You've wrapped up your first project, and now you're ready to stop collecting responses. Let's walk through the process of closing a survey.
From the Page & Survey tab of your project dashboard, click "Close Project to Responses." This closes the project to responses while still leaving the results and comments visible.
You'll see the "Closed" tab is now blue. If you've accidentally closed your project, you have the ability to click "Un-Archive Project" to reopen the project to responses.
Learn more about how to un-archive a project and reopen your survey.
Once your project is closed, now what? Here are a few best practices:
Closed, but still available: Often times after closing an initiative, the public has to wait for a final report in order to understand all community sentiment. Instead, make the base results available for your community to digest by keeping your project visible (note: you can adjust this setting after a project closes, but keep in mind it will only apply to quantitative data and public comments).
Comments & Segment analysis: It's often helpful to break down the comments by theme or key word, so you can analyze the results you've received. You can add tags to comments to create tag cloud, which shows the number of comments referencing a specific topic. To look at neighborhood or audience-specific results, use the segmenting feature in your CRM.
Share your results with stakeholders: Use the reporting features to create a Dynamic Report. You can share comments, question responses, and data visualizations to help your community understand the responses. Check out the Insight Builder to learn how you can create specific data insights for your community or internal stakeholders.
Close the loop: Your community may be wondering what's next now that your survey is over. If you've collected email addresses or phone numbers, you can reach out to residents via email or text. Projects remain published, so residents can see results and comments even after the survey is closed.
Success Team review: The PublicInput.com Success Team is happy to chat with you once you've completed your project. If you have questions about reporting, would like to schedule additional training, or are looking for more information about ways to use the PublicInput.com system, reach out to us at support@publicinput.com.
We're excited to highlight your successful projects as best practices for other agencies. You may receive an email from us asking if we can highlight a project or initiative, and possible email you about your approach. If you're excited about your project, please reach out to us. We'd love to share your success.