FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

A) Survey On The Spot is an iPhone survey app that enables you to provide feedback on your cellphone or smartphone to restaurants, retail stores, schools, and other local businesses. Many businesses offer a reward when you submit your survey. If someone does not have a smartphone you they can take the survey on the web.

Q) What can Survey On The Spot be used for?

A) To create surveys of all types including Customer Satisfaction Surveys, Research Surveys, Polling Surveys, Public Opinion Surveys, Survey Panels, Menu Taste Panels, Conventions, and Special Events on mobile phones, iPhones ,iPod touch, smartphones and Android mobile phones.

Q) How do I learn how to use Survey On The Spot?

A) It's easy to get started. Once you have created an account simply log in to the service and follow create your survey. The screencasts below show you how easy it is! You will learn how to create an iPhone survey with Survey On The Spot. You can create a survey for any smartphone, all of the iOS devices including the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, the Blackberry, and the Android. It's easy.

Watch a SCREENCAST to see how you can use our website and the free iPhone survey app and have a survey live on an iPhone in less than 5 minutes!

Screencasts

Q) How do I let my customers know to take a Survey On The Spot? Promotion ideas?

A) Businesses promote Survey On The Spot to their customers using a variety of promotional materials, including:

Register cards
Table cards
Table tents
Menu call-outs
Business card size handouts
Register receipts
Emails to customer "clubs"
Stickers on takeout and prepared products
Posters

To see examples how our customers promote Survey On The Spot to their clients, please see the client promotions page for sample graphics and PDF's

Q) What are the best practices to use Survey On The Spot to gather On-Site Insights (SM) during Available Guest Time (SM)?

It's easy to gather On-Site Insights during Available Guest Time at the end of a meal. Using Available Guest Time while the server is processing payment, guests have time to complete a survey on an iPod touch or iPad provided by the restaurant. This increases the number of responses dramatically! Please contact us to learn more and discuss current implementations.

Restaurant Industry best practices include handing the survey to guests along with the guest check. During the "Available Guest Time" when your servers are processing the credit card your guests can complete the survey. By building a question into your survey that asks if people want to join your email-marketing list may restaurants have received email addresses for between 20% and 60% of the surveys! The email addresses can automatically be sent to Constant Contact and other email marketing list providers.

Email marketing integration to Constant Contact and other Email Marketing Services - Contact us for details.
Sign Up for Constant Contact

Using an iPod Touch running the Survey On The Spot app mounted on a bamboo board. The iPod is mounted with 3M VHB tape (epoxy tape!).

The scenario is as follows: The server hands the guest the bamboo board with the iPod touch and the guest check presenter. While the server is processing the credit card the guest uses Available Guest Time (SM)to provide On-Site Insights (SM). The response level has been 10-20X the level when consumers are asked to take surveys on their own phones! In over 30% of the responses consumers "sign-up" for a mailing list. The contact information can automatically be fed to mail list management services and is available in an Excel file.

We suggest adding the iPod Touch Survey On The Spot "Survey Board" as part of your steps of service. Best practices we have learned from our clients in the restaurant industry are described below. If you would like to discuss best practices for your industry please contactSurvey On The Spot's Customer Support desk at 888.330.7118 x 2 or email support@surveyonthespot.com

Download this PDF to learn how to Create your own Survey On The Spot "Survey Board"

Download this PDF to learn How to load and setup your iOS device.

Survey On The Spot "SURVEY BOARD"

Setup your own! PDF

RECEIVE SPECIAL PRICING on a Survey On The Spot "SURVEY BOARD" complete with an iPod touch loaded with the app and mounted on a "green" bamboo board! The cost is approximately $280 delivered in the U.S.

For more information please contact Steve Bornfreund at CDW to get the The Right Technology. Right Away.™.

Phone: 877-844-4374 email: stevbor@cdw.com

Q) What are the "Best Practices" you have seen to maximize participation?

A) Restaurants and other businesses have built Survey On The Spot into their "Steps of Service." Management discusses the need for feedback at staff meetings and stresse that it is vital to ask for feedback from each guest. In addition to capturing feedback, the service is frequently used to collect email addresses and other information in order to build email marketing lists. Restaurants frequently build the survey into the steps of service at the end of the meal, during the "Available Guest Time" while the server processes the credit card.

