🔗 Integrate Goodays links into your email template

Introduction

Would you like to increase your response rate by allowing your customers to answer the first question directly from the email they receive? This guide is for you!

This step-by-step guide is designed to help you easily integrate the first question of your Goodays questionnaire directly into your emails — even if you're not technically inclined!

Your Engagement Manager or Customer Success Manager has provided you with your dedicated Email Integration documentation, but you're unsure where to start?
We’ll walk you through the key concepts and guide you step by step to build dynamic links within your emailing tool, enabling each of your customers to respond to Goodays questionnaires.

1. Understand the Essentials

The shortlink

The shortlink is a unique URL provided by Goodays. It is specific to your company and to the questionnaire you want to send.
This link redirects your customers to the appropriate questionnaire.

Example
```
https://gdys.co/z/<VotreShortLink>/
```
- YourShortlink: This is a unique identifier provided by Goodays.

Link Personalization

Link personalization means creating customized links for each customer using variables. This allows you to automatically insert each customer's specific information into their individual link.

Why personalize links?
- So that each customer receives a unique link that pre-fills the questionnaire with their data and provides context for their feedback.
How to personalize links?
- By using your emailing tool's variable insertion features (e.g., {{FirstName}}, {{Email}}).
- By leveraging fields from your customer database.

Data Encoding

Data encoding is an important step to ensure your customers' information is transmitted correctly and securely within the URL.

Base64 encoding (recommended):
- Converts customer information into a secure string.
- To do: Use the Base64 encoding function available in your emailing tool or CRM. If unsure, refer to the tool’s documentation or contact their support team.
- ⚠️ Important: Apply Base64 encoding only to the cz_user parameter. Do not apply it to other parameters, as it may prevent them from being interpreted correctly.
URL encoding:
- Ensures special characters (such as spaces, accents, etc.) do not interfere with the link’s functionality.
- This is usually handled automatically by your emailing tool when inserting variables into URLs.

2. Steps to Integrate the Questionnaire into Your Emails

Step 1: Get the Goodays Shortlink

Your Goodays contact has provided you with the email integration documentation, which includes the shortlinks for each configured questionnaire.
The link looks like this:

https://gdys.co/z/VotreShortLink/

Important: This link is unique for each questionnaire.

Step 2: Prepare Your Customer Information

Example

Let's say you have a fictional customer with the following information:

First name: Marie
Last name: Durand
Email: [email protected]
Phone number: +33612345678
Customer ID: CUST123

Steps to Prepare Customer Information

For the Goodays platform to function properly, all information related to your customer must be included in the cz_user parameter. This information allows the Goodays user to contact the end customer or trigger alerts in case of dissatisfaction. It is an essential parameter!

Assemble the information
- Combine the information using a vertical bar | as a separator, always respecting the following order:
  first name, last name, email, phone number, and customer ID.
- ```
Marie|Durand|[email protected]|+33612345678|CUST123
```
- ⚠️ Warning: If any information is missing, leave the field empty but make sure to keep all four | separators.
  Example if the phone number is missing:
```
Marie|Durand|[email protected]||CUST123
```
Encode the information in Base64
- Locate the Base64 function in your emailing tool or CRM.
  - For example, some tools have a function like BASE64_ENCODE().
- Apply the function to the assembled string of customer information.
  - Example function: BASE64_ENCODE("Marie|Durand|[email protected]|+33612345678|CUST123")
- Result of the encoding:
- ```
TWFyaWV8RHVyYW5kfG1hcmllLmR1cmFuZEBleGFtcGxlLmNvbXwrMzM2MTIzNDU2Nzh8Q1VTVDEyMw==
```
- Note: This encoded string represents Marie's information in a concealed format.

Step 3: Understand and Personalize Link Parameters

For the link to work correctly, you need to add parameters, each serving a specific purpose. Here's a breakdown of each parameter and its use:

