Do you like surprises? Well, we have a BIG one in store for you.
Over the years, many of you have seen the Zarca Interactive system change in subtle ways. We went from actions driven by icons to buttons. We improved survey management through the addition of folders and a survey calendar and we added tracking capabilities through the Master Log. Important as these enhancements have been, they improved but did not entirely revolutionize your survey management experience. And so….


On behalf of the entire Product Development and Client Services teams, I am proud to announce the upcoming release of SMX – Survey Manager X. The SMX redesign will definitely take your survey creation experience to the next level. It is wizard driven taking you through all of the necessary steps from naming your survey, to choosing the survey type to selecting what messages your respondents will see when they click SUBMIT. But perhaps the most anticipated change brought by SMX is the ability to “drag-and-drop” questions and pages in your survey with ease.

The release of SMX is scheduled to occur before March 2008. Weekly training sessions in anticipation of this release will occur in February 2008.

Until next time…

Maryam Elsaid
VP Client Services
Zarca Interactive

Overlooked Feature – Emailed Reports Save You Time

Does this scenario sound familiar? You launch a survey and begin to receive responses and other members of your organization want to receive updates while your survey is active. Either daily or weekly, you compile an email with the latest statistics or send an Excel spread-sheet with the responses received to date and send it out to all interested individuals. The Email this Report feature will rescue you from sending STATIC reports.

What is the Email this Report feature?
The Email this Report feature allows you to send an email with a link to your report for others to view. You can track who received your email as well as the date and time they last viewed your report.

What are the benefits to using the Email this Report feature?
Every report you can create via the Report Manager from Bar Graph to Comparison to Conditional reports can be shared with members of your organization via an email and link.

How can I use the Email this Report feature?
Go to the Report Manager and create the report you wish to share.
Once created, go to the bottom of the report and select the button.
Complete all fields including the date you wish to terminate access.
Once sent, you can select the button to view who received the email and the date and time individuals last accessed the report.

Monthly Events – Zarca Webinars

Do you sometimes feel you just can’t get enough of Zarca? Perhaps you have memorized the User Guide or regularly contribute to the Suggestions box, but still you want more.

For the last year, the Client Services Team has offered monthly educational webinars that assist you not only with how to use the Zarca system, but best practices in surveying. Topics have included: Think Before You Launch: 10 Things To Remember Before Launching Your Zarca Survey, Truth, Whole Truth, & Nothing But The Truth: Anonymous and Confidential surveys in the Zarca system and They Can't Take It If They Don't Get It: Ensuring Delivery of Your Zarca Interactive Surveys. These webinars usually last between 25-40 minutes depending on the topic. If you aren’t receiving the webinar notices, contact clientservices@zarca.com to be added to our list.

Support Corner – Deleting Responses

When conducting analysis of your individual responses, have you found the need to remove responses that skew your data set? There are two options that are available to you in the Zarca platform.

Option #1: Report Manager -> Individual Response -> Identify the individual response(s) ->Select the delete this response link at the top of the page.

Option #2: Distribution Manager -> Select Survey -> Distribution Report -> Select the box to the left of the email addresses you wish to delete associated responses -> Select the delete link in the upper left corner.
[NOTE: Once you delete your response or email address with associated responses, they cannot be restored.]

Tip of the Month – Demographic Question Placement

A common mistake survey creators make is to place the most important questions at the beginning of their survey – most important from their perspective – the demographic questions. Let’s face it, without these questions, segmentation and analysis is not very beneficial. However from the respondents’ perspective, demographic questions are invasive and are not engaging. This is especially true if you place them at the beginning of your survey. Place the demographic questions at the end of your survey so that the respondent is less disarmed and more willing to provide this information. Further, consider making some of these demographic questions not mandatory.

For Account Administrators

As Account Administrator of the Zarca Interactive Account for your organization, it is you that users turn to for additional surveys and additional permissions. An often overlooked feature available to Account Administrators is the ability to display messages on the Home Tab for all users to see. In order to post a message, simply select the Home tab and select the link that says Edit and customize your message for all other users to see.