Q) What are the Steps of Service for a Restaurant to increase survey participation?

A) Obtaining feedback from your guests or customers still requires the focus of management and front line employees. When delivering iPods or iPads to your customers, they should arrive with the guest check. Servers should explain that service is a real focus of your business and that it would be great if they could take a moment to complete the survey on the iPod/iPad. The device should be clean and your survey should be started on the device. While the credit card or cash is being settled, your guest can easily complete the survey. Servers should present the iPod/iPad to all of their guests at the end of the meal

When running Survey On The Spot using customer's own smartphones, there is the need for some type of call to action. This can take the form of a table tent, check presenter insert, receipt message or even a small business card inviting customers to take your survey. Servers should ask their customers to participate in the survey and be able to explain how to take the survey on a smartphone. You may also want to provide a reward to your guests that participate using the reward feature in Survey On The Spot. Discounts for future visits are frequently used for this purpose. Another way to increase participation is to run contests for your staff like providing a reward to the servers that obtain the most surveys in a week.

Q) How do I build my email marketing list from an iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or other smartphone?

A) It's easy! By building a question into your survey that asks if people want to join your email-marketing list may restaurants have received email addresses for between 20% and 60% of the surveys! The email addresses can automatically be sent to Constant Contact and other email marketing list providers. (Pro plan required)

Learn more about email marketing by visiting our partner: Constant Contact. If you use another email marketing list service, please contact us and we will explain how you can use the Excel output immediately or have us develop an interface.
If you would like to use this feature please contact us for assistance in setting up the connection.
SIGN UP for CONSTANT CONTACT

Q) Do I pay for each survey submitted (short answer - NO!)

A) There is no limit to the number of survey submissions with our service plans. The goal is to capture feedback from every customer. The alerts make it easy to be notified only when a response warrants an alert. The reporting engine sifts through reams of data and presents clear, concise summary reports on your screen, in a PDF, or in an Excel file. Of course, if you want each detailed submission that is available too! The "Word Cloud" highlight frequently used words from verbatim responses and lets you drill down to figure out what's happening in your business.

Q) How many different surveys can I have in my account?

A) Depending on the type of account, you may have either one active survey (the Basic plan) or three active surveys (the Pro plan). You can have additional "Inactive" surveys that you can view the results on, but these cannot be used for new submissions. If you need more than three active surveys please contact us to discuss other plan options, including our Enterprise plan.

Q) How do I reset my password?

A) To reset your password, please click RESET PASSWORD

Q) I have a recommendation of a business that would benefit from Survey On The Spot. How do I let you know?

A) If you know of any businesses that would benefit from Survey On The Spot, and hopefully would offer rewards you would use, please let us know.

Creating Surveys, Question Types, Rewards and Alerts

Q) What question types are available?

A) The question types are described below: Watch a 2 minute Screencast about the different type of questions

Multiple Choice – The person taking the survey may select one item from the list. On the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch multiple choice questions may use the Survey On The Spot "Thumb Slider" to select from a range of Thumb Down to Thumb Up. This range may have as many segments as desired (for example 1 – 5, Dissatisfied – Satisfied, etc.)

Multiple Select – The person taking the survey may select one or more items

Time – Enter a time

Date – Enter a date

Photo – [Pro and Enterprise accounts only] - The photo question enables you to ask the person taking a survey to take a picture, and optionally enter a comment further describing the picture. This question will only be included if the survey is being taken on an iPhone.

Text- This question type uses the keyboard to enter information. There are several "style" options to choose from on the "dropdown" list. Options include entering either one line or multiple lines of text, or special formatted text entry. There are several formatted text entry options including e-mail, phone number, or numeric entry.

Descriptive Text - enables you to provide information within your survey and simply displays the text you provide. This is useful for transitions between sections of your survey.

Once you click on a question type to add a question, you will see an "Edit (name of question type) Question" page where you can type in the question, select a response type depending on question type and reporting chart type. You can also check the box to make it a compulsory/required question (that the user cannot skip).

When editing questions, you will be presented with several options, including:

"Style"- varies by question type
"Required" – is entry required or can someone just press "next" and skip entry
"Chart type" – Pie or bar chart
"Notify" - whether specific answers should trigger a notification to management [Pro and Enterprise plans only]

Q) Can people enter free-form text?

