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Email to Survey

Jomar
Updated

Introduction

AskNicely’s Email to Survey feature allows you to bring a Contact into AskNicely—and immediately send them a survey—simply by sending a formatted email from your CRM or POS system.
If your platform can dynamically generate emails, you can use this lightweight integration for event-based surveys without needing a formal API connection.

This is perfect for actions like:

  • Closing a support ticket

  • Completing a transaction

  • Finishing a customer onboarding flow

Step-by-Step Instructions

✅ Configuring the Email

Formatting matters. Your email must follow this strict structure to be processed correctly by AskNicely.

🧾 Subject Line

  • The email subject is ignored by AskNicely.

  • You can leave it blank or use something generic like:
    AskNicely Export

🧾 Email Body

The body must list fieldname: value pairs line by line.
Required fields are:

name: 
email: 
segment:

Example...

name: Joe Thornton 
email: Joet@hockeyexample.com 
segment: Platinum

Importing this email would create a person entry on your Contacts page that looks like this:

  • No signatures or extraneous text allowed

  • Fieldnames must be lowercase (e.g., email, not Email)

  • Spacing must match exactly — no extra spaces around the colon :

🧾 Sending the Email (To Address)

  1. Go to App Store > Integrate > Email to Survey in AskNicely

  2. Click Activate Email to Survey to generate your unique receiving address

  3. Copy your Email to Survey address and paste it into your CRM email settings

✅ Any email sent to this address following the correct format will create a Contact in AskNicely and trigger the corresponding survey action.

🔧 Available Commands & Arguments

Enhance your email by adding optional commands (all must be lowercase).

Argument Purpose
addcontact: true Only adds the Contact without sending a survey
triggeremail: true Immediately sends the survey, bypassing Contact Rules (testing only)
delayminutes: x Delay the survey send by x minutes
thendeactivate: true Deactivates the Contact after sending the survey

Example with commands and custom fields:

name: Joe Thornton
email: Joet@hockeyexample.com
segment: Platinum
position: Goalie
coach: Wayne Gretzky
delayminutes: x
thendeactivate: true

📚 Important Notes:

  • delayminutes: only affects email surveys (not SMS).

  • Using triggeremail: true is fine for testing—remove it before going live.

  • Deactivated contacts stay in your database but won’t be surveyed again unless reactivated.

🧩 Including Custom Data Fields

You can pass any additional data points by simply adding them to the body:

name: Joe Thornton
email: Joet@hockeyexample.com
segment: Platinum
position: Goalie
coach: Wayne Gretzky
pro_Team: Seattle Kraken
minor_League_Team: Portland Winterhawks
delayminutes: x
thendeactivate: true

🧠 Use underscores _ for spaces in custom field labels.

Note: If you have Multiple Survey Templates, you can use the default survey template associated with the contact to send the correct survey. 

This data will appear on the Contact record in AskNicely and can be used for:

  • Reporting

  • Filters

  • Workflows

  • Custom Surveys

📱 SMS Number Formatting

If you're triggering SMS Surveys via Email to Survey:

  • Format numbers with country code (e.g., +1 for the US)

  • Example for the number (800) 588-2300

If using the Email to Survey feature to send to mobile phones, please make sure all numbers include country and area codes. The US country code is +1, so if the number is (800) 588-2300, you would want to have the SMS number formatted as: +18005882300. 


The phone number needs to be formatted as “{number}@sms.asknice.ly” - that means, when the phone number arrives in AskNicely, it should look like this: 18005882300@sms.asknice.ly 

 

🔔 Do not include spaces, parentheses, or dashes.

FAQs & Common Issues

  • Q: What happens if the email format is incorrect?
    A: The email will be ignored or produce errors. Double-check formatting.

  • Q: Can I send multiple contacts in one email?
    A: No. One Contact per email submission.

  • Q: Will this bypass Global Contact Rules?
    A: Only if you explicitly include triggeremail: true. Otherwise, normal Contact Rules apply.

  • Q: Can I use Email to Survey for different survey templates?
    A: Yes—by associating Contacts with specific templates based on your Contact data fields.

Next Steps & Related Articles

Need Help?

If you have questions about formatting, CRM setup, or troubleshooting, reach out via the chat icon or email us at support@asknice.ly.

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