Anonymisation in Surveys – Sending an email that includes a unique respondent identifier

In these surveys, you upload your respondent database to Snap WebHost, but you are not able to match the survey responses to a given respondent.  You can however track whether a given respondent has responded and if not, send them reminder emails.

You may need respondents to log in so that you can ensure that they only complete a questionnaire once, or to enable Snap WebHost to keep track of their responses. To set up a login page, you must have a known list of respondents and the unique ID that they will use to log in. This must be seeded into the survey using a database link.

To make life simple for respondents, you can ensure they are logged in automatically by clicking on a link in an email that has been sent to them. To do this, the survey must have been seeded with the email addresses (from a database link). You can set up emails with the special login link from Snap Professional or from Snap WebHost. The method is slightly different in each case.

What you need in your database:

• A unique email address for each respondent. You can also add additional fields to personalise your email invite.

1. Open a survey in Snap Professional.
2. Click  on the toolbar or select File | Database Link to display the Database Linkage Wizard dialog box.
3. Click New to create a new database link. The Database Wizard dialog is displayed.
4. Select the WebHost Invites/Logins/Seeding Click Next to select the database file.

5. Click Select Database File… and browse to the Excel or MS Access file containing the respondent email address, Click Next.

6. As WebHost will be tracking and identifying respondents, select Log in respondent.
7. Select the unique respondent ID/login field from the drop-down list. This will be used to set up the Respondents in Snap WebHost. Click Next.
8. Select Send email invitations and reminders – this instructs WebHost to send email invites and reminders to your respondents.
9. Make sure the box which says Identify respondents in the response data is unchecked.

10. Click Next.
11. The next box is the email invitations step of the database link wizard.
    • Tells WebHost which database field contains the respondent email address.
    • Allows you to design an email that will be uploaded to WebHost – you can also design the email in WebHost.

12. Check the Use HTML emails if you wish to have styled HTML emails.
13. If you would like respondents to be automatically logged in, select the Automatically log into survey {SurveyLinkAuto}. This creates a link that will automatically log the respondent in to the survey without the need to type their username.
14. Set the Email address field option; select the appropriate unique email address from the drop down menu.
15. Add a subject heading in the Email subject and text box.
16. Type the email message in the large open box. To progress to the next stage you must:
    • Insert a survey location using the Insert | Survey Location option.  The Link Text will change the text of the displayed survey location.
    • Insert a link enabling your respondents to opt out of the survey using the Insert | Survey Opt Out option.
17. You can also insert additional information from your database using the Insert | Database Field option.
    • You can make changes or add additional design elements to the email invite when the survey has been uploaded to WebHost.
18. The Reminder text is copied automatically from the initial invitation.

19. Click Next. You will see a summary of what the database link does.  Give the database link a name.
20. Select Finish and Close – there is no need to click Run.

21. Once you have finished the database link, you will need to make sure the id.name system variable has been set. This instructs WebHost to seed the unique identifier in to the data.
22. Click on Questionnaire Properties .
23. Scroll to the Paradata section. Highlight the Respondent option in the System Variables list and tick Use in survey. Click OK.

24. This will create a new variable at the top of the survey called ID.name. To enable your respondents to log in automatically, highlight the question, right click and select Hide Variable.

25. The question will be hidden from the respondent; WebHost will seed the unique identifier in to the system variable automatically.

26. Once the survey has been published and uploaded to WebHost, click on the Setup Tab.
27. In the Responses section, make sure the Enable respondent login options is ticked.

If there is a topic you would like a worksheet on, email to snapideas@snapsurveys.com