A) Yes. If you select a "text" question for one line or multiple lines then someone taking a survey can enter free-form text. We have been surprised in how much detail people provide from their iPhones, iPod touch and iPads, as well as other smartphones. The text is displayed in the reporting system in a "word cloud" to make it easy to distill the survey submissions and hone in on the key ideas people are expressing.

Q) How do rewards work?

A) You may optionally create a reward for encouraging survey participation. The reward will appear in the "Reward Wallet" on your customer's mobile phone. The reward may be redeemed and will only be available on the phone for a few hours to prevent fraud (you can control the number of hours).

If your customer takes the survey on the web they will have the ability to print it immediately or save it to a web wallet. If they want to save they will need to create an account with their email address.

Q) How do I set-up alerts?

A) If you desire, you may send email alerts to one or more users that you add in the "administrative" tab. You will need to provide an email address for each user, the level of detail you want them to receive, as well as for which locations you want them to receive alerts.

Devices - What devices work with Survey On The Spot?

Q) What devices can be used to take a Survey On The Spot?

A) Surveys can be taken using the FREE iPhone app on an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch, or may be taken on an Android, Blackberry, or most any smartphone, and of course on the web.

iOS Devices including iPhone, iPad and iPod touch

Q) How do I setup my iPod touch, iPhone or iPad with Survey On The Spot?

A) Go to the iTunes App Store and download Survey On The Spot

If you want detailed steps to load your iOS device download this PDF.

Q) How do I setup make my iPod touch, iPhone or iPad appear to only run the Survey On The Spot app so I can hand it to a survey participant, use for survey intercepts, or for other uses?

A) Download this PDF to learn how to load and setup your iOS device.

Q) How do I setup my iPhone, iPod touch or iPad to only display my survey... and repeat it after every submission?

A) On your device, go to the SETTINGS app. Scroll to the bottom and find SURVEYS. In the "Autostart URL" enter "start?code=xxxxxxxx" without the quotes. To determine the autostart code, click the TEST button next to your survey and you will see a list of codes for the survey and the survey with a specific location.

Q) How do I reload Survey On The Spot on an iPod touch iPad or iPhone?

A) Follow these instructions to reload your iOS device

Q) Does Apple offer any ways to help locate a missing iPod or iPad?

A) Apple offers a free service that allows you to 1) track, 2) completely disable and 3)send warning messages and alarms to any device that is misappropriated. Here is the link...

http://www.apple.com/ipodtouch/features/find-my-ipodtouch.html

Q) I forgot my password for my iPod, iPad or iPhone? What do I need to do to use my device?

A) If you have forgotten your iPhone's Passcode you will need to restore your phone via iTunes.

   First you have to put your phone into the restore mode which is a slightly fiddly process.
   Plug your iPhone into your PC or Mac with the USB cable
   Press and hold the power button at the top and then slide to power off the iPhone
   Press the power button to power the iPhone on and keep it held while simultaneously pressing the home button
   After a few seconds a yellow alert triangle will appear and the iPhone will say it is iPhone Restore Mode.
   Open up iTunes and click on the Summary tab
   Click on Restore to restore your iPhone. This will reset all your iPhone's setting to the factory defaults, including the Passcode.
   You should then follow the steps above to activate the Passcode with a memorable number

iPod touch

Q) Do you have any ideas on how to prevent theft if I want to hand an iPod touch to my customer to increase survey participation?

A) We suggest you setup a Survey On The Spot "Survey Board" which makes it more difficult (although certainly not impossible) to have an iPod stolen and may prevent breakage if dropped. Please note - this is a suggestion only and will not prevent theft or breakage!

Download this PDF to learn how to create your own Survey On The Spot "Survey Board"

iPad

Q) How can I make the survey fit the iPad screen? It is very small, similar to the size of an iphone.

A) Start the Survey On The Spot app on your iPad. If the app is displayed in the center of the screen as a small screen and does not fill the entire screen, please press the round button that says "2X" in the bottom right corner. This will make the Survey On The Spot fill the entire screen. This setting will automatically be saved so the next time you start the app it will fill the entire screen.

Q) How can I secure an iPad so I can capture guest feedback and build mailing lists with Survey On The Spot?

