Warning: This user guide is for our legacy user interface.
See our new user interface guide here.
Overview
Custom fields are an optional feature within Customer Thermometer but we certainly suggest you use them to receive identifiable feedback.
Within your 3rd party system, you may have variables or merge fields that represent pieces of data such as recipient email address, first and last name, ticket ID or agent name. You can use these within your emails or templates to pull in the relevant, personalized data for that email or ticket.
In the same way that you use these merge fields or variables to personalise emails within your system, you can use them within the Customer Thermometer to produce personalized surveys for recipients and also receive identifiable feedback.
Alternatively, you might use them to personalize a Landing page for a recipient when using Email or Embedded Thermometers.
Up to 10 custom fields are available. Note that in the majority of the main reporting screens – only three are displayed. League Tables and exports will show all 10 fields if you are using them.
Why would you use them?
In order for the recipient details to display within your reporting, you first need to capture them. You can collect any data from your system in your reporting such as ticket number for example as long as you have a variable or merge field that represents that piece of data. It works in the same way that you might add a merge field to the body of an email to merge in the recipient’s first name.
The fields will usually look something like {email_address} or [First Name] – every system is different, but you should be able to find the relevant fields within your system. These fields need to be added during the Thermometer set-up process when generating your code.
To capture the identifiable data that you’re looking for, you’ll need to re-generate your Thermometer code by following these steps. The below steps will work for generating both basic links and basic HTML:
1. Log in to your Customer Thermometer account, go to Manage Thermometers > Embedded Thermometers > Click on the pink ‘</> ‘ option next to your Thermometer.
This will open your survey generation box.
2. Once you have the variables you’d like to use insert them into the below boxes. Please note if we have an integration with your system already some of these boxes will already be pre-populated with the correct variables.
3. Click ‘Generate HTML’, and then copy the new block of code and paste it into your email template. The additional data will then be captured on all new responses going forward.
Here’s an example of identifiable data being captured within the reporting:
Personalising the survey
Once you’ve started collecting your identifiable data you can use this to your advantage to personalise the survey itself and your landing pages.
To include personalisation such as including your account manager’s names in the temperature ratings you can add the custom field name that the relevant data is collected in within the descriptions themselves.
For example, if you were collecting the account manager’s name in custom 1, you’d add the custom field name into the body copy and perhaps the temperature fields too as shown below:
The full list of allowable custom fields is at the bottom of this page.
To collect identifiable data - Email Thermometers
When you upload a Blast contact list you’ll need to add the data you want to capture next to the survey responses into custom fields which you can either enter manually or using a CSV format.
I have included two examples below showing both methods with custom 2 representing the account manager’s name. custom 3 is the account manager’s email address.
CSV:
You can download a CSV sample from your new lists section within your account.
Manually:
Find out how to create Lists of recipients here.
Adding custom fields to your Email Thermometer template
You can add a custom field to any text box within the Thermometer settings area which indicates they are available:
You can enter as many custom fields as you wish. Ensure they are populated within your List, otherwise they will be blank to your recipient.
Re-naming Custom Fields in the Reporting and Alerts
You may for example when an email alert is received want custom 1 which holds the agent name to read as Agent: Lily Bloggs instead of Custom 1 : Lily Bloggs.
You have two options for how you can to re-name the custom fields for both alert emails and reporting:
- Settings Area > Custom Field Labels.
If custom fields are edited here they will be the default account-wide covering all Thermometers, their reports and email alerts. - Manage Thermometers > Embedded Thermometers > Click the pink ‘</>’ next to your Thermometer so the survey generation pop-up appears. Then click the pencil next to each field to edit it. The new custom field names will cover that specific Thermometer and its alerts and reporting.
Click save when you’re done. The fields will be updated immediately and can be changed at any time.
Hide the IP address and/or the Country from the email and comments alerts.
Some customers would rather not be emailed the IP address or country of their responses; often for privacy reasons. We’ve therefore created a new feature to allow you to remove these from email and comment alerts. To enable this, head to “Settings” at the top right hand side, and click “Custom Field Labels”. Tick the boxes of your choice and click Save.
List of allowable custom fields
When using custom fields within your Thermometer setup screens, ensure you use the fields as shown below:
[name] [surname] [company] [custom_1] [custom_2] [custom_3] [custom_4] [custom_5] [custom_6] [custom_7] [custom_8] [custom_9] [custom_10]