Christmas Party Questionnaire – We’ve Got It Covered

Soup or Smoked Salmon? Turkey or Beef? Christmas Pudding or Trifle? Yes, the annual work Christmas bash is just about upon us. If you, or any of your colleagues, are tasked with planning the company Christmas party, take heart! We can help take the stress out of organising the festive food feast this year with an easy to use Christmas Party Questionnaire…

SmartSurvey software can help with all your seasonal party planning tasks this December. We are going to take a look at how our advanced online tools can help you organise your office gathering so that all your guests get the festive food they ordered.

In just a few simple steps, you can create a short Christmas party survey that can be sent out to all your guests to record their Christmas menu orders. By automatically compiling the data, you will easily see, at the drop of a Christmas party hat, who is a turkey traditionalist or who is a festive naysayer!

We know how difficult it can be to organise a large group of people without it becoming the bane of the party season. By using survey software to automate the ordering process, you can simplify the whole procedure. When individuals place their order via an online form, it makes it simple to keep track of who will be eating what.

Planning the Office Christmas Party Questionnaire

Start by simply creating a new contact list in your address book specifically for the guests attending the office Christmas party. Then create a simple form that will allow party guests to select their menu choices. Finally, send the form to each person on the contact list using our bulk email tool.

This process will generate a unique link for each respondent. This will mean that, without having to manually check through each response, you will easily be able to see who has not responded and be able to send them a gentle reminder to select their festive fare.

How to Create a New Contact List

1. Log in and click on Libraries on the top bar.
2. Select Address Book.
3. Add New Contact List.
4. Name your list and click Save
5. Open the list and click on Add Contacts

When creating a new list of contacts, add the guest’s email address, followed by their first name. This will then allow you to pipe the first name into a merge field so that you can personalise the email when you send your guests the Christmas party questionnaire.

Now, by following these simple steps, you can create your Christmas party questionnaire and find out everybody’s food selections and any additional information such as whether or not you have any vegetarians or vegans on your guest list.

Creating a Christmas Menu Survey

1. From the Dashboard, click on Create a Survey.
2. Choose Create a New Survey, give it a Survey Title and click Start.
3. Select a Christmas Theme by clicking the Theme Category drop down box.
4. Select Seasonal and highlight the Christmas theme.
5. Click on Select Theme.
6. Start to add your questions.

Adding an Introduction

It’s a good idea to set up Question 1 as an introduction page to welcome the respondent and outline the requirements for the form. To do this, simply click on the question type drop-down menu and select Descriptive Text. Type your welcome message, explaining to your guests that you require them to choose their menu selections for the Christmas party.

To personalise the form, we have used a merge field of [Name] to show the respondent’s name on the first page. This step also provides a data check opportunity to make sure the form is received by the correct person.

To add a merge field, type your greeting, such as Dear or Hi, then click insert piping (found in the bottom left-hand corner of the Descriptive Text box). Click on Select Merge Code and choose Name (under Email Invite Contact) and click Insert. This will merge the Name you inputted into your Contact List.

Setting Up Multiple Choice Questions

Now, click on Add Question Here to continue to add your questions about menu selections. In the Question Type drop down box, select Multiple Choice (Only One Answer) to ensure that respondents can only select one food option.

Type, or copy and paste, your text into the Question Text box. For example, Question 1 would read – Please choose your starter.

Choose Radio Buttons (1 column) for your Display Options. Then fill in your Answer Choices; i.e. the starter choices. Put each choice on a separate line by simply hitting enter. Click Add Question and the selections will turn into response options. If you need to make any further changes you can edit the question at any time.

Top Tip – Don’t forget, if you edit the question or answer after you have distributed the form because, for example, the chef tells you salmon is off the menu, the selections already submitted by guests will remain as choices.

Continue to create your Christmas menu by adding questions to allow people to select their choice of main course and dessert.

Adding a Comment/Essay Box

We suggest adding a final question, giving respondents the option to give an open ended answer, listing any dietary requirements or allergies that the organiser needs to know about.

To do this we added a new question, choose the Question Type Comment/Essay Box. We have allowed for a maximum answer of 5 lines and 50 characters wide. This can be amended to suit your requirements.

Survey Thank You Page

The final page of the form is a Thank You page. You can use this page to thank respondents for their participation and provide any further information about the Office Christmas Party such as dress code and arrival time.

Distributing your Online Form

Once you have finished creating your form, distribute it to the party guests in the address book you created by following these simple steps:

1. Select Send Survey in the top right-hand corner.
2. You will then be presented with a range of distribution options.

1. Select Email Tool, as we have already setup a contact list for the guests.
2. Click on, Create New Invitation.
3. Select the contact list that you want your form to be sent to.
4. Click Next Step.
5. Enter the Reply Email Address you would like to send the message from.
6. Enter a subject.
7. Edit your email message.

You will see that there is a message in the box to get you started. Feel free to edit what is there or add new text, but remember not to delete the [SURVEYLINK] as this is where the link to your survey will be posted. When your respondent reads your email, they will click on this Survey Link to open the form that they need to fill in.

Top Tip – It is always good practice to send a test to yourself. Check the email message gives clear instructions to the respondent and that all the menu selections are correct.

When everything has been checked and any further edits have been made, click Next Step.

You can then schedule when the email is sent to suit your requirements. You have the option to send the message at a later date, in which case you need to select the data and time that you want it to be sent.

Alternatively, you can send the message immediately. Once you have selected which option you wish to take you will be taken to a confirmation screen that will show the list name that you are sending to, the message delivery schedule and a preview of the message.

If you need to, you can Cancel Delivery of the message from this page.

Checking Your Results

Once you have distributed your Christmas party questionnaire, your respondents can start filling out their menu choices. SmartSurvey will log all responses in real time, so once the online form is filled in and submitted, you will be able to see who has chosen what from the menu.

Once you are ready to review responses, click on Results in your survey. Here you will be able to see a summary of the choices selected by your party guests and also review individual responses. If some guests have not responded, you can send them a reminder to let them know that you need their choices.

Once you have received all the responses, click on the Export page in the Survey Results toolbar. From here, you can export the full page of choices to send to the Caterer or Restaurant Manager. Select which format you wish to run your export in and then click Export Data, this will run the report and then allow you to download the results.

There it is in a Christmas nutshell! Organising the office festive celebrations does not need to be a stressful ordeal. Follow our useful guide to planning the company Christmas party then sit back, relax and watch the orders come rolling in.

Get in touch if you would like any further information on how to create, distribute and collect your staff Christmas party survey. Please share this link to our guide and provide your friends and connections with a useful, practical guide on how to create a Christmas party planning questionnaire.