A) Use a secure tabletop or floor mounting bracket to protect your iPad from theft. You will be able to gather On-Site Insights from your guests using Survey On The Spot on an iPad with the confidence that your iPad will not walk out the door!

Q) Do you have suggestions on how to deploy iPads securely?

A) Here are some solutions that people use for an secure iPad based Survey On The Spot.

This tabletop or floor mounted iPad bracket from Olea Kiosks allows you to securely gather On-Site Insights from your guests using Survey On The Spot on an iPad.

RAM-Mount has a unique locking solution that makes it easy to remove your iPad - the RAM flat surface mount for the Apple iPad. The RAM flat surface mount consists of a double socket arm mount with two 2.5" diameter round bases with the universal AMPS hole pattern. Rubber ball, socket technology dampens shock and vibration, as well as allows for almost infinite adjustment, perfect viewing angles. It's made with High Strength Composite and Powder Coated Marine Grade Aluminum.

For more information: RAM-B-138-AP8LU

Android

Q) How do I get Survey On The Spot for my Android?

A) Go to this link from your Android phone:

market://details?id=com.onthespotsystems.surveyonthespot

or take a picture of this QR Code for Survey On The Spot on your Android.

Other Smartphones

Q) How do I use Survey On The Spot on my smartphone? (Blackberry, Android, Palm, iPhone using Safari, and all other smartphones)

A) Enter www.surveyonthespot.com in your smartphone browser.

Reporting

Q) What reports are available?

A) There are many reports available, including the following:

Summary Report - View a summary for any time period, search for specific text and filter by question responses. Available on screen, as a PDF or exported to Excel
Submission Report - View each detailed submission
Location Aggregate Report - Excel report compares locations
Company Score Report (Pro Plan Only) - A unique report that summarized data for multiple locations is available as a PDF

Q) Can I export the data to Excel?

A) The Summary Report and Location Aggregate Reports may be exported to Excel.

Q) How do I automatically schedule reports to be sent by email?

A) You may email most reports either daily, weekly on the day following your "end of week", or on the first of each calendar month. This feature is only available in the Pro plan.

Q) Why do reports not show the time for my time zone?

A) The system uses U.S. Eastern Standard Time for all reporting. This enables businesses with locations in multiple time zones to view reports in a more meaningful way.

Locations Watch a 2 minute Screencast about Locations

Q) What is a location?

A) If you have one location, such as a store, restaurant, office, vehicle, club, or other place of business then you only need to add one location with your address. In some businesses, a department or work unit may be setup as a location. For example, in a hospital, each department is typically setup as a location to enable reporting across departments.

Do you have multiple locations? Survey On The Spot supports organization structures for what many consider to be complex organizations such as franchises, chains, franchisees owning multiple locations in multiple "districts", and other entities with multiple locations. This enables users to be setup to be able to mangage and view surveys for regions, districts, cities, zones, and other ways of slicing and dicing an organization. On-site managers can be restricted to only see the information related to their location, including alerts and reports.

Q) How do I add a location?

A) In the Administration tab click "Locations" to add and manage locations

Q) How do I assign one or more locations to a "user?"

A) In the Administration tab click "Edit Users." Next move to s specific user and click "Edit." Under the "Assigned Levels and Locations " section click on "All Stores" and then either select an individual store or select "Assign All."

Users

Q) What is a "User?"

A) A user is a person in your organization (this may be you!) that can view reports and optionally receive management alerts. A user must be assigned to one or more locations.

Q) How do I add a "User?"

A) In the Administration tab click "Edit Users." Enter the user's email address and then click "Assign." Next, fill in the "Notify Email" field, which may be a different email address. This is the email address that the service will send management alerts to in cases where a survey triggers an alert. Finally, check the appropriate boxes if you desire "detailed alerts" or "notify on all" alerts every time a survey is submitted. You must assign at least one location to each user (described below.)

Q) How do I setup a user to only see specific locations?

Q) How do I set up alerts to notify a user by email whenever a survey is submitted?

A) Check the box "Notify on All" in the "Edit Users" tab.

Management Alerts

Q) What is a Management Alert?

