Collectors(Distribute) User Manual

This manual guides you step by step, through sharing surveys using SurveyHub. Use it to set up distribution channels — links, QR codes, embedded forms, APIs, SMS, and email — and collect responses quickly and safely.

B. Getting Started: Survey Distribution

B.1 SurveyHub Login

Step 1: Click the SurveyHub link. You will be redirected to the Single Sign-On page of SurveyHub, after which the system will take you to the landing page.

B.2 Navigating to Distribute

Step 1: Click the Surveys tab.

Step 2: Select any existing survey or create a new survey.

Step 3: After designing the survey, navigate to the Distribute tab.

C. Distribute Overview

The Distribute tab allows users to add new channels such as Web Link, QR, Email, SMS, API, and Embed Channel. Each channel controls how you distribute your survey — by sharing a link, sending it to email addresses, or delivering it via SMS.

C.1 Channel Summary

The Channel Summary section provides an overview of all configured channels and statistics related to how many responses and invites are gathered from each channel's distribution.

The user can switch between All Channels, Active Channels and Inactive Channels using the tabs below the Channel Summary title. A search bar allows users to find channels by their name or channel type.

The table displays the following information:

Channel Name: Displays the name of the channel along with the channel type (Email, SMS, WhatsApp, etc.).
Created On / Last Updated: Provides key timestamps to track when the channel was first created and when it was last modified.
Health: Displays the statistics of number of responses and invites for a specific channel. For contact-based survey distributions such as Email and SMS, the health column displays the number of invites sent along with number of failed invites. The platform aggregates responses for today and the current week.
Responses: Displays the total number of responses gathered from the specific channel since its creation.
Status: Displays whether the channel is currently Active or Inactive. An inactive channel stops collecting responses from its generated links. By clicking the Status, the user can quickly switch the channel status.
Logs: Navigate to the logs page to view individual response and invite statistics.
Actions: Rename, edit and delete the created channel by clicking the menu icon.

C.2 Default Settings

Default settings allow you to pre-apply advanced settings before creating any channel distribution. This enables you to configure restrictions and link behavior for all newly created channels without manual configuration for each channel.

Step 1: Click the Settings icon to view default settings.

Step 2: Click the + icon to open the configuration for an individual option.

The following settings can be configured as default for all channel distributions:

IP Restriction: Restrict the survey to specific IP addresses, or block access from specified IP addresses.
Response Limit: Close the channel after a specified number of responses have been collected.
Link Expiry: Configure the timestamp at which the survey link should expire.
Remove duplicated invited contacts within days: For contact-based distributions or API Channel, If previously invited contacts are added again within the specified period, the system will not resend the survey to them.

Survey Sub Domain: Customize the sub domain of the survey link which will be shared.
Multiple Responses: Configure whether a survey can be taken more than once from the same device or restrict multiple responses to be taken from the same device.
Cutoff Date and Time: Define until when responses will be accepted. If left Off, responses will be accepted until you manually close the Channel.
Gateway: Configure the Email and SMS Gateways through which the survey and its reminders need to be delivered.
Completion Rule: Define what happens after a user has completed the survey. This allows you to add an Exit Link URL or configure how the completion screen should behave in case of Logic Exit, Disqualification or Quota Exceeded.

D. Create a Channel

D.1 Web Link Channel

Web Link Channel allows you to collect multiple responses to the survey using a Web Link. Anyone with the link can respond to the survey. Follow the steps to create a web link Channel:

1.1 How to Create Web Link Channel

1. Go to Distribute.

2. Click Web Link.

3. Enter Channel Name.

4. Click Next.

1.2 Manual Entry Web Link Channel

Manual Entry Web Link Channel allows you to enter the data manually. The steps to adding Manual Entry are as follows:

Steps to entering data manually:

1. Go to the Web Link Channel.

2. In the URL Customization section, you can customize the survey link.

Customizable Text – Allows you to edit the wording of the survey link for easier recognition.
Embedded URL – Add specific field-value pairs (such as a respondent’s name) to personalize the survey link.
Your Generated Link – The final survey link created after customization.
Copy Link – Button to copy the generated survey link to your clipboard.
Open Link – Button to directly open the survey link in a browser.
Shorten Link – Toggle to create a shorter, easier-to-share version of the survey link.
Show QR – Toggle to generate a QR code for quick survey access.

3. Collect the link from the Preview section or click the QR link to scan it for the survey.

4. Copy the Preview link and paste it in the new tab/window. Fill out the survey that has opened in a new window/tab.

5. Repeat the process for entering another entry.

You can generate multiple links by using the Multiple Links section.

