Quick Start

Quick Start is an Admin Suite Surveys mechanism to boost survey response rates. By embedding the first survey question directly in the message, survey takers are immediately drawn to the key question to entice them to provide feedback.

Rating scale element embedded within the Invitation email.

When the survey taker clicks the answer on the question in the message, the survey opens a browser with the question already populated per their selection. This is different from the traditional messages that contains a call-to-action button (for example, Start survey) to open the survey, but without a prepopulated answer.

In this example email, when the survey taker clicks 7 to choose their overall satisfaction with the new store, they are taken to the web survey with the email question already populated.

Web survey including the question email answer marked.

Note: The initial value selected by the survey taker is automatically saved and transferred from the original message to the web survey.

Admin Suite Surveys uses a two-layer approach to prevent email clients, link-preview bots, and security scanners (e.g. Microsoft ATP) that open survey links without human interaction from triggering the auto-save and transfer mechanism:

  • Automated traffic detection — Identifies known email clients and security scanners that open survey links and blocks auto-save immediately.

  • Interaction gating — For unrecognized visitors, auto-save only fires after a real user interaction (click, scroll, keypress, etc.) instead of firing automatically on page load.

This approach eliminates ghost auto-save submissions.

Before you begin

Quick Start is enabled by default for all surveys, though you may disable it at any time. Quick Start works when:

  • Using Rating scale or Multiple choice - one elements.

  • Using with v7 designs.

  • The embedded question is the first question on the survey first page. This is because the value of the survey taker selection is passed to the survey in the URL that opens the survey. For example, https://survey.medallia.com/?orion&_score=10 populates a score of 10 for the first survey question. However, if the first page already contains a Text element, it is safe to add the Multiple choice - one or Rating scale element below.

  • Not including logic (either Content logic or Page logic) on the first question or page.

  • Not including a Spacer element before the first question

  • Not randomizing the first question (which automatically disables Quick Start).

  • The email Content type is HTML only or HTML & Plain text.

Configure Quick Start

Quick Start is set up both in Surveys and Distributions.

Surveys

By default, Quick Start is enabled for all surveys.

  1. From Surveys screen, select the survey to set up Quick Start.

  2. Navigate to the first page and click Add content.

  3. Choose either Multiple choice - one or Rating scale element, as best fit your survey needs.

  4. Click Save.

Email templates

  1. From Survey email, select Distributions tab.

  2. Click New email. Choose either Invitation email or Reminder email. Typically, you create a Reminder email after an Invitation email.

  3. Give the email a name and click Save to open the Template editor. Leave Content type as HTML & Plain text.

  4. Click the Call-to-Action section.

    Call-to-Action tab in Email editor.

  5. Choose Multiple choice - one or Rating scale depending on whether the survey has Multiple choice-one or Rating scale as the first question. For more information, see HTML editor.

  6. Click Show preview to see how the survey taker will see it.

    This image shows a rating scale embedded within an Invitation email on the Email editor:

    Click "Show preview" to see how the survey taker will see it in the preview canvas.

    Tip: When distributing surveys using a third-party tool (not via Experience Cloud), fetch the email HTML by switching to the Source HTML editor. Note that variables (such as $FIRSTNAME$) do not work as they rely on values stored in Experience Cloud.

Test Quick Start

To fully test how invitees experience Quick Start:

  1. Click Send preview.

  2. Enter an email address to send the testing email.

  3. Click Show advanced settings and, on Record ID, enter the Survey ID of the Quick Start survey you want to test.

    Tip: The Survey ID is an 8-character identification number found on Responses List report.
For more information, see Preview templates.

Disable Quick Start

If the the first question in your survey is not Multiple choice - one or Rating scale, there is no need of manually disabling Quick Start. However, for cases where you want to manually disable Quick Start, do so from two different areas:

Surveys

  1. From Survey settings, navigate to the Other settings section.

  2. Select Disable Quick Start.

  3. Click Save.

Email templates

  1. From Distributions, create or choose a previously created Invitation or Reminder email.

  2. In the Template editor, click the Call-to-Action section.

  3. Next to Quick start, click Arrow down icon arrow and choose Disabled. Configure the button text and font as any other email.

    Disable Quick Start from call-to-action section.

  4. Click Save.