You can bring feedback you've already collected into a Simplesat survey from a CSV file or another survey tool, or through the API. Imported responses are included in the survey's scores, trends and reports. With a date column in your file, a rating from last March shows up in last March's results. A CSV import has no row limit and doesn't count toward your monthly responses.

Note: Owners and Admins can import, and so can anyone whose custom role has the import permission and access to the survey.

How importing works

Each import goes into one survey, and that survey needs a CSAT, NPS, CES or 5-star question. The ratings in your file have to match its rating values exactly. A file of 1 to 5 scores imports into a survey rated 1 to 5, and fails on every row in a survey rated 0 to 10.

Each row becomes one response, with one rating and one follow-up answer. For answers to more questions, or custom ticket data, use the API.

A Ticket ID lets you correct an import by importing a fixed file over it. A row whose Ticket ID matches a response in the survey updates that response. A row without one becomes a new response every time it's imported. Importing the same file into a different survey always creates a second set of responses.

Prepare your CSV

The importer reads CSV files, not Excel files. Your file needs a header row, but the headers can say anything. At Import mapping, you'll pair each column with one of these fields.

Column	What it does
Rating	Required. The customer's answer to the rating question.
Date	When the customer gave the feedback. Without it, rows are dated the day you import.
Comment	The customer's written answer to the survey's comment question.
Choice(s)	The answer to a multiple-choice follow-up question.
Is Published	`true` publishes the comment as a testimonial.
Language	A code like `en`, `th` or `zh-CN`, not a language name. Empty cells get the survey's default language.
Customer Name	Who gave the feedback.
Customer Email	Creates or matches a customer record. Without it, the row imports as anonymous feedback, even with a name.
Ticket ID	Links the response to a helpdesk ticket, and identifies the row if you import it again.
Ticket Subject	Shown on the response and searchable on the Feedback page. Useful for an order or case reference.
Team Member ID	Matches or creates a team member by their ID in your helpdesk.
Team Member	The name of whoever helped the customer. To attribute the response, map Team Member Email or Team Member ID too.
Team Member Email	Matches or creates a team member by email.

Dates can be in any of these formats:

2023-10-27
2023-10-27T10:30:00.000Z
2023-10-27T10:30:00-05:00
Fri, 27 Oct 2023 10:00:00 GMT
27 Oct 2023 10:00:00 GMT
10/27/2023
October 27, 2023

Heads up: Day-first dates are read month first. 13/10/2023 fails, and 05/10/2023 imports as May 10 with no error. If your file puts the day first, convert the column to one of these formats before you import.

A survey asks its comment question only after certain ratings. A row with a comment on any other rating fails. Its rating doesn't import either, though the rest of the file does. Before you import, check which ratings your survey's comment question appears after, then look in your file for comments on any other rating.

Import a CSV file

Go to Feedback and select Import feedback.
Choose the tool your file came from, or Custom CSV for anything else. Drag your file onto the drop zone, then select Next.
At Choose a survey, pick the survey these responses belong to, then select Next.
At Import mapping, match each Simplesat field to a column in your file, and set any field that doesn't apply to Ignore.

At Import review, check the row counts and the sample row. Rows with invalid data are listed with the reason, and they're skipped if you continue. To fix them first, go Back, or correct the file and start again.
At Final steps, add any tags you want. Every import also tags its responses CSV Import with the date and time it ran. Then set the two toggles:
- Leave Run topic analysis on to detect topics and sentiment in the imported comments. If you turn it off, getting topics later means redoing the import.
- Leave Run integrations off unless you want the survey's integrations to treat each old response as if it had just come in.
Select Import.

The import runs in the background. When it finishes, you'll get an email with how many responses imported and how many didn't.

Tip: For a large file, test the mapping on the first 20 rows. Save them as their own CSV, import it, and check the responses in Simplesat. If those rows have a Ticket ID, the full import will update them. If they don't, undo the test import before the full one.

Import from another survey tool

The importer has presets for Delighted, Medallia, Nicereply and Qualtrics. Choosing one at the start of an import shows that tool's export steps and fills in the field mapping for its export format. A file exported from one of these tools usually imports with no mapping work. For anything else, use Custom CSV.

Even with a preset, check the mapping at Import mapping, because export formats change. Map the old tool's response ID to Ticket ID, and any order or case reference to Ticket Subject.

Here's how to export from each one.

Delighted

Log in to Delighted and select Export data on the left of the dashboard.
Choose Survey responses as the export type.
Set the date range to all time.
Select Export as CSV.

Medallia

On the Settings page, select Export Responses.
Choose only requests with responses. A request nobody answered has no rating to import.
Set a Start date and an End date. Each export covers up to three months.
Select Export. Medallia emails you the CSV when it's ready.

For more than three months of history, export each three-month stretch and import each file into the same survey.

Nicereply

Log in to Nicereply and open the Response Feed.
Select EXPORT in the top right, and save the file as CSV.

