---
url: "https://questionstar.com/help/publishing/notifications/"
title: "Notifications in online surveys"
description: "Use notifications to send emails or call web services automatically — on critical answers, sign-ups, or your own custom conditions."
lastmod: "2026-07-08"
type: "help"
---

# Notifications

## About notifications

With the **Notifications** feature in QUESTIONSTAR, you can automatically **send emails** or **call a web service** as soon as a specific condition inside the questionnaire is met. This feature is especially useful when you want to respond to critical answers right away or trigger automated follow-up processes.

Typical scenarios from everyday business:

- An existing customer leaves a **poor rating** → your service department is notified automatically by email so it can respond quickly.
- A prospective new customer expresses **interest in a product** → their contact details are sent to your CRM system via web service.
- A participant reports a **technical problem** → the IT team is notified and the participant receives an automatic confirmation.
- An employee reports **stress or dissatisfaction** in an internal survey → the HR team is informed right away, without having to wait for the results.
- A respondent asks to be contacted → a confirmation email is sent automatically.
- A participant signs up for an **event, webinar, or workshop**  → an automatic confirmation with the event details is sent.

Notifications let you **act in real time** — faster, more precisely, and without the detour through manual analysis.

## Creating notifications

To create a notification, proceed as follows:

![Add Notification](/api/media/file/1.-Benachrichtigung-erstellen.png)

1. Go to the **Distribute Survey** section.
2. In the left-hand menu, click **Notifications**.
3. Click **+ Add Notification**.

![Email Notification](/api/media/file/2.-E-Mail-Benschrichtigung.png)

4. Give the notification a **meaningful name** (this name is used internally only and is never communicated externally).
5. Define the **condition** under which the notification should be triggered.
6. Enter the **email address(es)** the notification should be sent to.

> 💡
> 
> **Tip:**
> You can create as many notifications as you like to cover different conditions and response scenarios.

## Defining conditions

A notification is triggered only when the conditions you define are met.

![Conditions](/api/media/file/3.-Bedingungen.png)

The following criteria are available for defining conditions:

- **Answers to individual questions** — e.g., for certain values or answer options.
- **Survey completion** — e.g., only for fully completed questionnaires.
- **Completion Date** — e.g., for responses submitted within a certain period.
- **Information from the contact list** — e.g., when the customer type is "especially important."
- **URL parameters** — e.g., when a specific campaign parameter is passed.
- **Device Type** — e.g., only for access via a smartphone.

Multiple conditions can be combined with **AND / OR operators** so that even complex scenarios are reliably captured.

## Editing the email content

This lets you personalize your message and respond directly to the answers.

![Edit Email](/api/media/file/4.-E-Mail-bearbeiten.png)

Click **"Edit Email"** to design the content of the notification. In this dialog you can:

![Create Email](/api/media/file/5.-E-Mail-bearbeiten-2.png)

1. Set the **From Name**. Most email programs show this name instead of the actual sender address.
2. Define the **reply-to address** (for any responses).
3. Adjust the **subject line** of the email.
4. Write the **message text** as you like.
5. If needed, insert [**variables**](/help/advanced-features/piping-reusing-answers) — e.g., a link to the completed questionnaire or contact list values.
6. Save the text **as a template**.
7. Load an existing **template**.
8. Send a **test email** to check it.
9. Save the email notification****.

> 💡
> 
> **Tip:**
> You can embed the respondent's answers directly into the email text. Read more in the help article *"Using respondents' answers in the questionnaire"*.

> 💡
> 
> **Note:**
> The **sender address ("From") cannot be changed**. Custom email addresses often cause messages to land in the spam folder or to be blocked by the recipient's mail server. For sending, QUESTIONSTAR uses the certified address sender@questionstar.com, which is recognized by major email providers and meets the DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) standard. This significantly increases the delivery rate and largely avoids being classified as spam.
> 
> It is still possible to send via your own mail server. This requires technical adjustments on both your side and ours. This service is subject to a fee. [Contact us](https://survey.questionstar.com/d21248f7?ref=Hilfe-Benachrichtigungen-Email-Versand) if you're interested.

## Sending a notification to survey respondents

In some cases you'll want to send notifications directly to respondents — e.g.:

- to **confirm a sign-up** for an event,
- or to **confirm receipt of a problem report**.

For this, the questionnaire must contain a **Text Input question of the type "E-Mail"**.

![Email question](/api/media/file/6.-E-Mail-Frage.png)

Once this requirement is met, in the **"Send to"** dropdown, select the relevant question as the source for the email address.

![Selecting the email question](/api/media/file/7.-E-Mail-Frage-ausw%C3%A4hlen.png)

The notification is then sent automatically to the entered email address when the configured condition is met.

> 💡
> 
> **Note:**
> **For opt-in confirmations**, please use the [Double Opt-In mechanism](/help/survey-settings/double-opt-in), which you can enable in the survey settings. This mechanism offers dedicated features that let you reliably meet the legal requirements of a double opt-in procedure.

> 💡
> 
> **Tip:**
> If you invited respondents via the QUESTIONSTAR mailer, please use the **"Thank You Email"** function in the mailer to send your thank-you. That way you don't need to capture any email addresses in the questionnaire.

## Calling a web service

If you'd like to call a web service instead of sending emails — e.g., to automatically transfer data to a CRM system, a ticketing system, or another third-party system — select, in the **"If this condition is met" (1)** dropdown, the **"Trigger a Web Service" (2)** option, and click **"Edit Web Service" (3)**.

![Trigger a Web Service](/api/media/file/8.-Web-Service-aufrufen.png)

There you can:

![Web Service Parameters](/api/media/file/9.-Web-Service-Einstellungen.png)

1. specify the **target URL (Endpoint URL)** of the web service,
2. select the desired **HTTP method** (GET or POST),
3. **define parameters** — with fixed or dynamic values from the questionnaire, contact list, or URL,
4. **add more parameters**
5. or remove ones you no longer need.
6. In the **advanced settings**, you decide whether answer options are passed as **codes** (e.g., "1", "2", "3") or as **text values** (e.g., "satisfied", "neutral").