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Reminder & Thank You Emails

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About Reminder & Thank You Emails

After you’ve invited respondents to take your survey, Qualtrics allows you to send special emails reminding these respondents to finish, or thanking them for finishing. The system will recognize who’s finished for you, so you don’t have to worry about setting up a special contact list!

Qtip: Reminder and thank you emails can only be sent to distributions using the individual link! (Individual links are generally the default for emailed surveys.) You cannot set up a reminder if you sent out your survey using the anonymous link, multiple completes links, Personal Links, or any other distribution method.

Sending Reminder Emails

To help increase response rates, you can follow up with respondents who haven’t completed their survey by sending a reminder email. Reminder emails are only sent to participants who have not yet completed their survey and include the same individual link for that recipient’s survey session. If the participants have already started the survey, they will continue where they left off.

To send a Reminder email

  1. Expand the appropriate distribution block by clicking on the plus sign in the top left corner.
    Tiny plus sign to the upper-left of an email distribution
  2. Click Schedule Reminder underneath the distribution block.
    Schedule reminder button to the bottom-left beneath the distribution
  3. Schedule the time of your distribution in the When dropdown (by default, your mailing will be sent 1 hour from when you schedule the mailing, but you can choose from a range of common times or schedule a custom time).
    Schedule reminder window
  4. Enter a Subject for your email.
    Qtip: From Address, From Name, and Reply-To Email will be populated by default. Although you can change the From Name without issue, visit our Using a Custom From Address support page to find out how to properly change the From Address and Reply-To Email.
  5. Click Load Message to insert a previously saved message, or type a new message in the body.
    Qtip: For tips on setting up your email, check out the Customizing Your Email Message page.
  6. Click Send.

Reminder email status and distribution history

Reminder emails have their own status block nested beneath the main distribution. Like the main distribution, the reminder block has helpful metrics and actions.

Reminder distribution beneath the invitation distribution

If your Reminder emails haven’t been sent yet, you can see the Scheduled status to the right of the block and the exact send time to the left. You can also edit the reminder message and send time by clicking on the dropdown and choosing Edit.

Attention: If you pause response collection prior to the scheduled time of your reminder email, the scheduled reminders will not send.

Opened dropdown on reminder distribution with Edit option indicated

If your reminder emails have been sent, you can see the distribution statistics to the right and the send time to the left. In addition, you can see what message was sent by clicking on the dropdown and choosing View Distribution. If you have access to XM Directory or the new contacts experience, then you will also have the option to Download History which will allow you to download a file containing the status of each recipient in the distribution.

a reminder email distribution that's been expanded to see that stats and history for the distribution

Qtip: If your reminders fail with the error message “EQD15”, then your initial survey link has expired, and the reminder will not send. See this page for more information about distribution error messages.
Qtip: Let’s say you add a few people to your contact list after sending out an email distribution. These people never received an invite, so they have not started their surveys. Sending out a reminder email will go to new members of the contact list who have been added since the original distribution. However, if you have XM Directory, this is not the case. If you have XM Directory, your contacts must first receive an initial invitation before they can receive reminders for a survey.

Qtip: If you are sending reminder emails on your survey, it’s best practice to set the incomplete survey response deadline greater than or equal to the length of the reminder period.

 

For example, if you’re setting up your email invitation to send 2 reminder emails, the first sending after 5 days and the second after 10 days, then you should configure your incomplete survey response option to be at least 10 days as well. With this set-up, users that open the survey on the first invitation but do not complete it will be able to resume their survey session when they receive their second reminder email (because the survey hasn’t expired yet).

Qtip: Reminder emails will not be sent to email addresses that received a hard or soft bounce status on the initial distribution.

 

Sending Thank You Emails

To show your respondents how much you appreciate their participation, you can send them a thank you email. These emails are only sent to respondents who have a recorded response for your distribution. This includes completed responses as well as recorded incomplete completed responses.

Qtip: Rather than sending all thank you emails at once, you can set up your survey options to automatically send individual thank you emails as respondents complete the survey.
Qtip: Surveys with the anonymize response option enabled in Survey Options do not support thank you messages.

To send a Thank You email

  1. Expand the appropriate distribution block by clicking on the plus sign in the top left corner.
    Tiny plus sign to the upper-left of an email distribution
  2. Click Schedule Thank You Message.
    Schedule Thank You email button under distribution
  3. Schedule the time of your distribution in the When dropdown (by default, your mailing will be sent 1 hour from when you schedule the mailing, but you can choose from a range of common times or schedule a custom time).
    Scheduling thank you emails window
  4. Enter a Subject for your email.
    Qtip: From Address, From Name, and Reply-To Email will be populated by default. Although you can change the From Name without issue, visit our Using a Custom From Address support page to find out how to properly change the From Address and Reply-To Email.
  5. Click Load Message to insert a previously saved message, or begin typing to create a new email message.
  6. Click Send.

Thank You Email status

Thank you emails have their own status block nested beneath the main distribution. Like the main distribution, the thank you block has helpful metrics and actions.

Thank you distribution underneath the invitation distribution

If your thank you emails haven’t been sent yet, you can see the Scheduled status to the right of the block and the exact send time to the left. You can also edit the message and send time by clicking on the dropdown and choosing Edit.

Thank you distribution dropdown options

If your thank you emails have been sent, you can see the distribution statistics to the right and the send time to the left. In addition, you can see what message was sent by clicking on the dropdown and choosing View Distribution. If you have access to XM Directory or the new contacts experience, then you will also have the option to Download History which will allow you to download a file containing the status of each recipient in the distribution.

a thank you email distribution that's been expanded to see that stats and history for the distribution

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