Heads up: The Nicereply preset leaves comments and agents unmapped. At Import mapping, map the rating comment column to Comment and the agent's email column to Team Member Email. Without those, your responses import with no comments or team members.

Qualtrics

Open the Data section of the Data & Analysis tab.
Select Export & Import, then Export Data.
Choose CSV as the format and select Download all fields.
Select Download.

Import feedback with the API

The API takes an answer to every question on the survey, custom attributes on the ticket and on each team member, tags, sentiment and the original timestamp. Send a POST request to https://api.simplesat.io/api/v1/responses/create-or-update with an API key that has the write responses scope. The full reference is at Create or update response.

A few things to know:

integration_id identifies a response the way Ticket ID does in a CSV. Posting the same integration_id again updates that response.
Customers and team members without an email address are ignored.
Sending tags or custom_attributes replaces the existing values.
Comments are capped at 4,096 characters.

Heads up: Responses created through the API count toward your monthly response allowance, and any past it are held back. For a large historical import, talk to us before you start and we'll sort out the allowance.

Bring in history from a connected helpdesk

Turning on a sync or changing an integration setting only affects responses from then on. Older responses don't pick up a new helpdesk tag, newly synced ticket details or a corrected field mapping.

We can re-run past responses through the integration to apply a change. A re-run replays responses as we stored them. It can fill in only the fields your helpdesk was already sending at the time, and it can't add a ticket link to a response that never had one. To ask for a re-run, tell us which integration, which surveys and how far back.

Heads up: Re-runs against closed tickets can fail on the helpdesk side, and can leave a second copy of an internal note on the ticket.

Undo an import

Go to Feedback and filter on the import's CSV Import tag.
Switch the layout to Table, with Display answers as: Columns. Each row now has a checkbox.
Check the rows to delete, then select Delete.

A selection only covers the rows that have loaded. With a large import, repeat step 3 until they're all gone. For a very large one, send us the import's tag and we'll delete it in one go.

Heads up: If you fix an import by importing a corrected file over it instead, those responses get the new import's tags in place of their old ones. Any tags your team added to them are removed.

Troubleshooting

Most of these are fixed by correcting the file and importing it again. If its rows have no Ticket ID, undo the first import before you re-import, or import only the rows that are missing.

Fewer responses imported than the file had

The email's count of responses that didn't import includes the rows Import review already said it would skip. Any beyond those failed during the import. A row fails when:

it has a comment, but the survey doesn't ask for one after that rating
its rating isn't one of the survey's rating values
its Choice(s) value isn't one of the question's choices
its email address is malformed, like one with two dots in a row (a spreadsheet formula that swaps spaces for periods can cause this)

Two rows with the same Ticket ID also come out as one response. Both import, and the second overwrites the first.

The email doesn't name the rows that failed. To find them, filter Feedback on the import's tag and compare the responses there with your file.

Nothing was imported and no email came

The survey has no CSAT, NPS, CES or 5-star question. A survey without one imports nothing and sends no email. Choose a survey that has one and import again.

Imported responses aren't attributed to team members

A name alone doesn't match or create a team member. Map Team Member Email or Team Member ID as well as Team Member. If you used a preset, check the team member fields at Import mapping.

Imported responses have no customer

Customer records come from Customer Email. A row with a name but no email imports as anonymous feedback. Map Customer Email and import again.

Invalid date errors on rows that look fine

Day-first dates are read month first. 13/10/2023 fails, while 10/13/2023 works. Convert the whole Date column to an accepted format, such as 2023-10-27 or October 27, 2023. Don't stop at the rows that failed. A day-first date with a day of 12 or less passes, but as the wrong date.

Imported responses have no topics

Topics come from comments. A response with only a rating doesn't get any. For responses with comments, automatic topic detection needs the Pro plan or above, and Run topic analysis has to be on at Final steps. If it was off, undo the import and import the file again with it on. You can also add topics to single responses by hand.

FAQ

Does importing use up my monthly responses?

Not from a CSV, however far back the responses are dated. Nothing in a CSV import is held back, either. Responses created through the API do count.

Is there a limit on how many responses I can import?

Not for a CSV. If Run integrations is on, a large import can be slowed by the connected tool's own API rate limits.

Can I import several surveys' worth of history?

Yes. Export each survey separately and import it into the survey it belongs to.

Can imported feedback be anonymous?

Yes. Leave Customer Name and Customer Email out of the file, or leave them empty.

Will my old tool's tags come across as topics?

No. A tag column isn't imported at all. Topics are detected in your comments by topic analysis when you import. Tags are labels your team adds.

Can I import an Excel file?

Not directly. Save it as CSV first.

Will my live feedback keep coming in while I migrate?

Yes. The survey keeps collecting while you import history into it. New and imported responses show up in the same reports.

Does importing cost anything?

No. If you'd rather not do it yourself, send us the file, the survey it goes into and which columns to map, and we'll run the import for you.

Importing feedback