Getting Started with XM Directory

About XM Directory

XM Directory is a contact management platform that allows you to build and manage a database of all your organization’s respondents and to keep information up to date, accurate, and accessible to all your users. By having an organization-wide directory of contacts, you can view profiles of different contacts’ many touchpoints with your organization, making it easier than ever to discover insights about their experience with your brand.

With XM Directory, you can create and update contact information in a central database and send surveys directly to mailing lists. You can decrease the number of duplicate contacts easily to prevent repeat uploads, and manage your global opt-outs from the directory. You can also limit the amount of times a respondent can be contacted by your brand to prevent response fatigue and improve the survey taking experience.

Regardless of whether you’re an administrator looking to set up their brand new directory or a standard user who just wants to learn the basics before sending their first distribution, we have the resources to get you started with XM Directory.

For users looking to send distributions using XM Directory:

• Step 1: Preparing Contacts for Distribution in XM Directory
• Step 2: Distributing to Contacts in XM Directory

For administrators looking to implement XM Directory on their brands:

• Step 1: Design Your Directory
• Step 2: Implement Your Directory
• Step 3: Improve Your Directory

Navigating to XM Directory

To get started, go to the global navigation menu, then select Directories.

Your administrator may have given you access to more than one contact directory. Try clicking the dropdown at the top of the page to see how many directories you have access to. Note that these are each distinct, and will not necessarily have the same contacts or settings in them. When you create a mailing list in one directory, it’s not added to any other directory; this same rule applies for all changes you can make.

Key Terms

You can find a quick definition for the most commonly used terms in XM Directory below:

• Directory: The directory is an address book for the entire brand and contains all of the contacts that have been added by your users.
• Mailing Lists: Mailing lists are lists of contacts that can receive emails and survey invitations. You can create mailing lists either through file upload or manually. Unlike the directory, mailing lists are not visible to the entire organization, but are instead created in individual accounts. Mailing lists can be shared with other users or groups.
• Samples: Samples are groups of people from the same mailing list. They can be useful in pilot testing by splitting mailing lists into sub-groups.
• Segments: Segments are automatically updated lists of contacts chosen by their particular needs, demographics, priorities, common interests, or other identifying information.
• Distributions: Here is where you reach out to contacts in the XM Directory platform, with or without a survey attached.
• Embedded Data: Embedded data are additional information fields you attach to a contact that does not include the basic contact information (first name, last name, email address, and External Data Reference). Embedded data on a contact is visible to all users, can be overridden in the platform, and can be used in survey responses.
• Deduplication: Deduplication refers to an automatic process that can be used to automatically merge existing and new contacts. This prevents you from uploading the same person as separate contacts.
• Contact Frequency: Contact frequency is a setting that controls how often you can reach out to contacts, and how much you can contact them in that timeframe.
• Roles: This feature allows administrators to divide their Qualtrics users into groups and easily determine who has access to which directories.

FAQs