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Dashboards

SurveyStream provides dashboards that let users monitor data quality and productivity (including survey progress) as the survey is ongoing. Standard templates are used that can be customized with support from the SurveyStream engineering team. The dashboards are built on Superset, an open source no-code/low-code dashboard builder platform. Click here to access a live example dashboard for monitoring productivity.

Partial view of a productivity dashboard template for phone surveys

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Assignments

SurveyStream lets users assign targets (e.g., households to be surveyed) to surveyors. Information about the assigned targets can then be sent to surveyors via the Email Automation feature. Doing assignments on SurveyStream is particularly useful when it’s not practical to give a one-time list of assignments to surveyors at the beginning of the survey. This can be the case when:
  • Assignments need to be frequently re-balanced due to surveyor dropouts, leave, or differences in productivity.
  • Assignments need to be made based on information coming in during the survey like a target needing a revisit or to be contacted during a specific timeslot.
  • Assignments need to be made in batches for a long-running survey.
In addition, SurveyStream makes it easy to make assignments based on pre-defined criteria like location, language, or gender, which can help streamline the assigning process.

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Emails

SurveyStream lets users automate emails to surveyors and other members of the survey team. These emails can contain personalized information like surveyors’ assignments, can be defined in multiple languages, and can be sent according to a user-defined schedule. Sending assignment information is the most common use of this feature. Teams have also used it to send expense reports to supervisors containing the status of reimbursements and to send performance report cards to surveyors.

Example of an email containing assignment information

Email automation is most useful when:
  • The number of recipients is large and would be time-consuming to message manually.
  • Data coming in needs to be regularly communicated back to teams in order to manage the survey, and would be time-consuming to collate manually.
  • A “push” mode of communication is preferred vs. making the data available on a dashboard.

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Media Audits

SurveyCTO can produce audio recordings of interviews or allow photos to be taken as part of a survey. These media files often need to be reviewed by a member of the survey team as part of a quality control process. SurveyStream can automatically collate links to these files, along with any data fields from the form or surveyor information needed to complete the audit process, into a Google Sheet that can be shared with the auditors. Links to access the files are password-protected. For phone surveys using Exotel, call recordings can also be pulled into SurveyStream and made available for auditing. Media file auditing on SurveyStream is most useful when:
  • The number of media files is large and it would be time-consuming to download them manually.
  • The media files need to be reviewed by multiple auditors and it is helpful to have a single place for them to access the files in a secure way along with other information needed for the audit.
  • When using Exotel for phone surveys, because downloading call recordings from Exotel and linking them to the corresponding SurveyCTO submission is not straightforward.

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Hiring

SurveyStream supports surveyor hiring with an applicant tracking system that lets teams manage and monitor the entire hiring funnel. The SurveyStream hiring feature works best for large-scale, decentralized hiring processes where it’s important to ensure balanced hiring across different regions. Note that this feature is experimental and runs on Google Sheets. It can be used on request to the SurveyStream team.