What Should I Do When People Have Problems Responding?

Notify your IT

Notify your IT department in advance about an upcoming 360-degree feedback project. They may decide to take certain measures to ensure that responders have no problem receiving emails and submitting feedback.

Most people have no problem responding

The vast majority find the process smooth and intuitive. But in larger Projects, by the law of averages, you can expect to hear from a few people who are having difficulties. Don't let this handful of problems unsettle you.

Two key questions

If you receive an inquiry from a responder, ask some ques­tions. This may help if you need to contact us about the problem:

1. "What is your PID?" 
2. "What exactly happened? What exact steps led you to the problem?"
3. "In case of an error message, what was the text of any error message you saw on the screen?" (This will help you figure out where their problem lies. You may ask them to copy and email the message to you.)

Anxiety can exaggerate issues

Keep in mind that psychology is an important factor whenever people are asked for their perceptions of others. Responders who get into difficulties are usually busy people. When they get unexpected results, they may become frustrated. It is common for them to blame the "system" (us). And if they are really upset, they may blame you too.

It may not occur to them that the tools they are using in the response process (i.e. their browser and their local server and Internet connection) are usually at the root of their problems. So don't take it personally.

You should feel assured, knowing that the Panoramic Feedback system successfully accepts a large volume of feedback submissions every day. It is constantly monitored for problems. It is extremely rare for a bug to arise in the system, and when it happens, we fix it with the highest priority.

Confusion

Sometimes Responders may tell you that they replied to a Questionnaire when in fact they did not. Ask the responder to log back into the questionnaire and ensure they hit the "Submit response" button. Check your Status Report to see if the response is received.

Occasionally, Responders will tell you correctly that they have responded for a certain Subject, but keep getting Reminder emails. They sometimes don't realize that they failed to respond for another Subject. All they need to do, to stop receiving the reminders, is to respond for the additional person.

And sometimes Responders "borrow" someone else's PID. In the final Report, only the last response provided for each PID will be tallied. Until they use their own PID, they will continue to receive Auto Emails reminding them to reply. (The PID has a double function; it identifies the Responders individually and identifies the particular Subject they are to assess.) 

Finally, if Responders fail to answer all the numerical questions on their Questionnaire (the questions that are accompanied by a scale), they will receive a message that their response was not complete. If they ignore this warning, their partial response will not be counted, and they will keep receiving reminders to respond. The solution for them is to enter their PID again, at www.360respond.com, and complete the questionnaire (unanswered questions are displayed in full color, while answered questions are dimmed). You should know that, until they submit a complete, acceptable response, their PID will not show up in the Status Reports as having provided a response.

"Something went wrong with my connection to the Internet, while I was responding."

SOLUTION: Don’t close your browser window. Re-connect, then click the “Submit Response" button.

"I got to the Panoramic Feedback Responder page, but it told me I have the wrong PID."

SOLUTION: Ask them to copy-paste only the PID from their email, excluding the Subject's name.

The PID format: 3 let­ters, hyphen, 6 digits, hyphen, 2 or more digits, hyphen, then 4 letters. Example: "efg-111115-20-wxyz".

"My boss missed the deadline to respond, but I want my Report to include my boss' response."

SOLUTION: Tell them that you'll make an exception, and the boss can reply late. In fact, although you have advertised a certain cutoff date, the 360 will actually remain open to receive responses until you close the questionnaires (usually, by generating Reports). 

In an emergency, you can re-open the Questionnaire, even if you have closed it.

“I tried to respond, but it says it is too early.”

This generally happens when you send the Responder Catalyst email before the Start Date you set for the survey.

SOLUTION: Correct the Start Date on the PROJECT tab.

“I completed the questionnaire, but the message says that I didn’t.”

The "thank you" page received by Responders when they submit their response may tell them their response was not complete, because they failed to reply to one or more of the compulsory numerical questions (i.e. questions that have a scale). Or they failed to hit the "Submit Response" button.

SOLUTION: They must return to the questionnaire and reply to the unanswered numerical questions. Then ensure that they hit the "Submit Response" button.