will need to create one survey task for the mentor and another for the mentee. You may use the same survey in both, or a different survey if you have role-specific questions.
(D) Select the desired survey from the drop-down list.
Check the "Required" box on the far right and choose a due date. We always recommend basing the due date on a "Predecessor," not a static date. That way, you can schedule it X days after "Start of Connection", which will convert to a real date for the user and make it easy to reuse your template next year.
Save your task to successfully add the connection survey to all connections that follow this template.

Configuring Reminder Emails

All Connection Plan surveys have an automatic reminder function that will send emails out to users after the due date of a survey if they have not yet completed it. Much like the surveys themselves, the reminders are already set with our best practice timing and content, but you are free to edit them to fit your own preferences. In order to do so:

In your Connection Plan Template, find the survey task that you want to edit. Click the "(2 reminder emails)" link. You can also edit these reminders directly from the Reminders tab in the Surveys area itself.
Click edit next to the reminder you want to modify. There are two preset reminders that are set to go out at 3 and 7 days overdue. You can change the reminder dates, the message text, add new emails, or remove any of the emails from the section.

Tips and Reminders

Stay on top of survey responses as they start flooding in around the due date. If responses are lower than you'd like, you can post an announcement that triggers an email, asking users to log into their Connection Areas and find their survey links there.
Users will receive a Connection Area Digest in addition to their reminder emails. They can control the frequency of these from the right side of their Connection Area: weekly, daily, or never. Weekly is default. Unless set to "never," the user will receive reminders about immediately upcoming or overdue tasks in these digests. However, there will not be a survey link in the digest, which is why we also recommend reminders.