Once Zoho Survey is integrated with Zoho CRM, you can send surveys to leads and contacts straight from CRM, see each person's answers on their record, and even have the answers update CRM fields automatically. This article covers sending a survey, building a survey email template, viewing responses, taking a survey on someone's behalf, and mapping survey answers to CRM fields. It assumes the Zoho Survey integration has already been set up in your CRM.

Build the survey first

You cannot send a survey from CRM until it exists in Zoho Survey. In Zoho Survey you can start from a blank survey, a template, or an existing survey.

Send a survey from CRM

There are two ways to send one:

1. Append it to an email as you compose, by inserting the survey link into the email content or by inserting a pre-defined email template.
2. Send it from the record's related list. After the integration is in place, a Zoho Survey related list appears on records in every module where emailing is possible.

From a record's related list

1. Open the record and select Zoho Survey in the related list pane.
2. Click Send Survey.
3. On the Send Survey page, choose the Zoho Survey department the survey belongs to, choose the survey, enter the text to display, and click Insert.

Create a survey email template

Surveys are sent as emails, so a template with the survey link built in saves time. You can then associate it with whatever you send.

1. In Zoho CRM, go to Settings, then Setup, then Customization, then Templates, then Email Templates.
2. Click New Template and choose the Record Type.
3. Fill in the required fields and draft the email.
4. Click Insert Survey Link, choose the survey from the Select the Survey drop-down, change the displayed link text if you want, and click Insert.
5. Click Save.

• The Insert Survey Link button appears in templates for Leads, Contacts, and Cases, and for any custom module that holds a list of email addresses, such as Vendors. It also appears for Deals (Potentials in Zoho's wording), Sales Orders, and Invoices.
• Only users whose profile has the Manage Email Templates permission can create templates and insert survey links.

Three ways to send the email survey

Automated, with a workflow rule

Zoho's example is a workflow on the Deals module: every time the Stage field is updated to Closed Won, the associated contact receives a generic email survey about their purchasing experience.

Individual emails

Use Send Mail on a record's details page or in the list view. In the compose window, pick the survey template from the Email Template drop-down. Alternatively, click the Survey icon to browse and send a particular survey, which does not need a template.

Mass emails

There are two options. The first is the Mass Email feature in CRM: open the module, choose mass email from Module Tools, pick the survey template, and click Send. CRM limits how many mass emails you can send, so for thousands of contacts at once, use the second option, Zoho Campaigns, which also gives you open, click, and bounce statistics.

Sending from the older Zoho Campaigns, step by step

1. Integrate Zoho CRM with Zoho Campaigns if you have not already.
2. In Zoho Campaigns, sync your CRM contacts with the right mailing list.
3. Under Email Campaigns, click Advanced Campaigns, then Survey Campaigns, then Zoho Survey Campaign.
4. On the Basic Information tab, enter a name, choose the survey from the Surveys list, and complete the other details.
5. Click Create Content, choose a template, and edit the email. The call-to-action button takes the reader to the chosen survey and can be edited. Click Save and Close.
6. Click Recipients, choose your mailing list or lists, and click Proceed.
7. Review and either Send Immediately or Schedule.

Responses then show on each lead or contact's details page under the Zoho Survey section in CRM. To have answers update CRM fields automatically, you must have mapped CRM fields to survey questions before sending (see below).

View survey responses on the record

One of the main benefits of the integration is seeing a contact's survey answers in context, for example the same page that has their phone number, before you pitch a deal.

1. Open the module. The Zoho Survey related list is available on any module that supports an email field, including custom modules.
2. Open a record. Under the Zoho Survey section you will see the email surveys sent to it. The Sent By and Source columns show whether each came from CRM, by individual email, mass email, or workflow alert, or from Zoho Campaigns.
3. Click View Response for the survey you want. If the person has not answered, there is no link and the entry reads Yet to respond.
4. In the Survey Results pop-up, choose Individual Response for the person's exact answers, response time, and IP address, or Summary Report for the overall results, including total visits, total responses, and the answer with the most votes.

Note: the View Response link may not appear if someone completed the survey but you sent the mass email from an email service other than Zoho CRM.

Take a survey on someone's behalf

If a customer would rather answer on the phone, you can complete the survey for them while on the call.

1. Open the lead or contact and scroll to the Zoho Survey related list.
2. Click Take Survey.
3. Choose the department and the survey, then click Take Survey.
4. Answer the questions in the pop-up and Submit.

It is treated like any other response. To tell them apart, look for Taken by User in the Source column.

Update CRM records automatically from survey answers

Once you map CRM fields to survey questions, each answer is written to the mapped field, so you can filter on it, report on it, and trigger workflow actions such as sending an alert, updating a field, assigning an owner, or running a custom function. Zoho's example: a survey asks recipients to rate a sales rep's communication, mapped to a custom field called Sales Rep's Communication, so you can filter for records rated Excellent.

Set up the mapping

1. In Zoho Survey, build the survey.
2. Under the Integration tab, click Zoho CRM, then Integrate Now in the CRM Integration section.
3. Select the module and map each CRM field to its survey question. If you do not have a suitable field, create a custom field in CRM first.
4. Choose the Action Type: Update Record updates the existing record, Add Record creates a record even if it duplicates one, and Add/Update Record checks for duplicates, updating the existing record if there is one and creating a new one if not.
5. Tick Pre-populate mapped fields from CRM to Survey if you want existing CRM values, such as the person's name, to appear so they do not have to retype them.
6. Click Save.

Send it and check the result

1. Create an email template in CRM, insert the survey link, and save it.
2. Select that template when you send the survey to a lead or contact.
3. When they answer, open their record and the answers appear in the mapped fields. Create a custom view with the right criteria to filter, for example, everyone who answered Excellent.