Most Simplesat surveys start from a link in your customer's emails.
While the majority of clicks are real, some are from bots following links in an attempt to discover malicious content.
We can all respect the good intention of these bots, but they still pose a real problem for any tool that relies on accurate clicks. 😱 (Email marketing tools deal with these same issues when presenting open and click reporting)
How Simplesat saves answers
Simplesat saves answers immediately after your customers click a rating from an email, or any additional choice on a web survey.
Customers are not required to "submit" a form in order for you to see their responses.
We do this so that you can collect as much feedback as possible. Most of your customers won't add a follow-up comment. Some customers might get half-way through a survey and then leave.
We don't want you to lose this valuable data.
While this method allows for you to ultimately see more feedback, it does increase the probability of some spam slipping through the cracks.
How we're fighting spam
We've got a few methods in place. 💪
Google reCAPTCHA v3
All web surveys include Google's invisible reCAPTCHA v3 code. This latest reCAPTCHA version works in the background - there's no interruption for your users.
Each time your survey page loads, reCAPTCHA determines a "spam score" and sends it to Simplesat. Based on the score, Simplesat decides to mark the feedback as spam or active.
This system catches almost everything, but it's not perfect. Some real answers may be incorrectly marked as spam. Other spam clicks might be saved in your account.
Our team regularly monitors spam answers and manually activates anything that looks real.
Checking the "source" value in rating URLs
Another method we have in place is to check the value for one of the parameters in your rating URLs.
For example: https://api.simplesat.io/api/rating/QyIvdt14Pgo7-8pScnkBcCsPD5Bax1i5dQSmtIH8NII/?source=generic_embed
The above link has the parameter source=generic_embed
If a URL contains the source parameter, the values must match a list that Simplesat's looking for. Including: generic_embed , connectwise , autotask , zendesk , freshdesk , simplesat-email .
This method works because some spam bots obfuscate (jumble) values in URL parameters when following links.
Still have questions?
We know, some of this can sound confusing. If you have any questions, or suspect spam in your account, please don't hesitate to reach out to the Simplesat team. 👍