Remind Department Managers
This guide explains how to use the Survey Reminder feature in SurveyMars to remind department managers and follow up with non-responding contacts after distributing a survey via email or API. It is suitable for scenarios where you need to track response rates by department and have department managers drive their team members to complete the survey.
Feature Overview
After a survey is distributed to your Contacts via email or API, you can view the collection status by Unanswered / Answered status under the Response Status TAB and remind department managers to follow up with non-respondents in one click. The system supports managing the department manager list, and providing a Home entry for both respondents and department managers to view pending, completed, and department response progress.
Prerequisites
- The survey has been distributed to your Contacts via email or API (Internal Message / API Interface).
- Department information is maintained for contacts (the list under the Response Status TAB shows two extra columns — "Name" and "Organization" — compared with regular members).
- To use the "Remind Department Manager" capability, department managers must be configured in the department manager management first (see "Manage Department Managers" below).
Setup Steps
1. View non-respondents (Unanswered Status)
Go to Internal Message (API) or the email sending page, and switch to the Response Status TAB. The left status bar of this TAB includes an Unanswered status. Click it to view the list of all contacts who have not yet responded, making it easy to follow up.
2. Remind Department Manager (entry & full-screen dialog)
In the top-right corner of the Response Status TAB, click the Remind Department Manager entry to open a full-screen dialog for configuration, where you set up notifications to department managers about non-response follow-up.
3. Manage Department Managers
You can add department managers individually or in bulk by department:
- Click Select to open the Contact Selection dialog (identical to the send-by-person dialog, only the title changes to Select Department Manager).
- Click Bulk Add Department Managers to open the right-side dialog, where you can download the sample and upload an Excel file.
- Click Auto-match Department Managers to automatically match the department managers already set by users in Contacts (if a department has multiple managers, all are matched).
- Note: allcontacts (all contacts) has no department managers assigned by default, because this permission is broad — it is recommended that users configure it themselves.
In the "Remind Department Manager" settings, you can grant department managers the following capabilities (switch descriptions):
- Statistics & Analysis: Allows department managers to view statistics and analysis charts of their department's responses.
- View & Download Responses: Allows department managers to view and download the detailed response data of their department.
- Push when a department member submits a response: When any member of the department submits a response, a notification is pushed to the department manager.
- Scheduled automatic reminder: Automatically sends reminder notifications to non-responding department members at scheduled times (up to two can be configured).
The "Push when a department member submits a response" and "Scheduled automatic reminder" options only appear after you enable "Statistics & Analysis" or "View & Download Responses" (one or both).
4. View the Answered list
Under the Response Status TAB, the left TAB bar includes an Answered entry. Select it to view all respondents. The list is sorted by submission time in descending order (newest first) and shows each contact's Name, Department, Submission Time, and a View Response entry. Clicking View Response opens a new window with that contact's response detail dialog displayed by default.
5. Access Home (respondents & department managers)
The Home entry in the email requires email verification before opening; after verification it opens in a new window. Home has two permission levels:
- Regular Respondent Home: shows the user's Pending and Completed surveys.
- Department Manager Home: in addition to the user's own Pending / Completed, it also shows department response progress; based on permissions it shows Analysis / Response Detail entries; the top-right corner allows switching surveys (only those the user has permission for) and departments. Clicking the Analysis / Response Detail entry opens it in a new window with data permission enforcement. The Completed page may show Answer Again / Edit Response entries based on permissions.
FAQ
Q: A recipient clicked the Home entry in the email but nothing happened?
A: The Home entry requires email verification first. After verification it opens in a new window. Please make sure the email verification step is completed.
Q: Do I have to add department managers one by one?
A: No. You can add them individually, in bulk (upload Excel), or via auto-match. Auto-match fills managers based on the department manager settings already configured for users in Contacts.
Important Notes
- The list under the Response Status TAB shows two extra columns — "Name" and "Organization" — compared with regular members, so department information must be maintained correctly.
- Among the four switches for reminding department managers, "Push when a department member submits a response" and "Scheduled automatic reminder" only appear after "Statistics & Analysis" or "View & Download Responses" is enabled.
- Both reminder emails and the Home entry require recipients to complete email verification before accessing Home; ensure the email can receive the verification code.
- The Analysis / Response Detail entries on the Department Manager Home are controlled by data permissions and only show for surveys and departments the user is authorized for.
- allcontacts (all contacts) has no department managers assigned by default; because this permission is broad, it is recommended that users configure it themselves.
