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Overview

SurveyStream can facilitate communication with enumerators through automated emails. This functionality can be used to embed data like assignment details, data quality reports, or any other information that needs to be shared with the enumerators before or during data collection.

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Key features

Create language-specific templates to send emails to enumerators and supervisors in their native language.
Include dynamic content in the email body, such as daily assignment details or data quality reports.
Send data as encrypted attachments with password protection for enhanced security.
Schedule emails to be sent at specific times or intervals.
Track email delivery easily and manually resend emails when required.

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Walkthrough

[Video showing end-to-end use of the emails flow]

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Configuration

Details on how to configure the emails feature can be found here. Estimated time to configure emails on SurveyStream: [4 hours]

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When to use emails on SurveyStream

Sending emails to enumerators via SurveyStream can streamline field team communication during data collection. It reduces the manual effort required to provide enumerators with the information they need to do their work efficiently. This is particularly useful if the following conditions apply:
  • The survey has a large number of enumerators to communicate with.
  • The surveyors are working in multiple languages.
  • You need to communicate PII with enumerators and need enhanced data security measures.
  • You need to send personalized information to each enumerator, such as their daily assignments or data quality reports. This can be particularly useful when the content depends on incoming data from the survey (like data quality information or completed targets).
  • You want to schedule emails to be sent at specific times or intervals — such as daily or weekly — as well as trigger them manually if needed.

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Alternative tools and approaches

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Using mail merge

Mail merge is a common approach to send personalized emails to a large number of recipients. However, preparing the data for mail merge can be time-consuming, especially if the data is dynamic like daily assignments or data quality reports. This will require downloading data from SurveyCTO, running a pre-written analysis file, and uploading the output to the messaging platform before configuring the mail-merge function.

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Real-world use of emails on SurveyStream

[Add case study here]

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Technical considerations

  1. Emails are sent from the email address surveystream@idinsight.org. This is not configurable.
  2. If the email is scheduled to be sent at time T, it will actually be sent at T + x minutes where x can range from 0 to 30 minutes depending on the source of the email data:
    • For emails with static content or data from a Google Sheet, x is in the range 0 to 5 minutes.
    • For emails using the default assignments table, x is in the range 5 to 10 minutes.
    • For emails with data from any other SurveyStream table (e.g. data quality report), x is in the range 10 to 30 minutes. This is the time it takes to generate the data for the email.
  3. If a data table is included in the email and the table doesn’t have data for a configured recipient (enumerator), the recipient is not sent an email. For example, if an enumerator is not assigned any assignments for the day, they will not receive an assignment email.
  4. If an enumerator reports not receiving an email, check the following:
    • If there were errors reported in the delivery report.
    • The enumerator’s email address provided in the Enumerators module is valid.
    • Ask the enumerator to check their spam folder and if the email is in spam, mark the email as not spam for future communications.
    • Reach out to the SurveyStream team for further assistance.