Survey essentials

Companies often use surveys to collect valuable information from their customers and employees, which in turn, allows them to make more informed business decisions.

In Odoo, surveys are used to collect customer feedback, evaluate the success of a recent event, measure the satisfaction of customers (or employees), and gain more insight into shifting market sentiments.

Getting started

To begin, open the Surveys application and click Create. Odoo then redirects the page to a blank survey template form.

On the survey form, add a Survey Title and then add a cover image to the survey by hovering over the photo icon and clicking on the Edit (pencil) icon. When the file explorer window opens, choose an image from the local files.

Below the Survey Title are various tabs in which the survey questions and format can be created and customized. These tabs are labeled as follows:

  • Questions: the list of questions to be asked in the survey

  • Description: contextual information to aid in understanding the survey

  • Options: choices for survey respondents to answer the questions

Various tabs that can be found on the survey template page.

Questions tab

Add questions and sections to the survey in the Questions tab. A section divides the survey into parts in order to visually group similar questions together. To make a section, click Add a section and type in a section name. Then, add questions or drag and drop questions into the divided sections.

Clicking Add a question opens the Create Sections and Questions pop-up to create and customize the survey question.

The survey question pop-up window.

Create questions

In the Create Sections and Questions pop-up, type the question in the Question field. Then, choose the Question Type. A preview of how the question type looks is shown in the preview window.

Choose from the following Question Types:

  • Multiple Lines Text Box

  • Single Line Text Box

  • Numerical Value

  • Date

  • Datetime

  • Multiple choice: only one answer

  • Multiple choice: multiple answers allowed

  • Matrix

Note

Different features appear in the Answers and Options tabs, depending on the Question Type chosen. However, the Description tab always remains the same, regardless of what question is chosen.

Create sections and questions

Once a Question Type has been selected, there are three possible tabs where information can be customized for the question. These include the Answers (if applicable), Description, and Options tabs.

Each tab offers a variety of different features depending on what Question Type was chosen.

For example, in the Options tab, the following options may appear:

  • Mandatory Answer: the question must be answered.

  • Matrix Type: for matrix-type questions, select if one choice or multiple choices can be selected per row.

  • Number of columns: select how many columns are displayed.

  • Images on answers: allow images on the answer options.

  • Conditional Display: determine if the question is displayed based on the participant’s answer to a previous question.

  • Show Comments Field: allow the participant to type a comment in a text box.

  • Question Time Limit: for live session surveys, set a time limit for the question.

Conditional Display

Conditional Display means the question is only displayed if the specified conditional answer has been selected in a previous question.

When the box next to Conditional Display is selected, the Triggering Question field appears. Select a question from the survey.

Then, a Triggering Answer field appears. Here, select which answer will trigger this Conditional Display question.

Options tab

Back on the main survey template form, under the Options tab, there are different sections of settings that can be modified.

The sections include:

  • Questions: focuses on the overall presentation of the survey

  • Scoring: decides how the survey is scored

  • Candidates: manages access to the survey

  • Live Session: enables the survey into a real-time group activity.

Questions

First, select the Layout of the survey. The following options can be chosen:

  • One page with all the questions

  • One page per section

  • One page per question

If either the One page per section or One page per question options are chosen, then the Back Button option appears. If selected, the Back Button option allows the participant to go back to a question during the survey.

Under the Layout options is the Progression Mode setting, which indicates how the participant’s progress during the survey is displayed. It is shown as either a Percentage or a Number.

Next, there is an option available to add a Survey Time Limit. To implement this option, simply check the box, and enter the amount of time (in minutes) participants have to complete the survey.

After the Survey Time Limit option is a section labeled Selection. Here, questions can be Randomized per section, in other words, the number of random questions can be configured by section. This mode is ignored in a live session.

Scoring

The following options are available when deciding how a Scoring method:

  • No scoring

  • Scoring with answers at the end

  • Scoring without answers at the end

If either the Scoring with answers at the end or Scoring without answers at the end options are selected, a Success % field appears. Set the percentage of correct answers needed to pass the survey.

Next, there is the option to make the survey a certification. To do so, check the box next to the option labeled Is a Certification, and two additional fields appear. Select a color theme in the Certification Template field and then choose an Email Template. When a participant passes the certification with the required score, an email from Odoo will automatically be sent to that person using the selected email template.

If the Give Badge feature is enabled and the Certification Badge is set, the survey participant also receives a badge upon passing the certification.

See also

Scoring surveys

Candidates

To determine access to the survey, the Access Mode has two options to choose between: Anyone with the link and Invited people only.

Below the Appraisal Managers Only checkbox is the Login Required option to require a login to participate in the survey. If this option is activated, an Attempts Limit field also populates, in which the number of survey attempts is defined for the participant.

Live Session

The Live Session section is dedicated to users who are conducting surveys in real-time, wherein they directly engage with and collect answers from a live audience.

Customize the Session Code here; this code is needed for participants to access the live session survey. Reward participants for quick answers by selecting the checkbox labeled Reward quick answers. By checking it, attendees will get more points if they answer quickly.

Description tab

Back on the main survey template page is the Description tab, where a custom description of the survey can be added. This is displayed beneath the title on the survey’s homepage, which is on the front end of the website made through the Odoo Website app.

Test and share the survey

Once the survey is created and saved, run a test to check for possible errors before finally sending it out to the participants by clicking Test in the upper left corner of the survey template page.

When activated, Odoo redirects the page to a test version of the survey on the front end of the website. This page displays how the survey will look to participants. Proceed to run through the survey, like a normal participant, to check for errors.

To return to the survey template form in the backend, simply click the This is a test survey. Edit Survey link in the blue banner along the top of the page. Once Odoo redirects the page to the survey template in the backend, make any further changes, as needed, before officially sending the survey out to participants.

When the survey is ready to be shared with the audience, click the Start Survey button in the upper-left corner of the survey template form. Then, click Share.

In the pop-up window, add the survey recipients in the Recipients field (for existing contacts in the Odoo database) or the Additional emails field (for contacts that do not want to be listed in the Odoo database). Finally, click Send.

As answers are received, check them by clicking the Answers smart button on the survey template form, or the See Results button in the upper left corner. To end the survey, click the Close button on the survey template form.