This article shows you how to create a poll definition, to associate it with a questionnaire and finally how to launch your newly created poll. 

Figure 1. Accessing the Polling Definition Editor from the Franchisee Polling page.

      The first thing to do in order to launch a new poll in FranchiseBlast is to create a polling definition. This can be done in the poll definition editor, which can be accessed by clicking the '+' button at the top right of the Franchisee Polling page as shown in figure 1 above.

Step 1 : Who & What

Figure 2. Completing the Who & What tab to create a new poll definition.

      The first step in creating a poll definition is to choose who you want to poll and with what ( i.e. which questionnaire).  In the first drop down control in figure 2 asking for who you want to poll, you must select the Store Group that contains the stores for which you wish to polls to.  Note that only users with the Franchise Polling role that are marked as a Staff Member in these stores will receive notifications for the polls.  In the second drop down control, you must choose the questionnaire that is going to be sent to the recipients of the polls.  

Note: If you just started to use FranchiseBlast's polling module, then you don't have any questionnaire setup.  In this case just click on the button saying "I need to create a new questionnaire" and it will redirect you to a questionnaire editor where you can create a new one.  When you're done creating your new questionnaire, simply click 'Save and Close' on the bottom right of the page and it will redirect you back to the page shown in figure 2 above.

Then you can press the "Go to Next Step!" button to fill the next step of the poll creation wizard.

Step 2 : When

      The second step in creating a polling definition is to specify when you want your polls to be actually sent to to their recipients (the stores in the store group you choose in step 1).  First you must choose the Frequency at which the Polls of this Polling Definition will be sent.  Choose the option in the first drop down menu (marked with a 1 in a circle in figure 3 above) that better fits your need and you'll see the user interface change as you select different options to give you the appropriate options for the next settings to choose.

      Then you need to specify when exactly at the Frequency that you have chosen you want to launch the Polls.  For example, in figure 3 we have set our Poll Definition to launch a Poll on the 1st and 15th, monthly.

      After this you need to set up a Start Date for the poll.  You can either choose to start it Now and it will start polling the stores staff on schedule after you have saved right away, or you can set it to start Later.  For the purpose of this example, we have set it to launch Later on July 1st 2016, which is tomorrow since we are June 30th 2016 today.    Don't forget to select the appropriate Timezone for the launch date also, which will determine the right time to send your Poll Notifications.

      Finally, you have to choose how long your Polls recipients have to submit their answers.  This is done by selecting the amount of time in the control marked with a 4 in a circle in figure 3 above.  Note that after that this amount of time has passed, the poll will be marked as Expired and the recipients will no longer be able to submit their answers.

When you have complete all of that you can move to the next step!

Step 3 : Notifications

      The next step in creating a Poll Definition is to select a schedule to send notifications for each Poll.  A first notification has already been set up for you in the schedule (and is required) that will launch on the first date/day/time that you select in the last step for the frequency selected.  For example, since today we are June 30th and that in step 2 we have select the Frequency to be monthly with Polls to be sent on the 1st and 15th, the first notification that will be sent on launch of the first poll will be on July 1st at 11:00 AM (launch date is selected in step 2).  Then we can set up more notification in an escalation fashion to set reminders for recipients that didn't answer right away.  You can add a new notification to the schedule by click on the 'Add a Notitification Step' button marked with a 3 in a circle in figure 4 above.  

      Each notification is connected to a Team. So in this example, the first step notifies Franchisees, and the second one notifies Area Directors. Are the people that you want to poll in a team? They are flexible, so you can make them your own. To learn more about teams, please go here. 

      When all of this is done you can go to the next step!

Step 4 : Data Collection Period

Figure 5. Setting up the data collection period for a poll definition.

      Almost done!  The last step in creating a Poll Definition is to set up the period for which its Polls are collecting data.  If you have selected multiple days/times/weekdays for in step 2, then this is already set up for you - the period will be the time in between each of the polls.  For example, our Poll that will launch on July 1st will collect data for the period from June 15th 2016 to June 30th 2016, which is the period between this poll and the one that would have launched on June 15th 2016 if we had launched it beforehand.

      However, if you have selected only a single day/time/weekday in step 2, you can select a custom data collection period.  We already set a default one up for you for each frequency selection (e.g. the previous month for monthly polls), but you can select any date range in the picker (marked with a 1 in a circle in figure 5).  Please do note that the range you select is relative to the launch date of each Poll instance since they are recurrent (except for the polls set to the "once" frequency).

      Now you can either press on 'Create and activate polling now' to create your Poll Definition and mark it as active, or click on 'Create it, but let me active it later' to leave it inactive until you say otherwise.  Note that inactive Poll Definitions won't create any Poll instance, and won't send any notifications as a result.  Keep a definition inactive if you still want to work on it before starting to poll everyone.

That's it!  Now you can sit back, relax,  and watch your data being automatically collected and analyzed by FranchiseBlast!