Email Triggering Based on Response Scoring

Email Triggering Based on Response Scoring

This feature enables researchers to automatically send emails to a specific email address based on a formula that calculates the scores of participants' survey responses. This is especially useful for Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) and Experience Sampling Method (ESM) projects, where it is necessary to monitor participants’ responses and trigger notifications when their scores meet a specific condition.

Setting up Formula Scoring

First, you'll need to enable scoring for the survey questions you want to monitor.

Formula scoring can only be enabled in single-selection questions, including single-selection questions in a Group or Question Group.

1. In the Build Survey tab, add a single-selection question with your desired response choices.

2. Toggle the Formula Score button to enable it.

3. The system will automatically assign a score to each response choice, which is highlighted by the red box in the screenshot below, which you can then edit. 

Note: Formula scores will not be reflected in the response data files.

Setting Up Formulas for Email Triggering

Once you've scheduled your surveys, you can set up the formulas to trigger emails.

1. In the Schedule tab, click the Event-Triggering icon to create a new event.

2. Create a new event and select Survey Submission. 

3. Choose the survey you have configured with formula scoring. Click on the '+' button and add a Condition.

4. Toggle on Formula View to start building your formulas. If you need to use multiple formulas as part of the condition, you can choose whether ‘Any formula can match’ or ‘All formulas must match’.

5. Select a variable name for your single-selection questions with formula scoring.

6. Next, you'll choose between setting up a Single Occasion or Multiple Occasions formula.

Single Occasion Formulas

Use this option to monitor responses within a single survey submission.

1. Under Occasion Type, select ‘Single Occasion’.

2. Click the edit icon under Selected Questions and Scores to add the questions you want to use as variables.

3. Only single-selection questions with formula scoring enabled will appear in the pop-up. Select the questions you would like to add to the formula as variables.

4. The selected questions will appear in the box, allowing you to add them to the Formula Builder below.

5. Input a threshold value. This is the value that your formula must meet or exceed to trigger the email. It can be a decimal, a negative number, or zero.

6. Use the Formula Builder to create your formula. Select your variables individually by clicking 'Add to Formula', and use the mathematical operators provided to build your formula. The variables will appear in the red box as shown below. The completed formula will also appear as shown in the orange box below. 

Note: If the system detects an incomplete formula, an error prompt will be displayed, as highlighted in the red box. Examples of formulas are also shown, as highlighted in the green box, in the example below.

7. After the formula is built, click ‘Save Formula’.

Multiple Occasions Formulas

Use this option to monitor responses across the same scheduled surveys over time.

1. Under Occasion Type, select ‘Multiple Occasions’.

2. Input the number of occasions you want to include in your formula.

3. For each occasion, select a scheduled survey from the Survey Selection dropdown list.

4. Click the edit icon under Selected Questions and Scores for each occasion to add the questions you want to use as variables.

5. Only single-selection questions with formula scoring enabled will appear in the pop-up. Select the questions for each occasion that you would like to add to the formula as variables.

6. The selected questions will appear in the respective Selected Questions and Scores box, allowing you to add them to the Formula Builder below. 

7. Input a threshold value. This is the value that your formula must meet or exceed to trigger the email. It can be a decimal, a negative number, or zero. 

8. Use the Formula Builder to create your formula. Select your variables individually by clicking 'Add to Formula', and use the mathematical operators provided to build your formula. The variables will appear in the red box as shown below. The completed formula will also appear as shown in the orange box below. 

Note: If the system detects an incomplete formula, an error prompt will be displayed, as highlighted in the red box. Examples of formulas are also shown, as highlighted in the green box, in the example below.

 

9. After the formula is built, click ‘Save Formula’.

Setting up Email Triggering

Once your formulas are in place, you can set up the email to send.

1. Add the ‘Send Email’ task. 

2. Customize the message you want to be sent to the specific email.

Below is an example of what a triggered email might look like. In this example, the event was set up with two formulas, with the option ‘Any formula can match’ to trigger the email. In this scenario, both formula thresholds were met. Therefore, both formulas are displayed in the email.

Monitoring Email Triggering

To monitor when and if emails were triggered, navigate to the Insights tab and select the Formula tab to download the relevant formula files.

Important: For the email trigger threshold to be met and the overall formula score to be calculated, data must be present for all variables and occasions defined in the formula.

Single-Occasion Formulas

1. If a survey slot is missed: The formula data file will be empty (display no data).
2. Skipped responses in a completed survey: The data will be displayed as 'N/A'.
   

Below is an example of what a single-occasion formula file data might look like.

Multiple-Occasion Formulas

1. If one of the occasion survey slots is missed: The occasion timestamp will be marked as 'Missed', and the corresponding variable data will be empty. Consequently, the 'Email Date and Time' will be marked as 'N/A' because the missing data prevents the email from being triggered.
2. Skipped responses in a completed occasion: The data will be displayed as 'N/A'.
   

Below is an example of what a multiple-occasion formula file data might look like.

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