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There are two major types of distribution, namely

The open questionnaire, where the respondent is not necessarily known in advance (this is the case for a poll that would pop up on a website's home page)
The closed questionnaire , where only identified respondents will be asked to reply to a survey (this is generally the case for satisfaction surveys, where part of the customers are asked to reply to the questionnaire)

e-Questionnaire controls these two methods of distribution and even enables you to combine both if needed.

Closed distribution

In the case of a closed survey, the person responsible for the survey creates a database of respondents to reply to the questionnaire. This database can be defined :

by manually entering each correspondent's address in e-Questionnaire
by directly importing the details from a tabulated file (Excel type)
by re-using a panel taken from a preceding survey

For this method of distribution, requests to participate in the survey are sent by e-mail with a specific connection url to each respondent, which allows to be certain of the respondent's identity. By default, the respondent has the option of reconnecting to the questionnaire in order to complete or modify his replies, but it is also possible to prevent the respondent from returning to the questionnaire, once he has finished completing the survey.

A secure distribution method with user name and password is also available, which at the same time prevents potential anonymous replies.

Open distribution

In the case of an open survey, access to the questionnaire is secured via a generic url ,which can be sent to a distribution list, or used directly in its own site by pop-up or by clicking a button.

It is this function that is used in the case of a permanent survey; it is possible to recover the information from an existing form, in order to automate the dispatch of a questionnaire. For example, when a customer of an online shop validates a purchase, a questionnaire can be sent automatically to discover the level of satisfaction with his purchasing experience.

Advanced respondent management

An entire section of the e-Questionnaire application is devoted to the management of the relationship with respondents. A language can be assigned to every respondent; the respondent will thus receive not only the questionnaire, but also the e-mails of the organiser of the survey in his own language.

It is also possible in the twinkling of an eye, to visualise in a treeview the list and the status of all respondents, namely

respondent pending
(not yet contacted by e-mail)
respondent recruited
(request e- mail sent)
respondent followed up
(follow-up e-mail sent)
questionnaire opened
questionnaire pending
questionnaire ended
processing ended
(“thank you” e-mail sent)

This refined categorisation of respondents makes it possible to directly measure the evolution of a survey and to take the required action to improve the rate of return of questionnaires. For example, if it is found that the majority of respondents stagnate at the “questionnaire pending” stage, it is possible to encourage them by e-mail to motivate them to finish their survey.

Personalised e-mails

e-Questionnaire also integrates a powerful mass mailing function. Its interface enables you to easily create multilingual e-mails by integrating merge fields relating to your respondent (surname, forename, etc.).

e-Questionnaire provides four e-mail templates corresponding to the major steps in your survey, namely

the recruitment e-mail, to request respondents to reply to the survey
the reminder e-mail, to remind him to participate in the survey
the follow-up e-mail, to remind him to finish completing his questionnaire
the “thank you” e-mail, to thank him for participating

A language and date of dispatch can also be assigned to each e-mail.