Calculate Metric Task

About the Calculate Metric Task

The calculate metric task in Actions allows you to trigger a response to aggregate metrics observed in a dataset over a period of time. In other words, it provides a way to set up automated workflows based on trends or events you observe in experience data. The results of your calculate metric task can be used to trigger  other tasks within your workflow. For example, you could use the calculate metric task to notify your marketing team’s Slack channel when your brand NPS dips by 10% within a period of a week, or you could create a follow-up ticket for your team if more than 100 opt-outs occurred from XM Directory within a week.

Setting Up a Calculate Metric Task

1. Follow the directions to set up a scheduled action.
2. Click Add new to create a task.
3. Select Calculate metric.
   
4. Select your Data Source. Here, you’ll specify the Source, the Metric Type, and the Metric Field.
   • Source: The survey that hosts the data you will be calculating your metric from. All of your available surveys will appear in the dropdown.
   • Metric Type: The type of metric you’ll be calculating based on. Choose from the following metric types:
     • Count of records: Display response counts from the selected fields (i.e., number of respondents choosing a value in a five-point scale).
     • Average: Exhibit the average value for a selected field.
     • NPS: Net Promoter Score. Identify the Detractors, Passives, and Promoters from NPS questions.
   • Metric Field: The specific field or question you will be calculating your metric on.
5. Choose the Calculation Type. Calculation Types:
   • Single Time Period: The metric will be calculated using data from the chosen time period.
   • Change over a period of time: You will be asked to set an initial period and a time period to compare it to. This will show a comparison of the metric’s relative change from the specified time period to the present.
     Attention: If you select Count of records as your metric type, the Compared to field will automatically be set to what you input in the Data from field, and the Compared to field will be shown as grayed out and uneditable.
6. If desired, add Filters. This can be used if you’d like to have the metric calculate on a subset of your data. You can filter based on one of the data source’s survey questions or one of your survey’s Embedded Data fields. For more information on setting conditions in filters, visit Creating Conditions.
   Attention: Some of the resources for condition-building use examples in data filtering instead of Actions. However, the logic behind these conditions are the same.
7. Click Save.

Adding Subsequent Tasks & Conditions

After setting up your calculate metric task, add subsequent tasks and conditions in order to use the results of your calculations.

1. If desired, click Add new to create a Condition underneath your calculate metric task.
2. Click Condition to begin specifying your conditions.
3. Click Select Condition Type and select Tasks.
4. Click Select Action to select the Calculate option.
5. Click Select Option to select the desired calculation type.
6. If desired, Add new subsequent tasks to be triggered based on your Calculate metric condition.
   Qtip: Each task will be labeled with a unique ID (e.g., “T2”) for easier identification and organization. If you add a Calculate metric task after an email task, but you are piping the results of the calculate metric task into your email task, the tasks will be automatically reordered so that they are in the correct order.

Qtip: You can also use piped text to report the results from the calculate metric task in subsequent tasks. For example, if you wanted to include information about your calculate metric task in a subsequent email task, the results from the calculate metric task will be available in the piped text portion of the rich content editor.

When Calculate Metric Tasks Are Completed

All types of survey responses can cause changes to the metrics calculated in a Calculate metric task. This will cause subsequent tasks to trigger under certain conditions.

• Initial period: If you configure your calculate metric task with the Change over a period of time option, this will be the output values from the initial time period you set in your task.
• Subsequent period: If you configure the calculate metric task with the Change over a period of time option, this is the group of output values from the second time period you set in your task.
• Absolute change: The aggregate data from the first time period subtracted from the aggregate from the second time period.
• Relative change (percent): The aggregate data from the first time period subtracted from the aggregate from the second time period, divided by your aggregate from the second time period.

Qtip: If you decide to select either the Initial or Subsequent period, you can then select to use the Count, NPS, or Standard Deviation as your metric.

Troubleshooting Calculate Metric Tasks

This section has links to additional resources that can help you troubleshoot issues related to email tasks.

• Identifying Whether Calculate Metric Tasks Failed: Actions Reporting allows you to check on the status of tasks in your survey, and identify whether they succeeded. This troubleshooting tool is best for checking on issues on the task setup side, and will not help you dig deeper into email deliverability issues, such as invalid recipients.
• Troubleshooting Conditions: The way a condition on an task is worded can change when the task is executed. First, remember to check the general rules for who receives email tasks, and when. If you need help troubleshooting the way conditions are written, check out these resources:
  • Creating Conditions (With step-by-step example)
  • New Conditions and Condition Sets
  • All vs. Any
  • Nesting Logic