A) Management alerts are emails that are sent to one or more users when a survey is submitted. In some cases they are sent each time a survey is submitted. In most cases they are only sent when there is a specific response on a survey, such as a low satisfaction rating or a request to be contacted by a manager.

Q) How do I setup alerts for a user?

A) Check the box "Notify on All" in the "Edit Users" tab.

Q) How do I send a management alert as a text message? See warning note below!

A) Survey On The Spot will send management alerts based on specific survey submission criteria. These are best viewed as email messages on the web or your smartphone. If you desire to have the alert messages sent as text messages (note the plural as you will receive multiple mesages since the alerts contain the details of the survey submission).

To enter a phone number and receive text messages, please see the appropriate format based on your carrier.:

Verizon: 10digitphonenumber@vtext.com
AT&T: 10digitphonenumber@txt.att.net
Sprint: 10digitphonenumber@messaging.sprintpcs.com
T-Mobile: 10digitphonenumber@tmomail.net
Nextel: 10digitphonenumber@messaging.nextel.com
Cingular: 10digitphonenumber@cingularme.com
Virgin Mobile: 10digitphonenumber@vmobl.com
Alltel: 10digitphonenumber@message.alltel.com
CellularOne: 10digitphonenumber@mobile.celloneusa.com
Omnipoint: 10digitphonenumber@omnipointpcs.com
Qwest: 10digitphonenumber@qwestmp.com

Please note that Standard text rates apply to the recipient of the messages is you send as a text message! Please check with the recipient's carrier or terms of your wireless plan for details. DEPENDING ON THE NUMBER OF SURVEYS YOU RECEIVE AND YOUR ALERT SETTINGS YOU MAY POTENTIALLY SEND THOUSANDS OF ALERTS IN A MONTH WHICH MAY BE COSTLY TO THE RECIPIENT! We recommend send email alerts!

Rewards Watch a short video about rewards

Q) How do rewards work?

A) You have the option of offering a reward to encourage survey participation. If survey participants are using their own personal phone, the reward will be stored in a reward wallet, in their iPhone, iPad or iPod touch Survey On The Spot app. If taken on a smartphone there is a reward wallet tied to a "cookie" put on the phone. If the survey is taken on the web then the participant will have the option of printing the reward immediately or saving to a web reward wallet. If stored to a web reward wallet then the user must provide an email address.

Rewards expire after the number of hours you specify when creating a reward. The number of hours may differ for mobile devices and the web to prevent potential fraud.

Q) How do I setup a reward for a specific survey?

A) Click "Edit Reward" next to a specific survey. You will be able to choose one of the rewards you have previously set up.

Q) How does a survey participant use a reward?

A) On a mobile phone the customer selects "Redeem" and a code will be displayed that can be provided to the server or cashier. On the web the reward needs to be printed and handed to the server or cashier.

Q) Why is there no "My Wallet" icon at the bottom of the Survey On The Spot screen on my iPhone?

A) The "My Wallet" icon appears when you have rewards in your "reward wallet." At this time a few restaurants in the Northeast U.S. offer rewards. Additional surveys will offer rewards in the next few months. In the meantime, your feedback is valuable to them to help improve their businesses.

Trouble using the web site

I am using Internet Explorer
I am having trouble viewing reports with Internet Explorer.

Q) How do I solve Internet Explorer login problems? I am having trouble logging in with Internet Explorer. It doesn't give an error message, it just brings me back to the login page.

A) Try clearing your cookies for the surveyonthespot.com domain:

In the Tools menu in the toolbar, select Developer Tools (or press F12)
In the window that opens up, in the Cache menu choose Clear Cookies for Domain
Restart Internet Explorer - your login should work again

Firefox (no reported problems)
Chrome (no reported problems)
Safari (no reported problems)

Q) I am having trouble viewing reports with Internet Explorer. A dialogue box appears that I need to resolve.

Fixing the IE 8 warning - 'Do you want to view only the webpage content that was delivered securely?

To download the content you would have to click on the No button.

If you are using IE, you may disable this warning by:

Going to Tools->Internet Options->Security
Select the 'Security' tab
Click the 'Custom Level' button
In the 'Miscellaneous' section change "Display mixed content" to Enable

Q) Where can I download Survey On The Spot graphics for my promotional materials?

A) Click this link for Graphics

CNN Story about Survey On The Spot

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