1.3 Web Link Channel Customization

Click the Configure button for an individual Web Link Channel to access its configuration menu.

To access an individual setting, click the + icon to expand its configuration.

1. IP Restriction: Define whether computers with a specified list of IP addresses can take the survey.

2. Response Limit: Automatically close the survey once responses reach your set limit.

3. Survey Domain: Customize the domain name for the survey.

4. Survey Sub-Domain: Customize the sub-domain name for the survey.

5. Anonymous Responses: Choose to exclude all respondent information, exclude only personal information, or include all information in the survey results.

6. Multiple Responses: Control whether the survey accepts more than one response from the same device.

7. Survey link refresh setting: Controls whether survey response continues or starts from beginning after reopening the link.

8. Cutoff Date and Time: Set a cutoff date and time after which respondents cannot take the survey.

9. Response Editing: Allow or restrict respondents from editing their answers during or after the survey.

10. Intro Page: Enable or disable the intro page shown to respondents.

11. eData Encryption: Enable or disable encryption of stored embedded data.

12. Completion Rule: Turn on advanced rules that control destinations after exiting, completion, or disqualification. This allows you to customize the URL that is visible when a user completes the survey or allows you to configure the message or URL when logic rules disqualify a respondent; quota is exceeded or met.

D.2 QR Channel

The QR Channel allows you to create QR codes that point to your survey link. This is useful when you want users to take surveys by scanning a QR code and filling up the survey on their device. The QR code can be shared digitally as a PNG or printed to be displayed in offline locations.

QR Channel is used when you want to collect responses from an offline branch of your organization. Customers can scan the QR code to provide responses for feedback surveys and opinion polls.

2.1 How to Create QR Channel

Step 1: On the Distribute tab, click the QR icon to create a QR Channel Distribution.

Step 2: Enter the desired name for the QR Channel.

Step 3: Click Next.

Step 4: Customize the appearance of the QR code by configuring the following options:

QR Color: Modify the color of the QR Code.
Upload Logo: Upload a logo to be included inside the QR Code.

Customizable text: Customize the survey link as per your preference to include details such as survey name or attributes such as department or branch for the survey respondents.

Step 4: Click the Download icon to download the QR Code as either a PNG or SVG.

2.2 Multiple QR Codes

Use this feature to generate multiple QR codes for the same survey, each with unique embedded data.

An embedded data is a custom variable that allows you to segment or categorize the responses received on a survey. It allows for identification of which QR code was used for filling the survey.

By creating multiple QR codes, you can assign an Embedded Data field, such as Branch, and specify a unique value for each QR code. This enables you to collect responses for the same survey while distinguishing which branch each response came from.

To create multiple QR Codes:

Step 1: Click Generate Multiple QR Code.

Step 2: Click Add New or choose Bulk Upload to create multiple QR codes via an excel sheet.

Step 3: Specify the name of the URL and specify the key on which value needs to be assigned.

By clicking the + icon, you can add additional embedded data key-value pairs to the same link.

Step 4: Click Add to create a link associated with the new QR Code.

Step 5: Alternatively, you can click the Bulk Upload button to download a template and fill out the embedded data values for each link, allowing you to generate multiple QR codes in a single step.

Step 6: Click the eye icon to Preview the QR code for the specific link, along with the ability to download as PNG or SVG.

Alternatively, once you have generated multiple links, you can click the Download icon to download all the QR Codes in either PNG or SVG.

2.3 QR Channel Customization

Various settings can be configured for the survey link associated with the QR Code. To configure these settings:

Step 1: Click the Configure option.

Step 2: Click the + icon to expand the configuration for a specific option.

The following configurations can be applied to the QR Channel:

IP Restriction: Allow surveys to be taken or blocked from specified IP addresses.
Response Limit: Automatically close the channel after a chosen number of responses are recorded.
Survey Domain: Choose whether the survey link runs on a custom domain or the default platform domain.
Survey Sub Domain.: Define a custom subdomain segment for the survey URL.
Anonymous Responses: Control whether respondent identity and customer data are stored with survey results. When enabled, the system anonymizes all PII data for collected responses.
Multiple Responses: Decide how many times and how often a respondent can complete the survey.
Survey link refresh setting: Control whether returning respondents resume or restart their response when reopening the link.

Cut-off Date and Time: Schedule an automatic date and time when the channel distribution stops accepting responses.
Response Editing.: Decide if respondents can change their answers during or after the survey.
Intro page: Show or hide an introductory page before the first question.
eData Encryption: Enable or disable encryption of stored embedded data.
Completion Rule: Turn on advanced rules that control destinations after exiting, completion, or disqualification. This allows you to customize the URL that is visible when a user completes the survey or allows you to configure the message or URL when logic rules disqualify a respondent; quota is exceeded or met.

