Surveys in Velaro

Types of surveys

Velaro supports three survey contexts that work with your chat and routing:

Pre-chat survey — shown to visitors before a conversation starts. Collects name, email, topic, and any custom questions. Answers are immediately available as variables in workflows and routing rules.

Post-chat survey — sent automatically after a conversation is resolved. Collects satisfaction ratings (NPS, CSAT, star rating) and follow-up comments.

Unavailable survey — shown when no agents are available. Captures contact info so you can follow up later.

Question types

Each survey question has a type that controls how the visitor answers:

• Name — single-line text; answer stored as <<name>>
• Email — single-line text with email validation; stored as <<email>>
• Short text — single-line free-form answer
• Long text — multi-line textarea
• Dropdown (choice) — visitor picks one option from a list
• Checkbox — visitor selects one or more options
• Star rating — 1–5 star rating; can be tracked as a CSAT or star_rating metric
• Net Promoter Score (NPS) — 0–10 scale; tracked as an NPS metric
• CRM field — maps to a NetSuite list field (shows live options from your CRM)
• Language — visitor selects their preferred language; stored as <<language>>
• Label / divider — display-only text, no input

Creating a survey — template wizard (recommended)

The fastest way to create a survey is the built-in template wizard:

1. Go to Surveys in the sidebar.

2. Click Start from template.

3. Choose a survey type: Pre-Chat, Post-Chat, Agent Rating, or NPS Standalone.

4. For post-chat surveys, choose your satisfaction metric — the wizard explains the pros and cons of CSAT vs NPS vs both.

5. Review the prebuilt questions and see where your data will go (Reporting, workflows, Zapier).

6. Click Create survey from template — the survey opens for editing with all questions ready.

Or start blank:

1. Click New Survey, give it a name, then click Add Question for each field.

Where survey data goes

Survey answers are stored in three places automatically:

• Workflow variables — reference as <<variable_name>> in any workflow node, rule condition, or bot message
• Reporting dashboard — satisfaction metrics (NPS, CSAT, star rating) appear under Reports → Survey Satisfaction
• Zapier payloads — all variables are included in the workflowVariables object sent to Zapier

Satisfaction metrics — CSAT vs NPS

CSAT (1–5 star rating)

• Measures satisfaction with this specific conversation
• High response rate — visual and fast
• Best for: per-conversation quality, agent performance

NPS (0–10 scale)

• Measures overall loyalty and likelihood to recommend
• Industry standard — easy to benchmark externally
• Scores 9–10 = Promoters, 7–8 = Passives, 0–6 = Detractors; NPS = % Promoters − % Detractors
• Best for: quarterly brand health, identifying at-risk customers

Combined CSAT + NPS: use when you need both conversation-level and brand-level data. The wizard creates a single survey with both questions.

Variable names — how answers flow to rules and workflows

Every question stores its answer under a variable name you set. After the visitor submits the survey, you can reference any answer anywhere in Velaro using <<variable_name>>.

Examples:

• A "Topic" dropdown with variable topic → reference as <<topic>>
• A "Company" text field with variable company → reference as <<company>>
• Name and email always use <<name>> and <<email>> automatically

You can insert variables directly into question labels too — click the << var >> button next to any label field to pick a variable and insert it at the cursor.

Skip logic — conditional questions

You can show or hide any question based on a visitor's earlier answer.

How to add a condition:

1. In the question editor, click Show only when... at the bottom of the card.

2. Pick which earlier question to watch.

3. Choose an operator: equals, doesn't equal, contains, starts with, is empty, is answered.

4. Enter the value to match (not needed for "is empty" / "is answered").

Example: Show "What product did you purchase?" only when the "Reason for contact" dropdown equals "Returns".

Hidden questions are skipped automatically — their answers are not validated or submitted.

Using survey answers in routing rules

This is where surveys become powerful. Survey answers route visitors to the right team instantly, with no human needed.

Example: route by topic

Survey question: "What can we help you with?" — options: Sales, Billing, Technical Support

Rule setup:

• When <<topic>> equals "Sales" → Route to Sales team
• When <<topic>> equals "Billing" → Route to Billing team
• When <<topic>> equals "Technical Support" → Route to Tech team

How to wire it:

1. Go to Rules → New Rule.

2. Set trigger to Chat Started (or Pre-Chat Survey Submitted).

3. Add condition: Attribute → variable name topic → equals → Sales.

4. Add action: Assign to Team → Sales team.

5. Activate the rule.

Satisfaction metrics

Mark a star rating or NPS question as a satisfaction metric to unlock reporting:

• NPS (0–10) — Net Promoter Score
• CSAT (1–5) — Customer Satisfaction Score
• Star rating (1–5) — general star rating
• Thumbs — thumbs up / thumbs down
• CES (1–7) — Customer Effort Score

To set it: select the metric type in the Track as metric dropdown on star or NPS questions. Results appear in Reports → Survey Satisfaction.

Attaching a survey to a deployment

1. Open your deployment settings (Channels → Web Chat → Edit deployment).

2. Under Pre-Chat Form, select your survey from the dropdown.

3. Save.

The survey appears every time a visitor starts a chat on that deployment. You can attach different surveys to different deployments.

Using survey answers in workflows

Survey answers are available as variables the moment the chat starts.

Example: personalized greeting

In a Send Message node: Hi <<name>>, thanks for reaching out about <<topic>>!

Example: HTTP request with survey data

In an HTTP Request node, pass <<accountNumber>> as a query parameter or JSON body field to look up the visitor in your database.

Viewing responses

• Individual responses are on each conversation transcript in the agent console.
• Aggregate satisfaction results are in Reports → Survey Satisfaction.
• Export all responses in Reports → Conversations (survey fields appear as columns).

Survey best practices

Keep pre-chat surveys short — 2–3 fields maximum. Every extra field reduces completion rates.

Make only one field required — usually email or topic. Everything else optional.

Use dropdown for topic/reason — free-text answers are hard to route on. Dropdowns give you clean, consistent values for routing rules.

Use skip logic — instead of a long survey for everyone, use conditional questions to show follow-up fields only when relevant.

Send post-chat surveys immediately — the best time is within 5 minutes of resolution, while the experience is fresh. Set the rule trigger to fire on conversation resolve.

Test your surveys — start a test chat on your own site and complete the survey. Check that the answers route correctly and appear in the transcript.

Creating a knowledge base article about surveys

To document a custom survey configuration for your team:

1. Click the Copilot icon in the admin sidebar.

2. Search for "surveys" to find this guide.

3. To add your own guide, create a .md file in the copilot-kb/ folder of your admin codebase and deploy it. The ingest service picks it up automatically within 24 hours.