cz_open=send_feedback:<StoreID>
- Purpose: Tells Goodays which store the customer's feedback should be linked to.
- <StoreID>: The unique identifier of your store or service.
  - ⚠️ Important: The <StoreID> must match exactly the one configured in Goodays. Any mismatch or typo will prevent the feedback from being correctly linked to the store.
- Personalization: If you manage multiple stores, use a variable to insert the store ID dynamically (e.g., {{StoreID}}).
cz_user=<EncodedCustomerInfo>
- Purpose: Passes the customer's information.
- Personalization: Use the Base64-encoded string from Step 2 for each customer.
cz_answer=<Score>(optional)
- Purpose: Pre-fills the score selected by the customer in the email.
- Value: A number from 1 to 5 or from 0 to 10 depending on the type of first question in your questionnaire (CSAT or NPS).
- Good to know: This parameter is optional. If you don't want to pre-fill the score, simply remove cz_answer=<Score> from the URL. This is useful for generic links behind a CTA like "Give your feedback!". In that case, the customer will land on the first question without a pre-selected score.
cz_extuid=<UniqueRequestID>(optional)
- Purpose: A unique identifier for the request.
- Usefulness: Ensures that each feedback is tied to a unique request, preventing customers from submitting multiple answers to the same request.
- Personalization: Use a variable to dynamically identify the request (e.g., {{OrderID}}).
- ⚠️ Recommendation: Even though this parameter is optional, it is strongly recommended to use it to prevent duplicate responses.
Additional Parameters (optional)

Additional parameters are prefixed with cz_x_. These values must be URL-encoded. These parameters are optional — if a given parameter isn’t relevant for your questionnaire, do not include it in the link.
- Example: cz_x_segment=<CustomerSegment> is an additional parameter that allows you to retrieve the customer segmentation and contextualize their feedback.
- Purpose: Provide extra context for the request.
- Personalization: Use variables to insert values specific to each additional parameter.
- ⚠️ Note: Before using additional parameters, make sure they have been configured in your Goodays environment. Contact your Customer Success Manager or Engagement Manager if needed.

Step 4: Create Links for Each Star in Your Email

All parameters are ready! Now, create five links, each corresponding to a rating from 1 to 5 stars (for a CSAT-type first question).
Each link should include the cz_answer parameter with the corresponding score. If you don’t want to pre-fill the score, simply remove the cz_answer parameter — customers will then be directed to the first question without any score pre-selected.

Example of a Link for a 3-Star Rating from Marie Durand for Store "magasin123"

Base link
```
https://gdys.co/z/VotreShortlink/
```
parameters
```
?cz_open=send_feedback:Magasin123
&cz_user=TWFyaWV8RHVyYW5kfG1hcmllLmR1cmFuZEBleGFtcGxlLmNvbXwrMzM2MTIzNDU2Nzh8Q1VTVDEyMw==
&cz_answer=3
&cz_extuid=CMD456
```
- Explanation:
  - cz_open=send_feedback:Magasin123: Opens the questionnaire for the store with the code "magasin123". This store ID must exactly match the one provided in your configuration file.
  - cz_user=...: Marie’s information encoded in Base64.
  - cz_answer=3: The customer clicked on 3 stars.
  - cz_extuid=CMD456: Unique identifier for the order.
Additional parameters (optional)

Let’s assume Marie belongs to the "VIP" segment. You can pass the value VIP through the corresponding additional parameter.
In this case: cz_x_segment=VIP
```
&cz_x_segment=VIP
```
Note: If the segment contains special characters or spaces, make sure your emailing tool automatically encodes this value.
Final Link:tada:

https://gdys.co/z/VotreShortlink/
?cz_open=send_feedback:Magasin123
&cz_user=TWFyaWV8RHVyYW5kfG1hcmllLmR1cmFuZEBleGFtcGxlLmNvbXwrMzM2MTIzNDU2Nzh8Q1VTVDEyMw==
&cz_answer=3
&cz_extuid=CMD456
&cz_x_segment=VIP

Step 5: Insert the Links into Your Emails

Create the Email Content
- Write your email, including the message you want to communicate to your customers.
Insert the Stars (or NPS Score) and the Associated Links
- For each score, create a link using the corresponding cz_answer parameter. This is the only value that will change across all links.
- Assign each star (or recommendation score for NPS) its respective link.
Example:
- 5 stars
  - Text or Image: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️:star2:
  - Link:

https://gdys.co/z/VotreShortlink/
?cz_open=send_feedback:<ID_PointDeVente>
&cz_user=<InformationsClientEncodees>
&cz_answer=5
&cz_extuid=<IdentifiantUnique>
&cz_x_segment=<SegmentClient>

Step 6: Test the Links

Send a Test Email
- Send the email to yourself or to a small internal list.
Check Each Link
- Click on each rating to make sure:
  - The link works correctly.
  - The questionnaire opens with the pre-filled information.
  - The score matches the selected star (or NPS rating).
Confirm the Information
- Ensure that the customer information (first name, email, etc.) is correctly displayed in the questionnaire.
- Go to the Goodays platform to verify that all the information you embedded in your dynamic URL was correctly received and processed by Goodays.

That's it — you've successfully integrated the Goodays link into your email campaign!