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Utilizing SMS for Survey Delivery and Participation (for Admins) and SMS FAQs

Mitzy Ullrich
  • Updated

In this article:

There are benefits to having SMS enabled for your organization, such as delivering new survey notifications as well as Cheers notifications, which we'll go into detail in this article. This is especially helpful if you have a mixed population of employees that do not readily work at a desk and are primarily out in the field. 

The purpose of this document is to help you, as an Admin, understand how SMS notifications work, how to set up SMS notifications for your organization, and to learn what SMS can (and cannot) do for you and your employee base. Let's jump into it!

IN THIS ARTICLE

Getting Started

First and foremost, there are some prerequisites to using the SMS notification delivery system that you'll need to review with your Customer Success Manager: 

  • Is the SMS service part of your current contract? If it is not, an additional fee will apply to enable the service. 
  • Mobile numbers must follow a specific format when being entered into a user's profile.**
    • Acceptable formats: 16266007050 | +16267007050 ONLY
    • Invalid formats: (626) 700-7050 | 1-626-700-7050 | +1 626 700 7050 etc.
  • Mobile phones will need to be running recent device operating systems, as well as have web browser capabilities, and those applications will need to be up to date. The link in the text will open the user's default web browser application when tapped on.
    • To be more specific, if a mobile phone does not have web browsing capabilities but can accept text messages, that device will not be able to utilize the link that will be sent for participation.
  • To enable SMS delivery to your employees, we strongly recommend doing so in between surveys.
    • Set up and enablement of SMS will only apply to surveys launched after the point that the service is turned on, and will not send out SMS notification for a survey that is already in progress.

There are also some settings that you will want to review with your Customer Success contact, that are only accessible by them: 

  • Turning on the SMS survey notification delivery method for your organization. 
  • Turning on the SMS Cheers** notification delivery for your organization. 
  • Allowing SMS survey participation without needing to log in (This is not turned on by default). 

**If your organization does not have Cheers for Peers, you can ignore this option.

SMS Survey Delivery Overview

Now that you know the requirements and have set up the service with the help of your Customer Success Manager, and have your employees' phone numbers added to their profiles, here is what you and your employees can expect to see when a new survey is launched.

SMS Survey Delivery Workflow:

  • A survey is created, scheduled, and then launched on the date and time you specified. 
  • SMS notification is delivered to the employee.
    • If survey submission without login is disabled:
      • The employee will receive a message with a link. 

      • When the link is tapped on, the employee will be prompted to enter their TINYpulse credentials to log in, or will be directed to your organization's SSO landing page.**



    • If survey submission without login is enabled (highly recommended):
      • The employee will receive a link and a 6-digit Authorization code. 



      • When the link is tapped, the employee will be taken to a page to enter the provided 6-digit Authorization code. 



      • The employee enters code. 



      • They are then taken to their Employee Dashboard on the mobile device to participate in the survey. 



** If your organization does not utilize Single Sign-On, the employees will need to enter the email address and password combination.

Limitations for the SMS service: 

  • Survey reminders are not available via SMS; they are only available via email.
  • Private Message notifications are not available via SMS; they are only available via email.

Troubleshooting and FAQs

  1. A portion of employees in my company do not always have access to a computer. How can they take surveys?
    • If you have a number of employees that work in the field and/or they are not usually at a computer
    during their work day, SMS is a great option when coupled with allowing them to participate from
     their mobile device without having to log in. Check with your Customer Success contact for details.

  2. A survey just launched for my company, but no one is getting SMS notifications. What do I do?
     • Reach out to either your Customer Success contact or email our Support Team for assistance.

  3. I have worked with my Customer Success contact to enable SMS delivery and I already have a survey in progress. Can they or Support push out notifications for the active survey? 
    • Unfortunately it is not possible for our Support Team to manually push out SMS notifications for a 
    Survey that is already live. 
    • Any surveys that launch in the future from the point that SMS is enabled will trigger the delivery 
     of a new survey notification through SMS. 

  4. Are there any costs involved by employees to receive new survey or Cheers SMS notifications? 
    • Standard text messaging rates do apply for SMS delivery, which we do not have any control over.

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