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Unique Identifiers (CX)

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About Unique Identifiers

Email addresses can change for many different reasons, so they’re not always a reliable way for Qualtrics to identify CX dashboard users. Thankfully, there is a Unique Identifier column when you add users, which allows you to specify users by whatever identifier your company prefers. You can use anything from numeric IDs to usernames, and in the event you need to change dashboard users’ unique IDs, it’s an easy process.

You have to be both a Project Administrator (often the person who made the dashboard project) and a Brand Administrator to perform the actions described in this section. This means you have access to the User Admin tab.

Attention: Unique Identifiers are case-sensitive!
Qtip: When uploading users with Unique Identifiers enabled, you can add users with the same email address as long as you include another column titled UserName with different values for these users. Without the UserName column, the upload will fail due to duplicate entries.
Qtip: This page refers to Unique Identifiers in CX Dashboard projects only.

Identifying Whether Your Brand has Unique Identifiers

Unique identifiers are a feature in all CX licenses started after July 16, 2020.

Qtip: Older brands do not have this functionality. If you are on an existing brand and are interested in switching to unique IDs, you can reach out to your XM Success Manager to learn more. Unique IDs are not a required feature for many CX licenses, although we recommend it if you’d like to host both CX and EX projects on the same brand. Once you’ve switched, see the Migrating from Email to Unique Identifiers section.

If you’re unsure when your brand was created and whether you have access to this feature already, then no worries – simply follow these steps to see if you have access to unique identifiers:

  1. Go to a Dashboard project.
    Dashboard project on the projects page
  2. Open the User Admin tab.
    User Admin tab of a dashboard opens a list of CX users. On the right of the page is a blue Add Users button
  3. Click Add users.
  4. Click Manually add users.
  5. If there is a Unique Identifier column on the left, your brand has unique identifiers, and you will need to include these every time you upload users to a dashboard.
    Unique Identifier column is the first on the add users window, followed by email, username, first name, and so on.

Manually Adding Users with Unique Identifiers

When manually adding users, you can add unique IDs in the Unique Identifier column.

Unique Identifier column in the Adding Users window

Enter whatever identifier your company prefers to use in this column.

Attention: You cannot leave the Unique Identifier field blank! Qualtrics will not generate Unique Identifiers for you.

Unique Identifiers can be made of letters, numbers, and/or the at symbol ( @ ), periods ( . ), and underscores ( _ ). The maximum is 100 characters.

Qtip: If you upload more than one person with the same Unique Identifier, only the first person with that Unique Identifier in the list will be added. If you add someone with the same Unique Identifier as an existing user, that user’s information will be updated. Any user attribute updates are immediately reflected in dashboard data restrictions.

Importing Users with Unique Identifiers

When Importing CX Users, download the Example Document. This will contain a UniqueIdentifier column. Do not modify this column name to UniqueID or anything else, or it will not be recognized.

Example CSV file in the window

Enter whatever identifier your company prefers to use in this column.

CSV showing the described columns

Attention: You cannot leave the UniqueIdentifier field blank! Qualtrics is no longer generating Unique Identifiers.

Unique Identifiers can be made of letters, numbers, and/or the at symbol ( @ ), periods ( . ), and underscores ( _ ). The maximum is 100 characters. You have a limit of 200 columns in your import file.

Qtip: If you upload more than one person with the same Unique Identifier, only the first person with that Unique Identifier in the list will be added. If you add someone with the same Unique Identifier as an existing user, that user’s information will be updated. Any user attribute updates are immediately reflected in dashboard data restrictions.

Updating Multiple Users’ Unique Identifiers

You can update Unique Identifiers for many CX users in your brand by using the User Admin tab in any dashboard project.

  1. Go to any Dashboard project.
    Dashboard project on the projects page
  2. Go to User Admin.
    updating unique ids within user admin tab
  3. Click Bulk Actions.
  4. Select Update unique IDs.
  5. Download the example file by selecting Download.
    download example file button
  6. For each user you want to update, include an oldUniqueID (current Unique Identifier) and a newUniqueID.
    CSV with the columns described
  7. Save your file. Do not change the format from CSV.
  8. Click Choose file to upload your CSV.
  9. Click Remove users.
Qtip: If you are having trouble uploading your CSV, see the CSV/TSV Upload Issues page.

Updating One User’s Unique Identifier

If you only need to update one user’s Unique Identifier, you can do this by finding them in the Users section of the User Admin tab, and then clicking their name or email.

individual user selected in user admin tab

Click their name. On the left, click into the Unique Identifier’s value and change it as desired.

User info window with Unique Identifier field on the left

Unique Identifiers and SSO Self-Enrollment

If you have Unique Identifiers enabled and your company is using SSO with Qualtrics, you have the option to assign Unique Identifiers upon self-enrollment via SSO.

Attention: Qualtrics cannot help your company’s SSO. If you are interested in enabling Unique Identifiers, we recommend working with your IT team.

To configure Unique Identifiers for your brand, work with your IT team to create an attribute to assign a Unique Identifier, You’ll need to add this attribute to your SSO configuration as the Unique ID field in the Dashboard Attributes section of your SSO configuration. Just In Time provisioning must be enabled.

The configured Unique Identifier will be assigned to a new user during self enrollment. If SSO Unique Identifier is not configured, a system-generated identifier will be assigned. Note this configuration does not impact the Unique Identifiers for the existing users.

Qtip:If you are provisioning users with a mix of self-enrollment (aka Just in Time Provisioning) and manual file upload, we recommend keeping the Unique ID value consistent. If you use two different fields such as Employee ID in the file upload and email address in the SSO settings, users may have a mix of Unique IDs.

Migrating from Emails to Unique Identifiers

This section is for existing licenses who voluntarily chose to switch from emails to unique identifiers. If you have been using CustomerXM for a while, chances are you are used to the CX user’s email address as the means of identifying them, and have never used a Unique Identifier column. This section will go over the easy process of switching from using emails to unique IDs.

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