D.3 Email Channel

3.1 How to Create an Email Channel

Email Channel allows you to send your surveys to respondents via email. You can send emails using SurveyHub templates or add a custom template, insert contact details, and embed questions in the email to increase your response rate. Create Email Channel and share your survey with respondents.

To create an email invitation:

1. Go to Distribute.

2. Click Email.

3. Enter Channel Name.

4. Click Next.

In Email Channels, you have three options:

Email Content: Through the content, you can configure the template and its content that will be sent out when the survey is distributed.

In the email content, you can do the following:

Edit the email content from scratch.
Choose from a selection of templates in SurveyHub.
Create a brand-new template catered to your specific use case to be re-used later.

Recipient: In the recipient’s section you can see all the recipients.

In the Recipients’ section, you can check:

Add emails manually via typing them in the Manual Entry section.
Bulk upload from a contacts Excel file using a predefined template.
Select from a stored contact list using the Contacts option.

Schedule: In the Schedule section, you can configure the time at which the email containing the survey needs to be sent.

In the Schedule section, you can perform the following:

Gateway: Select the Email gateway through which you want to deliver the survey.
Delivery Time: Set the exact date and time when you want the survey invitation to be sent.
Cutoff Date and Time: Define until when responses will be accepted. If left Off, responses will be accepted until you manually close the Channel.
Set Weekdays: Choose specific weekdays for delivery if you only want invites to be sent on certain days (this will apply if the delivery time is set to weekdays).
Multichannel Invite: Enable this option if you want to allow sending invites through multiple channels in addition to SMS.

3.2 Customizing Email Channel Settings

Click the Configure button to adjust the Email Channel settings, enabling you to customize the channel as needed.

IP Restriction: Allow surveys to be taken or blocked from specified IP addresses.
Response Limit: Automatically close the channel after a chosen number of responses are recorded.
Link Expiry: Set a time period after which the survey link should expire for the respondent.
Gateway: Configure the Email Gateway and Sender ID from which the survey invitation needs to be sent.
Remove duplicate invited contacts within days: Set a number of days within which duplicated contacts which were invited previously will not be invited.
Survey Domain: Choose whether the survey link runs on a custom domain or the default platform domain.

Survey Sub Domain.: Define a custom subdomain segment for the survey URL.
Response Editing.: Decide if respondents can change their answers during or after the survey.
Intro page: Show or hide an introductory page before the first question.
Default Conversational Thankyou Message: Configure a custom thank you message specific to the selected distribution channel which displays at the end of a survey.

3.3 How to Create an Email for The Channel

Follow these steps to create an Email for the Channel:

1. Create a new Email Channel or select from an existing Email Channel.

2. Edit the currently selected Email Content or select from an existing template.

Note: You can also insert custom data within your e-mail template. For e.g., First name, Last name, etc. by selecting from the drop-down menu of “insert custom data”.

3. Navigate to Recipient and add emails manually or use Bulk Upload or Contact List. Click Save & Next.

4. Configure the delivery timings on the Schedule tab. You may also set up reminders for users in case they did not respond to the survey after a specific duration. Click Send.

D.4 SMS Channel

4.1 How to Create an SMS Channel

SMS Channel is used to collect responses through SMS. Choose to add a custom message or export a CSV to have a different link for different respondents.

To create SMS Channel:

1. On the Distribute tab, click the SMS Channel.

2. Enter the channel name and click Next.

In SMS Channel you have three options:

In the recipient’s section, you can select who to send the message to. You can add recipients by either manually uploading the contact numbers, uploading an Excel file or select an existing contact list.

Configure: Through Configure, you can do various customizations to the SMS through various link settings.

4.2 Customize Your SMS Channel Through Various Settings

Click the Configure button to adjust the SMS Channel settings, enabling you to customize the channel as needed.

IP Restriction: Allow surveys to be taken or blocked from specified IP addresses.
Response Limit: Automatically close the channel after a chosen number of responses are recorded.
Link Expiry: Set a time period after which the survey link should expire for the respondent.
Gateway: Configure the Email Gateway and Sender ID from which the survey invitation needs to be sent.
Remove duplicate invited contacts within days: Set a number of days within which duplicated contacts which were invited previously will not be invited.
Survey Domain: Choose whether the survey link runs on a custom domain or the default platform domain.

