How do I assign a Salesforce record ID as the external data reference value on a contact record | XM Community
Question

How do I assign a Salesforce record ID as the external data reference value on a contact record

  • 19 June 2019
  • 8 replies
  • 88 views

Userlevel 1
Badge +2
Hi, I hope someone can help. I haven't been able to find an answer from a previously asked community question yet.

I am triggering survey distributions using a workflow in Salesforce. The distribution is set up on the survey actions menu in Qualtrics and works perfectly. I use answers from this survey in a 2nd survey that goes to the same recipient after completing the first survey. Lets call these survey1a and survey1b. In survey1a, i use Tools > contact list triggers to add their survey answers to the contact record in the form of attributes. I then pipe these attributes into survey1b as embedded data. That also works perfectly.

However, I also trigger distributions from Salesforce to the same contacts for unrelated surveys. Essentially the same as previous paragraph. Lets call these survey2a and survey2b.

I need separate contact records for the survey recipients for survey1* and survey2*.

Normally I would auto-deduplicate contacts using an external data reference, and assign the Salesforce record id as that reference (survey1a and 1b share same record id; and same for survey 2a and 2b). Yet in all my testing, the external data reference field is blank. How do I assign a Salesforce record ID as the external data reference value on a contact record so that I can deduplicate?

Thanks in advance

8 replies

Userlevel 7
Badge +11
Hi there! I'm with you up until you say you need separate contact records for survey1 and survey2 then mention deduplicating them. Can we perhaps help you find a solution that doesn't require you making two records and then dedup'ing them? What criteria are you running into that you're having to create two records?

If you just want to stick with the way you have it now, I'd recommend using the actions tab instead of Tools. Qualtrics recommends this for a variety of reasons, but in your specific case, you could assign the SFDC record ID as external data reference through your field mapping when you set up the action.
Userlevel 1
Badge +2
Hi JenCX, thanks for this, it sounds promising. I use Actions to distribute the survey, and Tools to add attributes to the contact record following advice from QSupport. Is there a way to do the latter using Actions?

The criteria that requires separate contact records is that each record relates to a different SFDC opportunity and we use this criteria to pipe attributes to different surveys. A contact record can only have 1 SFDC record id.

I'd like to test your solution, but I can't see how to set up field mapping in Actions to assign the SFDC record ID as external data reference. My options seem to be distributing a survey or response mapping to Salesforce. What am I missing? Thanks!
Userlevel 1
Badge +1
I have a similar question. I want to assign a 'CustomerID' value from our source system (similar to TCA's requirement for SFDC) to the ExternalDataReference field for a Contact record, so that I can de-duplicate based of the value in the EDR. But I can't find anywhere that shows me how I can map the CustomerID value to the EDR field.
Userlevel 7
Badge +11
@Mike_Shaw3012 How are you distributing the survey? Is it automated?
Userlevel 1
Badge +1
@JenCX - yes it's automated. An API call is made by the source system which is received by a 'master' survey which interprets the API payload, creates a contact record and distributes the appropriate survey to the customer
Userlevel 7
Badge +11
Ah, it doesn't sound like the source system is SFDC, which is where my experience ends. I can tell you that when we set up SFDC, we just created a workflow in SFDC that passed the info to Q and then pulled in the information by declaring it as embedded data at the beginning of the survey flow in Q.

I'm not sure that helps you if it's not SFDC though.
Userlevel 1
Badge +1
Yes you're right, a different scenario ... but thanks anyway! 😀
Hi Y'all
Did you find a solution. I'm on the same boat but slightly diff use case;

I'm having problems with the SFDC integration with Q. Since "case data" from SFDC is mapped to "Contact" data in Q (and then added as "embedded data" to the survey ONLY IF the survey URL is clicked), every time a new case info comes into Q from SFDC, all case data associated with the customer is updated to reflect the new case information.

At this stage, if the customer decides to take the previous survey that was sent to him, his/her response is captured in Q but with the latest and incorrect case data that is associated with the contact.

anybody came across this issue and/or can suggest a solution?

Leave a Reply