This article covers various aspects of managing contacts, groups, and communication within the EFS Panel system. It includes information on handling contact requests, creating and managing different types of groups, sending emails, and protecting panelists’ privacy.

Contact Request List

Visitors to the panel site and panelists can write to the panel operator via the contact form available in the external view. The contact requests are delivered to the specified recipient via email and documented in the admin area.

Viewing contact requests in the admin area

In the People → Contacts menu, you can view, search, and edit contact requests. The overview lists all requests along with their dispatch dates, subjects, contents, senders, editors, request status, and language versions. You can download this list via the Excel export and CSV export buttons.

Editing options available:

• Detail view for contact request: Opens the full content of the request.
• Send reply: Respond directly using the standard mail dialog.
• Assign request status: Available statuses are “Open”, “Currently edited”, “Closed”, “Assigned to contact manager”, and “Feedback from panelist requested”.
• Assign an editor: Assign to your own account or any previous editor.
• Delete: The request will be deleted.

Groups (Portals)

With Groups, portal users can create predefined or individual groups and use them as contact lists for the Feedback Assistant module by inviting contacts from Groups to participate in surveys. Groups enable quick access to a circle of members and dynamically adapt the display of logged-in members for portal users.

Groups are used in two ways: as an integrated module in Feedback Assistant to invite participants to surveys, and as a separate module in Portals for organizing groups. There are two types of circles: Personal Groups and Managed Groups.

Personal Groups:

• Created in the separate Groups module.
• Users can create their own contact lists from portal participants.
• Flexible and only available to the circle creator.

Managed Groups:

• Generated in the EFS administration area.
• Composed of hierarchically dependent groups.
• Accessible to any portal user who is a member of the circle.

Technical Setup of Personal Groups:

1. Open the Circles module in the exterior view of your portal.
2. Click “Add new Group” to open an entry mask.
3. Click “Add contacts” and select members from the contact list via the “plus” button.
4. Confirm the selection by closing the entry mask. The new group will be viewable on the circles page.

Technical Setup of Managed Circles:

1. Open People → Contacts → Groups.
2. Select a Panel Group as the basis for the circles.
3. Define the variable for the logged-in portal user in “Find Matches in following variable” (e.g., “uEmail”).
4. Define the reference value for grouping in “Group circles by following variable” (e.g., “mManager”).
5. Optionally, define a label for the group in “Variable for Circle Label”.

Note:

• Each panelist who should use a group must be a member of the panel group serving as the basis.
• Each panelist shown as part of a group must be a member of the basis group and have access to the portal.
• Most group content, like the display of the label, is shown only to logged-in portal users.

Access to the Portal:

1. Open Portals → Settings → Access permissions.
2. Set “Access permission for panel groups” to “Registered users” (default) or “Group members” and add the respective panel group.

Setup of Managed Circles via Grouping Filters:

To implement group compositions in your project setup, proceed as follows:

• First, define your master data under People → Master data → Create master data, for example “md_brand” and “md_brand_responsible” as matching variables.
• Create a group under People → Groups → Create group. In addition to the group title, you can optionally add a description of the group as well as create a group category to organize your data.
• Filters are used to define which panelists will be added to certain groups. Create a group filter under People > Groups > Grouping filters.
  • Grouping of detractors for NPS calculation (Example)
  • md_nps less 6 AND md_nps greater/equal 0 (Example)
• Open People > Groups > Update rules and define the update rules according to which you want your group to be updated at a certain time.
• Upon the creation of the update rules, note the following aspects:
  • Select a Group category and the group you want to be updated. This group should obviously be the same as the one used in Circles.
  • Activate the automatic execution of the update via respective checkbox.
  • Set a Start time.
• Create the following Defined actions which are to be executed:
  • Empty group – in case data of users have changed, members who are no longer relevant will be removed from their groups this way.
  • Apply grouping filter – select your created filter.
  • Select the Filter operation according to the grouping filter – for example “Add panelists that match condition”.
  • After execution of the update rules, all panelists corresponding to the grouping filter will be added to the panel groups in Panel and Circles [in this example].
  • You have created a circle, its content complying dynamically with your grouping filters in People.

Note: To keep your circle updated properly, set the execution date of the update rules for groups to a time before the update execution of Groups. Otherwise, you would have to wait for the next update for at least one day. After setup, you can manually execute the update rules and Groups (in the Groups menu) using the play button at any time.

User Managed Groups:

To avoid confusion when managing groups in Portals, the system is designed so that the person who creates a User-managed group is defined as the ‘owner’. Only group members can view a public group, and only the owner can edit the group. Thus, only group owners can publish or make changes to groups. This is consistent across all modules in Portals, so when inviting new people to a Portal using the Portal Invitation module, you can only select groups that you own.

Reported Posts

In the People → Contacts → Reported posts menu, you will find all abuse reports received.

