Ad Hoc surveys

Ad Hoc surveys, previously known as Ad Hoc programs, are one-off surveys to collect some particular feedback about a predefined audience. They are casual, general-purpose, usually time-bound and low foresight.

An Ad hoc survey solicits specific feedback using a survey that guides a preset audience to answer questions about its experiences. It can generate personalized surveys and emails for each respondent — based on incoming information about the audience, the interaction and, optionally, the company unit — or anonymous links for anyone to take the survey. For example, an Ad hoc survey may ask conference attendees their opinion about the event they attended, either by sending them the survey via email or by allowing them to scan a QR code to access the survey.

Unlike Admin Suite Surveys and Admin Suite Reports, Ad Hoc surveys provide a single source of experience management and a view of the complete path required to build and maintain a targeted feedback survey.

Use Ad Hoc surveys to:

To use and access Ad Hoc surveys, see Access Signal capture.

Important: Ad hoc surveys are not compatible with most existing fields, surveys, or email templates. However, they are compatible with Designs.
Warning: When Medallia, Inc. detects abnormal email delivery (such as, a spike in bounces or excessive send-volume), the responsible Medallia Experience Cloud tenant is restricted from sending any emails until the issue is resolved.

Ad Hoc surveys screen

The Ad Hoc surveys screen lists all the available Ad Hoc surveys for that particular company instance. Surveys are sorted by the last modified date and can be filtered by Status and Type. Use the search bar at the top of the list to search for a particular survey.

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  1. Details pane

  2. Details pane tabs

  3. Details pane menu

  4. Search bar

  5. Filters

Details pane

Click on an Ad Hoc survey to reveal its details pane, which shows two tabs:

  • Details tab — Summarizes the most important information of your survey, such as:

    • Base language — Identifies the language of the survey and email (if any). See Base language for more information.

    • Status — Status of the Ad Hoc survey, which can be Draft, Active, or Inactive. By default, Ad Hoc surveys are always created as Draft and they remain the same until sending the email invitation and/or deploying the link and QR code. To appear as Active, a survey needs to be completed and without errors, as established in Review and deploy. Making any updates or changes to an Active survey without publishing keeps it as Draft, although the survey continues to collect feedback via any active distribution method. An Ad Hoc survey becomes Inactive when both Distribution methods are disabled and it is published as described in Review and deploy.

    • Distributions — Method used to send out the survey. Respondents can access Ad Hoc surveys via email invitations but also through anonymous links and QR codes. For more information, see Distribution.

    • Created — The date and user that created the survey.

    • Last modified — The date and user that last modified the survey.

    • Distribution sections — Only for surveys in Sent state. Shows the distribution status, the number of invitations sent (for distribution via Email) and/or the link and QR code (for Link and QR code distribution).

    • Health section — Only for surveys in Sent state with email distribution. Number un email invitations sent. Click Send more to upload a new file and send more email invitations.

  • Sharing tab — Shows the users that you have shared results with.

Details pane menu

Click Ellipsis (More vertical) icon. the details pane menu to:
Edit survey details

Edits the survey details such as name, description, and base language. Editing a survey makes its status to change back to Draft.

View survey fields

Views the fields that are part of the survey. See Program fields for more details.

Duplicate
Creates a copy of the Ad Hoc survey, which you can use as template or starting point to build further Ad Hoc surveys.
Important: You must have Create Ad Hoc surveys permission assigned to duplicate an Ad Hoc survey. For more information, see Access Signal capture.

By default, all these parts are copied:

  • Survey, brand, and settings — Duplicates the survey settings (survey, design, and main score). This generates new Question IDs for the survey questions, thus storing their responses in separate Feedback fields.

  • Invitation and Reminder emails, and settings — Only when distributing the Ad Hoc survey by email. Copies the Invitation and Reminder (if any) emails, as well as the general, reminder, and expiration settings.

  • Survey link's parameters and settings — Only when distributing the Ad Hoc survey by an anonymous link and QR code. Copies the distribution status (whether it is enabled or disabled), its parameters and mapping fields (if any), and design.

  • Audience data mapping — Duplicates the audience data mapping set in Upload file, keeping and creating the necessary fields. However, the audience data file is not copied, which requires the same column headers of the original file for mapping to work.

  • Translations — Only available if Survey, brand, and settings or Invitation and Reminder emails, and settings are chosen. It copies the translations of the survey and email in the Ad Hoc survey.

  • Share results — Copies the lists of users the Ad Hoc survey is shared with.

Choose the parts to copy and click Duplicate. The duplicated Ad Hoc survey is created in Draft state and reflects the state of the original survey at the time of duplication. Note that if certain parts were not selected for duplication, those need to be completed in the duplicated survey to be able to distribute it. For example, if you choose to copy Survey, brand, and settings, Translations, and Share results, then you need to create and complete the Invitation and Reminder emails, and settings and Audience data mapping in the newly duplicated survey to be able to distribute and send it.
Copy to new Experience program
Creates an Experience program by copying the existing Ad Hoc survey configuration at the time of duplication into an Experience program. Use this option either when you need to turn a one-off, Ad Hoc survey into a regular, on-going Experience program, or after using Ad Hoc surveys to prototype or test future programs. For more information, see Signal capture.
Restriction: Only Ad Hoc surveys with English base language can be copied.
Important: You must have Edit Ad Hoc surveys and Create Experience programs permissions assigned to copy an Ad Hoc survey. For more information, see Access Signal capture.

  • Experience program name — Enter the name of the Experience program. By default, the name is made up of Program from + Ad Hoc survey name.

