When a response looks wrong, start with the survey link and how the survey is set up. Automated clicks happen too, but they're not the first thing to check.

Simplesat records each response under the email address in the survey link. When your helpdesk sends a survey, it adds the customer's email address to every rating link in the email. Any click on those links is recorded under that customer, even if a colleague on CC or someone they forwarded the email to is the one who clicks. Apart from the IP address shown in the response details, Simplesat has no record of who clicked.

A link without an email address creates an anonymous response. Signature links and shared links work that way for every recipient unless each person's address is added to the link.

Simplesat saves a response with a missing or invalid email address as Anonymous rather than dropping it. These responses stay in your feedback list and count in your scores.

Check these causes in order:

Feedback imported from a CSV file without an email column is also saved as Anonymous.

To see which cause applies, select Add filter and filter by Source. If most anonymous responses come from one source, start with that source's link setup.

Fixing a placeholder or a contact only affects future sends. Responses you've already received stay anonymous. To add the customer to one that matters:

Generic embed and web embed surveys can ask respondents for their email with the Customer information question. You'll find it on the survey's configure tab, under Capture customer information from anonymous surveys. Choose an option:

Many companies use email security systems that open the links in incoming mail to check them for threats. When a scanner opens a rating link, Simplesat records the rating as if a person had clicked it. The scanning happens in the recipient's mail system. Any rating link you send can be scanned, including signature links.

If the link contains the customer's email, the scanner's rating is recorded under that customer and looks like a real click. If the link has no email, the rating is Anonymous.

Scanner traffic can show these signs:

A bounced address means the recipient never saw the email, so the rating came from a scanner. Some scanner traffic shows none of these signs. A single click that gets past the spam filter looks the same as a quick reply from a real person.

Two surveys sent for one ticket, a customer changing their own answer and a link without an email can all look like scanner traffic. Rule those out first.

To delete responses a scanner created:

Correcting and removing feedback has more on deleting responses.

For a larger set, contact us. We can clear responses by IP address or date range.

Google reCAPTCHA v3 checks ratings from email surveys, email embeds and signature links. It scores each rating once, when the survey page loads. Scores run from 0 to 1. A score near 0 means the rating was very likely automated, and a score near 1 means it very likely came from a person.

The web embed on your own site and Intercom surveys save answers without scoring them. A plain link to a survey with no rating question is never scored.

Your workspace has a threshold. A rating that scores above it saves normally. A rating that scores at or below it is flagged as spam and kept out of your workspace. Thresholds are set high, and a rating gets through only when reCAPTCHA is very confident a person sent it. Ask us for your workspace's threshold.

A flag means the check wasn't confident a person clicked. It isn't proof of automation. Real responses do get flagged, and some automated traffic scores a perfect 1.0 and gets through.

Respondents can't tell they've been flagged. The survey continues through the follow-up questions to the thank-you page as usual. The only visible sign of the check is a small "This site is protected by reCAPTCHA" notice on the survey page.

Flagged responses are held outside your workspace. They don't appear in any feedback list, dashboard, score, export or notification. No filter shows them, and you can't review them or find an ID for one.

We keep a record of every flagged response. To check on one, contact us with the respondent's email address or the survey name. We'll look it up, tell you its score and release it if it's real. A released response appears in your feedback like any other. We can also send you a CSV of everything flagged on your workspace.

A flagged response is also released automatically when the respondent answers a follow-up question, changes an answer on the page or fills in the Customer information question.

Most responses that stay flagged come from one-question surveys, because there's nothing left to answer after the rating. Adding one or two short follow-up questions helps. The score stays the same, but a real person who answers one releases their own response. If a survey has to stay at one question, ask us to lower your threshold.

Simplesat keeps one response per ticket for each survey. When a customer opens their link again, they change the response they already gave. A real duplicate has one of these causes:

To prevent duplicates, the link needs a ticket or conversation ID. Expiration and suppression settings won't do it. Here's what they do instead:

Both responses count in your averages until you delete one. To clean up a pair:

Correcting and removing feedback shows how to do both.

No setting stops a domain, a sender or a customer from creating responses. Unsubscribing a contact only stops the emails Simplesat sends. It has no effect when your helpdesk or another platform sends the survey.

What works instead:

A response in any of these states is kept out of your feedback list.

Start by sending us the customer's email address or the survey name. A spam flag is the one cause you can't check yourself, and we can check for it right away. Meanwhile, widen the date range and check your filters. The response may also have arrived under a different email address.

That's what scanner traffic looks like, and a bounced recipient address confirms it. Each click updated the same response instead of creating a new one. There's nothing to clean up. If the final rating is wrong, correct it as described in Correcting and removing feedback.

Ratings are recorded under the email address in the link, whoever opens it. Either someone else with access to the email opened their link, or their company's email security system did. Simplesat can't tell which. Correct the rating to what the customer meant to give. Correcting and removing feedback shows how.

That platform's links are going out without the email filled in. Open one of the responses to see what arrived, then fix the placeholder or the contact in that platform. From the next send, new responses show the customer. For a response you've already received, add the email to the contact and ask us to re-run the ticket.

It's usually a one-question survey, where a real person has nothing left to answer that would release the flag. Add a follow-up question, or ask us to lower your workspace's threshold. If you'd like to see the scores of your flagged responses first, we can send them.

Opening a survey link again updates the existing response. Submitting a rating that hasn't changed isn't recorded. Repeated notifications with no new entry in the response's timeline mean the customer revisited their survey. No duplicate was created.

No. The survey worked. The response arrived without a customer email to match it to.

Not reliably. The reCAPTCHA score is only a probability. A bounced recipient address, the timing and answered follow-up questions are usually stronger evidence.

No. We lower your workspace's threshold instead. Without the check, every scanner click in every recipient's mail system would count as real feedback.

Any score at or below your workspace's threshold. Thresholds are set per workspace, and the same score can pass in one workspace and be flagged in another. Ask us for yours, or for any response's score.

No. Delete the one you don't want, and your scores recalculate. Correcting and removing feedback shows how.

Make sure every link includes the customer's email. On generic embed and web embed surveys, also require the Customer information question. It holds back any response that arrives without an email.