• By default, only open reports are shown. To display reports with other statuses, use extended search.
• The Frequently reported posts tab displays open reports grouped by target post, allowing you to easily identify posts with multiple reports.
• To change the status of multiple reports for the same post, open one report, change the status and editor, add your comment, and activate the “Batch processing” checkbox before saving. This applies the status change to all reports for that post.

Send E-mail

An additional mail dispatch function is available in the People → Contacts → Send e-mail menu. This function allows you to send targeted emails to individual recipients, including those who are not panel participants and have no address data in EFS Panel.

• The layout is the same as other mail dispatch functions in EFS Panel.
• You can access all authorized sender addresses and mail templates.
• Note: Wildcards (e.g., #url#) cannot be used with this function; they are only available with dispatch functions accessing the People database.

Controlling Dispatch Processes

Panels often require the sending of large quantities of e-mails. Accordingly, options for controlling the dispatch process are important:

The Mail queue in the People → Contacts menu provides not only the list of e-mails to be sent but also the option of intervening in dispatch processes that have not yet been completed. Refer to the manual “EFS Survey”.

Dealing with Undeliverable E-Mails

Undeliverable emails are usually returned to the sender’s address. However, you can specify a different address in the “Reply-To” field of the mail form (refer to the “EFS Survey” manual for details).

To handle bounced emails:

1. Use shareware tools to extract email addresses from bounced emails. For example, you can use eMail Bounce Handler from Maxprog.
2. Search for the respective panelists manually and deactivate or delete them as needed.

Protecting Panelists’ E-Mail Addresses

Optionally, you can hide panelists’ email addresses in the admin area for specific user teams.

Various rights enable you to hide email addresses in specific menus. These new rights are fully integrated into the EFS rights system and should be used in combination with existing ACL rights and object rights. For user teams not allowed to access panelists’ email addresses, revoke the new rights and also the read rights for “show_ppasswd” and “mail_passwords.” These rights grant access to panelist passwords in the panelists administration and mail preview, allowing users to log in as a panelist and view the email address on the website.

The following table provides an overview:

Rights	Meaning
mail_cc	With read rights, you can define the additional recipient options CC and BCC in mail templates and mail dispatch processes. If you intend to use this right, please check the manual “EFS Survey” for further advice.
mail_email_mailadmin	With read rights, you can view the e-mail addresses of mails in the mail queue.
mail_email_preview	With read rights, you can view the recipients’ e-mail addresses in the mail preview.
mail_reply	With read rights, you can define the additional options “Reply-To”, “Return-Path” and “Read confirmation” in mail templates and mail dispatch processes. If you intend to use this right, please check the manual “EFS Survey” for further advice.
panel_email_bonus	With read rights, you can view the e-mail addresses of the panelists in the bonus system. Please note that this right does not affect the e-mail addresses contained in the bonus points log: if you do not want user teams to access them, rights for “panel_log” should be revoked.
panel_email_contacts	With read rights, you can view the e-mail addresses of the panelists in the contacts management system.
panel_email_export	With read rights, you can export the e-mail addresses of panelists with the panel data export.
panel_email_gratification	With read rights, you can view e-mail addresses of panelists in the edit dialog of prize draws.
panel_privacy_groups	With read rights, you can view the e-mail addresses of panelists in the edit dialog of panel groups.
panel_email_promotion	With read rights, you can view the e-mail addresses of panelists in the edit dialog for campaigns.
panel_privacy_sample	With read rights, you can view the e-mail addresses of panelists in samples of panel and master data surveys.
panel_email_search	With read rights, you can view the e-mail addresses of panelists in the panelists administration.
panel_email_statistics	With read rights, you can view the e-mail addresses of panelists in a panel or master data survey’s detail view statistics.
panel_email_survey	With read rights, you can export the e-mail addresses of panelists with the survey results export.
panel_email_website	With read rights, you can view the e-mail addresses of panelists in the community content menus of the panel website.

 

Messages

As a moderator, you can also use the messaging functionality. To address panelist groups instead of individual persons, use the feature in the admin area under People → Contacts → Messages. This sends messages to the inbox on the website without dispatching them by email.

Key points:

• Moderator and test accounts can be selected as senders. Ensure visibility is activated for the first name and/or last name of the account used, so recipients know who sent the message.
• You can address all groups of the panel.
• Dispatched messages are logged.
• The messaging function and read access to panelists’ private messages in the admin area are protected by ACL rights (panel_send_private_message and panel_view_private_message).

FAQ

How can I export contact request data?

You can export contact request data using the Excel export or CSV export buttons in the Contact Request List under People → Contacts.

What’s the difference between Personal and Managed Groups?

Personal Groups are created by individual portal users for their own contact lists, while Managed Groups are generated in the administration area and consist of dynamically composed, hierarchically dependent groups accessible to multiple users.

How can I protect panelists’ email addresses from unauthorized access?

You can use the EFS rights system to hide email addresses for specific user teams in various menus and functions. This includes setting up appropriate ACL rights and object rights for different user teams.