Customize email templates with survey variables
Requesting feedback from customers is an important way for you to gauge their satisfaction with your services or products, and it also provides valuable information to help you continue to grow and improve the levels of service that you provide. Asking for generic feedback is acceptable, but it doesn't convey to customers that they are cared for. Instead, providing a personalized experience might set one company apart from other organizations. Furthermore, personalized experiences show clients that the company knows and understands who they are and what interaction that feedback is being requested for.
With Dynamics 365 Customer Voice, you can ask for feedback and send customized emails by using survey variables. A survey can include up to 15 variables, with two being automatically set to display the First Name and Last Name variables. You can add a locale variable to a new survey to provide a way to identify the correct language to display (where multilingual surveys are necessary for an organization), but you can delete the locale variable if it's not required.
For each new variable that you add, make sure that you give them a name with letters only and no spaces included. You can add a default value, which will be used when nothing else is available, meaning that no value has been passed into that variable by using an import or by using Power Automate, for example. After you have added all new variables, make sure that you save them so that you can use them throughout the survey and in email templates.
Selecting the Send tab of a survey provides various ways for you to distribute a survey. By choosing the email option, you can adjust and use new and existing templates when sending a survey. If you created a blank template or a template with no custom email templates, the only template that will be available will be the Default template. This template will be visually plain, with no variables that are used and a simple subject and layout with a button to start the survey.
You can create a new survey, and a survey can have multiple templates as required. In this example, a Support feedback template exists for the survey. The First Name and Last Name variables have been added to the email template. When a survey is sent by using the email functionality from Dynamics 365 Customer Voice, the First Name and Last Name variables will be replaced with the actual name values from a contact.
Also, the following details will have been populated in many ways:
Selecting Contacts by using the recipient's field and searching for them in Dynamics 365 apps or Microsoft Office 365
Uploading a CSV file that includes Email, First Name, and Last Name values
Creating a flow in Power Automate that runs and populates the values from a database such as Microsoft Dataverse
You can add more variables to the email template, provided that the data to populate those values is accessible. For example, if you use the recipient's field, and you search for and add contacts to the email that way, then only the name will be populated. In this scenario, you would have no way to populate the company name, case number, or case title, for example. However, if you use Power Automate or an import CSV file, it will allow for the passing of values back through to the variables so that they could be displayed on the email template.
You can add the variables by selecting the Insert option from the menu at the top of the email template. From there, all personalized variables are available and you can add them into the email template as required by selecting the variable. If a variable has not yet been added but is now needed, select the New variable option to bring up the Personalization menu, where you can quickly add the new variable without leaving the email template and losing your work.
Additionally, you can customize the subject by using the variables. Including someone's first name in the subject of an email can help to get their attention. If the email is regarding a survey that asks for feedback on the closure of a support case, adding the case number and case title to the subject can help further provide recognition and increase the likelihood that the email will be opened and that action will be taken. You can add images and links along with color and font changes as required. After you have fully customized the template with all added variables, make sure that you save it. The template should now be ready for use. For email templates that already have variables included, make sure that you set a default value for each variable or that you always use that email template when sending emails that are used with CSV imports in Dynamics 365 Customer Voice or with Power Automate.
Watch the following video for a demonstration of how to customize survey emails.