Survey Sub Domain: Define a custom subdomain segment for the survey URL.
Response Editing: Decide if respondents can change their answers during or after the survey.
Intro page: Show or hide an introductory page before the first question.
Default Conversational Thankyou Message: Configure a custom thank you message specific to the selected distribution channel which displays at the end of a survey.

How To Send SMS Through SMS Channel

You can send a survey invitation to respondents with the survey link included.

To send an invite to the respondents:

1. Click the SMS Content button on your SMS Channel page.

2. Select the SMS template. These templates are pre-approved. While creating a template, you create a name for the template. Enter that name for creating the template.

3. Click Save & Next.

4. Add Recipient using the Bulk Upload or Manual Upload button. Once you click it, you can upload the contacts. If you wish to upload new contacts, click Upload. On the next page, download the template file and open it. Add the contacts in the format suggested in the template file and upload it on the same popup. If you wish to add contacts from your saved contacts, click Contact List and select the library folder where your contacts are saved.

5. Click Save & Next.

6. Under the Schedule section, configure the following options as per your requirement:

Gateway: Select the SMS gateway through which you want to deliver the survey.
Delivery Time: Set the exact date and time when you want the survey invite to be sent.
Cutoff Date and Time: Define until when responses will be accepted. If left Off, responses will be accepted until you manually close the Channel.
Set Weekdays: Choose specific weekdays for delivery if you only want invites to be sent on certain days (this will apply if the delivery time is set to weekdays).
Multichannel Invite: Enable this option if you want to allow sending invites through multiple channels in addition to SMS.

D.5 API Channel

5.1 Creating API Channel

API Channel is used to collect survey responses by integrating with your CRM. Through the API Channel, you can send surveys via SMS and Email, and schedule surveys, reminders, or thank you messages based on days, hours, or a specific date.

To create an API Channel:

1. On Distribute tab, click API Channel.

2. Enter Channel Name and click Next.

On API Details tab, you can copy all necessary parameters for distributing survey via API:

Customizing Channel Features and Settings

You can further customize the channel settings and features, such as custom messages and delivery timings.

1. Click Configure to view and customize channel options.

Delivery Timings: Configure all scheduling through Delivery Timings. You can schedule your invitation, Reminder for partial response, Reminder for No Response, and Thank You message. The steps to scheduling are as follows:

First, enable the type of message that you want to be sent automatically to the client.
For Delivery Timings, set the countdown for the time the first invite is to be sent. You can set the countdown in date and time order. You can also select to send invite-only during weekdays or weekends or every day.
In partial and not respondent reminders you can choose to add the number of reminders to be sent and select its medium of sending the Message.
In thank message, you can set the time and medium of sending the message.

You can customize the Channel setting by clicking the + next to each setting.

IP Restriction: Allow surveys to be taken or blocked from specified IP addresses.
Response Limit: Automatically close the channel after a chosen number of responses are recorded.
Link Expiry: Set a time period after which the survey link should expire for the respondent.
Gateway: Configure the Email Gateway and Sender ID from which the survey invitation needs to be sent.
Remove duplicate invited contacts within days: Set a number of days within which duplicated contacts which were invited previously will not be invited.
Remove duplicate respondent contacts within days: Set a number of days within which contacts who have responded to the survey and were invited previously will not be invited.
Sender Name: Configure the primary name to appear with the survey invitation.
Set Medium (Primary): Set a primary medium for the API channel.

Survey Domain: Choose whether the survey link runs on a custom domain or the default platform domain.
Survey Sub Domain.: Define a custom subdomain segment for the survey URL.
Response Editing.: Decide if respondents can change their answers during or after the survey.
Intro page: Show or hide an introductory page before the first question.

Default Conversational Thankyou Message: Configure a custom thank you message specific to the selected distribution channel which displays at the end of a survey.

5.2 Track Activity for API Channel

The API Activity page tracks all your actions and activity related to the API Channel. You can view the emails and SMS you have sent to respondents. You can sort and filter individual respondents from the list using the available filters.

Filter available to you are:

Advance: This option allows you to search for respondents based on email id and mobile number.

Date: This option is used to set a time frame. Only the API Channel communications sent during the filtered period are shown.
Response: This option lets you filter the respondents based on their response type. The available options are Not Responded, Responded, Partially Responded, Disqualified. You can send a reminder to those who have not responded yet.

Status: This option lets you filter the Channel based on the status of whether the emails and text messages were delivered or not. The options available are — Failed, Delivered, Queued, Scheduled.

Message: This lets you filter based on the type of message sent to respondents. The available options are– Invited, Reminder, Thank you. Invite refers to invite to fill the survey, Reminder refers to a reminder mail for survey and Thankyou refers to a thank you mail you have sent your respondents for filling the survey.

