questions about sms survey

[Julia de Kadt]

Hi,

Our application includes an SMS survey. Participants receive a biweekly message asking how they are doing, and are asked to respond 1 if all is well, and 2 if there is a problem. Most participants are able to follow these instructions, but some are not, and send us for example a text response explaining a particular problem they have encountered.

The only way we have found to identify these messages so far is too look over the message log and review all incoming messages for any that are not a 1 or 2. However, as our number of participants will now be increasing substantially, we are wondering if there is a way to automate this process and trigger some kind of alert when a message like this comes in, so that we know to look for it? Any other suggestions on how to handle this would be very helpful too!


A second concern about the SMS survey is that although we have specified that the only valid responses are a 1 or 2, when participants respond with a blank space (which a suprising number have managed to do), this is also accepted as a valid response. Participants are not informed that their response is invalid, and we are not able to follow up accordingly. Any advice on how to fix this would also be very helpful.

Many thanks,
Julia

[Sheel Shah]

Hey Julia,

I think the simplest way to trigger that alert would be to setup a Keyword.  Participants will be able to text HELP (or some other word) which would then trigger a message to supervisors.  Would that work in this situation? 

For the blank responses, can you make sure that the question is setup as required in the survey?  This should limit blank responses and give users an error if they provide a blank.  

Let me know if those work!

Thanks,

Sheel

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Sheel Shah

Project Manager | Dimagi

m: +1.781.428.5419 | skype: sheel_shah

[Julia de Kadt]

Hi Sheel,

Many thanks for your response!

My concern with setting up a keyword is that if users are struggling to send a '1' or a '2', I'm not confident that they'll manage to send a specific keyword either. The participants do also have contact information for their study contact, so should be able to message/call them directly if needed. Nonetheless, it might we worth trying to set this up as an alternative - I will look into it.

Regarding the blank responses, we are currently using the following as the validation condition: regex(., "^[12]$"). As far as we understood this was correct. Could you please let me know how it should be set up?

Many thanks,
Julia

[Giovanni Capalbo]

Hi Julia,

The validation condition is correct - is the question marked as being required?

Thanks,

Giovanni

[Julia de Kadt]

Hi Giovanni,

Thanks for the feedback!

No, the question is not currently marked as required.

thanks,
Julia

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[Giovanni Capalbo]

Hi Julia,

Ok, thanks for confirming - making the question be required will fix the issue you're seeing.

Thanks,

Giovanni

[Julia de Kadt]

Thanks Giovanni - we'll give that a try! I thought that one should avoid making SMS survey questions required though? Or is that not really the case?

[Giovanni Capalbo]

Hi Julia,

It's ok to mark questions as required.  If you wanted to give the users the ability to skip a question, you could also allow for a third option (enter 3 to skip).

Thanks,

Giovanni

[Julia de Kadt]

Ok - thank you, that is very helpful!