Updating Participant Profile Card Data with Personalized Survey Links

You can use surveys to update a participant’s profile card data, for example adding contact information, collecting eligibility information, or updating their data as your study progresses. When you send participants a survey, you’ll want to make sure the survey matched to their existing participant profile, instead of creating a new participant. You can send the participant a personalized link that will match the survey submission to their existing profile.

Matching a Survey Submission to an Existing Participant

When a new survey is submitted, Ripple checks to see if these identifiers on the survey match any existing participants:

• First name, last name, and birthday OR
• First name, last name, and Global ID
• Global ID only

If these identifiers match an existing participant, then the survey submission will appear the Forms section of the existing participant and add or update any data collected. If the identifiers do not match an existing participant, a new participant profile card will be created.

How to Personalize a Survey Link for a Participant

You can use UTM codes pre-fill a survey with a participant’s Global ID or first name, last name, and Global ID to make sure the survey goes back to the participant. 

Here are the steps to pre-fill these fields using an email:

Step 1: Add the First Name, Last Name, and Global ID variables to your survey

1. Go into the Study Settings and navigate to the Survey Creator tab
2. Create your survey questions and leave the First Name and Last Name questions exactly as Ripple created them
   1. Note: When you go into the question’s properties, it is important that your First Name question has the Name: firstName and the Last Name questions has the Name: lastName (red)

3. Add a Single Input question type (red)
4. Go into the Properties section (green) and give your question the Name: globalId (purple)
   1. Note: This is very case-sensitive
5. Toggle “Is Visible?” off so participants can’t see their Global ID (blue)

6. In the Survey Variable section, select “Global Id” (red)
7. Save your survey (green)
8. Copy the Survey URL (purple)

Step 2: Create your Email Template

1. Go into the Study Settings and navigate to the Email and Text tab
2. Create your email template 
3. Add the button, header, text, or image element that you want participants to click on to activate the survey

Step 3: Add your survey link and UTM codes to personalize the link

1. Highlight the text or header words that you want participant to click on to activate the survey
2. Click on the link icon
3. In the pop-up, paste the survey’s URL in the URL field
4. At the end of the URL, add the following text (red): ?globalId={{participant_global_id}}&firstName={{participant_first_name}}&lastName={{participant_last_name}}
   1. Note: This is very case-sensitive
5. In the Target field, select if you want the URL to open in the same tab as the email or in a new tab (green)
6. Hit the Save button (purple)

7. When you’re done modifying your email, hit the Save button to close out your template

Step 4: Test your Personalized Link

1. Go into a participant’s profile card
2. Go into the Email log
3. Click the “Add Email” button
4. Choose the template you created
5. Click on the text or header that you hyperlinked
6. Click on the hyperlink icon
7. See if the participant’s Global ID, first name, and last name are filled in correctly