Gateway: This option lets you filter your data based on Gateway you have used.

Other options available on the activity page are:

Search: This option lets you manually search for specific information in the Channel response.

Export to CSV/Excel: This option lets you export the entire API Channel data to an Excel or CSV Format.

Understanding the table

The tabular data has numerous fields which, when used with filters, help you get precise data. The columns on the table are:

Created: This section shows you the time of the creation of the invite/reminder.
Sent To: This column shows the details of the respondents with whom you will share the survey.
Message Status: This tells you the status of the message — Delivered, Failed, Queued, Schedules.
Message Type: This tells you the content of the message—whether it is a reminder, invite or a thank you message.
Sent Time: This shows the time when the Channel was sent to respondents.
Response Status: This shows you the response status of the respondents from Not Responded, Responded, Partial, Disqualified.
Take Survey: This link can take you to the survey that was used.
Message: This column shows the Message sent to the respondents.

5.3 Customizing Channel Features and Settings

SurveyHub allows you to do various customizations to an API Channel using numerous tools.

Custom Message: This option allows you to edit the default message or add a custom template to be sent by a user as invites, reminders, and thank you messages and through SMS or Email. You get the option to edit the content for entire mail, including Heading, Subject, Body for different message types.

Steps to adding Custom Message:

1. To edit the SMS/Email message, navigate to API Content.

2. Click the Edit button to change the message body.

3. You can add custom data such as the first name, or you can also enter the embedded data of your own choice by clicking Tags or Insert Survey Link.

4. Remember Survey Link is necessary for the body in SMS/Email and optional in subject part in email.

5. Click Proceed and Save.

D.6 Embedded Channel

6.1 How to Create an Embedded Channel

Use the Embedded Channel to integrate a SurveyHub survey directly into your website. This allows you to embed a survey directly within your platform, allowing respondents to take the survey in your website instead of being redirected to an external URL. The steps to creating a new Embedded Channel are as follows:

1. On the Distribute tab, click Embed Channel.

2. Enter Channel Name and click Next.

6.2 Customizing Channel Settings

You can customize various Channel Setting by accessing the settings option on the right side of the screen.

1. Select an existing Embed Channel.

2. Click Configure to view and customize channel settings.

The available customizable options are:

Anonymous Responses: Choose to exclude all respondent information, exclude only personal information, or include all information in the survey results.

Cutoff Date and Time: Define until when responses will be accepted. If left Off, responses will be accepted until you manually close the Channel.

IP Restriction: Allow surveys to be taken or blocked from specified IP addresses.

Multiple Responses: Decide how many times and how often a respondent can complete the survey.

6.3 How to Customize Embedded Channel

The Embedded Channel lets you choose the survey type that best suits your platform. Choose from a popup, standard, or full page. Copy the embedded code for the Survey size you find the best for your brand and business.

Standard

This is the standard template offered by SurveyHub. You can integrate this into your website/platform. There are some customizable parameters for you to make changes to:

Width: You can change the width of the survey box by altering it.

Height: You can change the height of the survey box by altering it.

Hide Header: This option hides the header of the survey, showing you just questions.

Bind Data: Bind embedded data into survey response.

Hide Footer: This option hides the footer box at the bottom.

Embed Code: This is the code which allows you to integrate the survey with your platform. Copy it and paste it on your website’s source code to integrate it.

Full Page

Full Page Survey integration is always available with SurveyHub. You can also customize this to make it more suitable for your needs.

Hide Header: This option hides the header of the survey, showing you just the questions.

Hide Footer: This hides the footer of the survey.

Embed Code: This is the code you must integrate with your website to make SurveyHub’s survey available on your platform/website.

Popup

With this option, the survey appears in a popup box for your respondents. You can customize it to be more intuitive. You have the option to auto-start the survey with popup or you can let the respondents decide when they start with the survey, manually. The customization options available are:

Width: With this option, you can alter the width of the popup survey box.

Height: With this option, you can alter the height of the popup survey box.

Hide Header / Footer: With this option, you can choose to hide the header or footer of the survey, showing just the questions to the respondents.

Mandatory: Enforce survey completion to be mandatory for exiting the popup.

Bind Data: Bind embedded data into survey response.

Close on Completion: This option lets you close the survey automatically to completion. You can enable it or disable it.

Launch Automatically: This option automatically starts the survey for the respondent. If you disable it, you can customize the manual start button.

Backdrop Color: With this option, you can customize the background colour of the textbox.

Embed Code: This is the code you need to copy and integrate with your platform to integrate the survey on your platform.