  • Experience program unit — Only when the Ad Hoc survey has a distribution method configured. Choose the unit(s) the Experience program is tied to. As opposed to Ad Hoc surveys, Units are required in Experience programs to know the user's data access for reports. Note that you can only choose from the units you have access to manage from Program fields.

  • Customize link — Only when distributing the Ad Hoc survey using a Link and QR code . By default, there is a unique, shareable, reusable URL that you can customize as you see fit. Links always have this pattern: https://<BaseURL>/<prefix>-<customization>, where <BaseURL> can refer to a production or sandbox instance, and <prefix> are six random characters that avoid link collision. To customize the default link, enter the customized slug. For example, setting the link customization to retail-purchase makes the link URL for the survey https://survey.medallia.com/?cU8Mx6-retail-purchase. Click Verify link to check the link is unique within the instance.

    Restriction: Links can have a maximum of 22 characters, and can include letters, numbers, and hyphens (-).

  • Ad Hoc survey data — Select Merge the data by reusing the question fields to copy the survey questions using the same Question IDs from the Ad Hoc survey and store question responses in the same Feedback field. Choose Separate the data by copying the question fields to copy the survey questions by generating new Question IDs for them, thus storing their responses in a separate Feedback field.

Click Copy to program. The new Experience program is listed in the Experience programs screen. Navigate through the Experience program editor to find each of the Ad Hoc survey parts mapped into their corresponding Experience program assets, as follows:

  • Importers only contain information if the Ad Hoc survey uses the Email method, and after the uploaded file is analyzed or the email invitations are sent (the Ad Hoc survey has Sent status).

  • Surveys shows the Ad Hoc survey as default version. If the Ad Hoc survey uses the Email distribution method, there is Personalized invitation rule to associate the survey to the program. Note that existing live surveys within the Experience program are unaffected.

  • Survey designs lists the Ad Hoc survey design (or variation, if applicable). If the Ad Hoc survey uses the Email distribution method, there is a Design rule that associates it to the program; if Ad Hoc surveys is distributed via the Link and QR code method, the Live link has the designed or variation assigned to it in the Link distributions step.

  • Email distributions only contain information if the Ad Hoc survey uses the Email distribution method. The Ad hoc survey Email invitations appear under the Survey email tab. The Distribution settings tab contains a setting following the same configuration in General settings, Reminder settings, and Expiration settings. The Privacy URL variable in the Invitation and Reminder emails is replaced using the values set in Privacy policy URL.

  • Link distributions only contain a link if the Ad Hoc survey uses the Link and QR code distribution method. The Ad hoc survey link appears under the Link Distributions tab. If the Link and QR code also have parameters set, those appear under the Parameters tab, together with a default Program ID parameter to associate the survey to the new Experience program

  • Reports only contain information if the Ad Hoc survey has the Sent status and if there have been responses collected at the time of copying it to an Experience program.

  • Fields lists all fields that are part of the Ad Hoc survey, including those that are not exposed to the survey taker but are required for internal use and reports, such as Creation date, Response date, etc.

  • If the Ad Hoc surveys contain Translations, they are available in the Translations screen.

Tip: You can only create an Experience program from an Ad Hoc survey, but not vice versa. Note that the copied Ad Hoc survey is preserved and, if active, still collects results.
View import history
Only for surveys that ever reached the Sent status. Shows all the uploaded and processed files in the survey. For more information, see Import history.
Export survey data
Only for surveys that ever reached the Sent status. It determines the Program fields to download in a file. For more information, see Export Ad Hoc survey data.
Delete survey
Only for surveys in Draft state. It deletes the entire survey.

Details pane menu has several actions depending if the survey is draft or active.

View results

Only for surveys with Sent status. Click View results to access Results.

Sharing

Click Share to select the users to share the survey results with. For more information, see Share results.

Create and manage Ad Hoc surveys

Complete these steps to create a new Ad Hoc survey:

  1. Click New Ad Hoc survey.

  2. Enter the survey name.
    Note: Name must be unique; it can contain numbers and letters but no special characters.

  3. Select the feedback source, which can be a customer, employee, or other.

  4. Optionally, enter a description to identify the Ad Hoc survey easily.

  5. Choose the Ad Hoc survey Base language, which is the language the Ad Hoc survey content is written in.

  6. Click Continue to access the Ad Hoc survey editor.

    Steps to create an Ad hoc survey.

Manage Ad Hoc surveys

To manage an Ad hoc survey, click Edit to access the Ad Hoc survey editor. Click the details pane menu to edit its details, view its fields, etc. For more information, see Details pane menu.

Get started

Get started displays an overview of all the necessary steps to complete an Ad Hoc surveys. From there, you can access:

  • Survey — Build the survey and select a design to make it brand-compliant. If you have Medallia Text Analytics, add the topics to find and capture phrases in the open-ended questions.

  • Distribution — Decide if the Ad Hoc survey is distributed by email or using a link and QR code.

  • Translations — Choose the languages for the survey and email, if any.

  • Testing — Test the complete path before sending actual emails or deploying the links.

  • Review and deploy — Review a summary of your Ad Hoc survey, go to any step to complete unfinished tasks, send the emails and/or deploy the link and QR code.

Get started screen lists all the steps from the Ad Hoc survey editor to set up an Ad Hoc survey.

Ad Hoc survey editor

The Ad Hoc survey editor is the building area to access the different parts required to set up an Ad Hoc survey. Navigate through the editor as desired, clicking Back and Next, without the need of following a specific path. Additionally, you can click through using the left navigation pane.

The Ad Hoc survey editor includes the steps to create an Ad Hoc survey, which can be navigated using the "Back" and "Next" buttons.