SMS Survey Types and Setup

When the SMS Survey extension is activated for your company, the SMS Surveys tab becomes available in the Survey Overview page (go to Survey Management > Overview). Here you set up the SMS properties for the survey. The options available to you will depend on the permission level you have.

There are two main types of SMS survey; one way, and two way.

One Way SMS survey

When an SMS is sent to respondent but it does not need any reply back from them, this is classified as a One Way SMS survey. For example, you can send a reminder to the respondent to take part in the survey which was sent to them a few days previously. Another example would be that you can send the link to the survey in the SMS, and ask them to take part in the survey - .

• An SMS is sent as an email from Forsta Plus to the SMS gateway.
• The SMS contains a short URL link to the web survey.
• The respondent clicks on the short URL to view the survey on his/her mobile browser.

Figure 1- The One Way SMS survey

Note that with one way SMS you do not need the Flex extension set up. This is because as the respondent cannot reply to the sms, no data is captured from respondent via the sms.

Setting Up a One Way SMS Survey

1. Create the survey and in the Invitation and reminder emails folder insert an email object.
2. Open the email object, then tick the Send as plain text box and untick the Send as HTML box.

• The "From" and "Reply to" email addresses must be those that have been registered with the SMS provider.

• The Subject of the email can be alphanumeric (check with the SMS gateway provider for any limitations). Then when the respondent receives the SMS, they will see the Subject as the sender id. For example, if the subject of the email is set as Forsta, the respondent will receive the SMS from Forsta.

• There may be limitations on the number of characters allowed for the subject; you should always check with your SMS provider.

• The "Plain text body" should contain the SMS text that will be displayed to the respondent.

Note: One SMS unit can have a maximum of 160 characters. If your SMS text is over this limit, the message may be split or not delivered fully. Check with your SMS provider for limitations.

3. Upload to each respondent's email field the appropriate address format for the SMS provider.

• Always check your SMS provider's email format. For example, for SMS provider Infobip, the format must be [e-mail], and for TextAnywhere the format must be [e-mail] where mobilenumber is the mobile number of the respondent without a leading zero but with the appropriate country code, e.g. 441234567890.

On completion, use respondent emailing to send out the emails; they will be delivered to the respondents as SMS.

Figure 2 - The settings required for One Way SMS

Two Way SMS survey

Two way SMS is used when the respondent must reply to the SMS at least once to take part in the survey. A typical example would be that you send the first question to the respondent as an SMS, and when respondent replies back, further questions are then sent to them via SMS - .

• An SMS is sent as an email from Forsta Plus to the SMS gateway.
• SMS reply is sent to the SMS gateway that forwards it to the survey via SMS Flex extension.

Figure 3 - The Two Way SMS survey

Note that allowing respondents to reply with STOP, QUIT or any other commands still qualifies as Two Way SMS.

Setting Up a Two Way SMS Survey

1. Create the survey.

• Remember that sending numerous text messages can be expensive for the respondent - keep the questions to a minimum.

• Each question with its answer alternatives must be shorter than 160 characters to avoid the question being split into several SMS messages. Not all SMS providers support automatic splitting of long SMS messages.

2. Go to the Survey Management > Flex Extensions menu command and activate the SMS Surveys extension for the survey.
3. Go to the Survey Management > Overview menu command and open the Survey Overview page for the survey.
4. Open the SMS Surveys tab (go to The SmsSurveyExtension Tab for more information).
5. Type the keyword for the survey into the Keyword field.
6. Select the Valid to date for the keyword.
7. Check the appropriate Survey Settings boxes to include the desired elements in the SMS messages to the respondents.
8. Click Save to save the settings.
9. If you wish to have a limited survey, upload/create the respondent list as necessary (go to Limited Surveys for more information).
10. If you wish to send the invitations via email, create the email (go to Sending SMS Invitations via Email for more information).
11. Test the setup - send an invitation message to yourself and ensure the survey functions as planned).