Autopilot Sends
In this section
- How Autopilot works.
- Setting up Autopilot.
- Managing people and updating your settings.
- Adding and updating people in Autopilot.
- Removing people from Autopilot.
- Adjusting survey frequency.
- Turning off Autopilot.
- Adjusting Autopilot automatically using the API.
Suggested next article: The People Tab
How Autopilot works
Put your CX project's scheduling on Autopilot — literally!
Using Autopilot is as easy as uploading a group of people into Delighted CX surveys and selecting a cadence at which each person will be surveyed (ex. every 3 months).
Autopilot will take care of the rest — automatically performing 5 time-saving tasks for you:
1 | Scheduling optimization | Evenly scheduling your Email and SMS surveys to a group of people, over a time frame you select, and during ideal time windows (Mon. - Fri. mornings) |
2 | Capturing continuous feedback | Spreading out your sending so that you’re continually receiving feedback from smaller segments over time, making your closed-loop process more manageable |
3 | Enforcing your cadence | Surveying individuals on a cadence you mandate (ex. once every 3, 6, or 12 months) |
4 | Recurring your survey | Rescheduling and repeating your project when the prior cycle has concluded |
5 | Building into existing workflows | Optional: Take advantage of our Autopilot API endpoints to add a relational component to your current program without building new scheduling workflows |
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Example Use caseAutopilot surveys will be scheduled automatically and distributed evenly over a time period that you select.
For example, if you select a "3 month" cadence, Autopilot will continuously distribute your CX survey project throughout the 3 months. To maximize your response rate, surveys will be sent during ideal time windows — (ex. Monday through Friday, from 5am to 10am).
If someone has been surveyed previously outside of Autopilot, they will receive their first Autopilot survey based on their last sent timestamp. For example, if the last survey was sent 2 months ago, Autopilot will schedule their next survey in 30 days to satisfy your "3 month" cadence.
After the initial survey is sent, Autopilot will automatically reschedule (recur) a person to receive another survey at the prescribed "3 month" interval.
One-time sending versus Autopilot
One-time sends | Launch your CX survey immediately (or at a time you schedule) to all of the people you upload |
Autopilot | Evenly schedule your CX survey over the span of several months, sending each weekday to a portion of the entire group. Autopilot also recurs those surveys at the frequency you set |
You can still continue to send One-time survey as needed even with Autopilot turned on. Just switch between the “One-time survey” and “Autopilot” tabs.
Setting up Autopilot
To launch Autopilot:
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- Access the Autopilot page
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Click "Edit and send" on your Dashboard → select "Edit and send" under the Email or SMS platform → and click the "Autopilot" tab
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- Choose how often you wish to survey each person
- As seen above, elect an option for how frequently Autopilot will send a CX survey to each person. Choose between 3, 6, and 12 months → as modeled above. If you need a custom time range, let us know
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- Prepare your CSV file
- Prepare a CSV or Excel file listing the people you’d like to add to Autopilot
- At a minimum, we require each person’s email address → under a column labeled " Email" (or phone number under a column labeled "Phone Number"). We also suggest including names and any properties (ex. "Collection" and "Purchase Experience") that will be helpful when segmenting your results down the road
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- Import and confirm a batch of people
- Upload your CSV or Excel file by dragging and dropping or by searching for your file → and clicking "Next Review"
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Review the snapshot of the people you just uploaded. Confirm that all the names, addresses, properties, and values are correct
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- Turn Autopilot on
- As seen above → select either “Add [x] people to Autopilot” to complete the set-up process (or "Schedule for sending later" if you wish to delay the first send)
Managing people and updating your settings
From the Autopilot page, you can add, update, and remove people being surveyed. You can also adjust the sending frequency or turn off Autopilot at any time.
1 | Adding and/or updating people in Autopilot |
2 | Removing people from Autopilot |
3 | Adjusting survey frequency |
4 | Turning off Autopilot |
1. Adding and/or updating people in Autopilot
Update and add people to Autopilot simultaneously with the "Add new people or update existing people" button. Those who are already in the Autopilot schedule will be updated, and those who are not will be added to the rotation.
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- Open the Autopilot page (ex. Email or SMS)
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- Select the radio button for "Add new people or update existing people"
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- Prepare and upload your CSV or Excel file with the people you’ll be adding or updating → include any contact information and properties you’d like to add
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To update people correctly, Make sure the addresses in the 'Email" or "Phone number" columns of your CSV or Excel file match the existing people in Autopilot. Beware, the updates will overwrite any existing information!
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- Click “Next: Review before adding/updating”
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- Make sure the details on the review page are correct
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- Click “Add/update [x] people in Autopilot”
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The Dashboard will display a banner showing how many people have been added and/or updated as recorded in the above GIF.
2. Removing people from Autopilot.
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- Visit the Autopilot page → (ex. Email or SMS)
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- Select the radio button for “Remove people from Autopilot”
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- Upload a CSV or Excel file → including the emails or phone numbers of the people you’ll be removing
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- Click “Next: Review before removing”
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- The review page will show the notification “[x] people will be removed from Autopilot” → ensure the details on the review page are correct at this stage
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- Click “Remove [x] people from Autopilot”
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The Dashboard will display a banner showing how many people have been removed, as recorded in the above GIF.
3. Adjusting survey frequency
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- From the Dashboard → choose "Edit and send"
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- Click the "Gear" icon → to the right of the platform being used (Email or SMS)
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- Choose “Adjust Autopilot settings”
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- Select a new option under “How often should Autopilot send a survey to each person?”
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- Click “Save changes”
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4. Turning off Autopilot
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- From the Dashboard, choose "Edit and send"
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- Click the "Gear" icon to the right of the platform being used (Email or SMS)
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- Choose “Adjust Autopilot settings”
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- Click “Turn off Autopilot”
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- Click the red “Turn off Autopilot” button
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Turning off Autopilot will remove your Autopilot list When you turn off Autopilot, sends are cancelled and your list is deleted. Ergo, don't turn off Autopilot until you are ready!
Adjusting Autopilot automatically using the API
You can use the Delighted API to automatically add, update, and remove people from Autopilot, making it super easy to manage your Autopilot list with minimal effort.
An example use case
Say you have a subscription-based offering and want to survey customers after they sign up, as well as every 3 months after this. With the API, you can trigger a call to the Sending to people endpoint to fire off the post sign-up survey immediately, as well as trigger a call to the Adding people to Autopilot endpoint to automatically schedule the ongoing surveys. No need to sign in and do a manual upload of your new customers on a regular basis!
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Using Autopilot through the Zapier Integration Delighted's Zapier integration allows you to access the Autopilot API endpoints through Zapier's easy-to-use workflow automation platform. You can use the Autopilot Zapier actions and searches to add and remove people from Autopilot, as well as list everyone in Autopilot, search for particular people, and check whether or not Autopilot is turned on. Read more in our Zapier Integration guide!
There are four Autopilot API endpoints available. Each of these endpoints can return information about the Email platform or the SMS platform.
Getting Autopilot configuration | Tells you whether or not Autopilot is turned on |
Listing people in Autopilot | Allows you to list everyone who is currently enrolled in Autopilot, including when their next survey is scheduled and which properties will be associated with that survey send |
Adding people to Autopilot | Allows you to add people to Autopilot or update the properties associated with someone who is already in Autopilot |
Removing people from Autopilot | Allows you to remove people from Autopilot so that they no longer receive Autopilot surveys. Removing someone from Autopilot will not affect their previous responses or any historical data |
Check out our API Guide for more information about using the Delighted API!