When a survey response needs more than a report

Wellbeing surveys do something important that attendance registers can't; they tell you not just that someone was in the room, but something about how they were doing when they got there and how that changes over time. For most responses, that information flows into your reporting and contributes to the broader evidence base about your programme's impact. It's valuable and it's the main reason organisations use longitudinal surveys. But some responses require someone on your team to pick up the phone and intervene. If someone attending one of your support groups fills in a monthly wellbeing check and indicates that they've been having thoughts of suicide or that they feel completely alone or that their situation at home has become dangerous, that response needs to reach a trained person on your team, rather than simply landing on a dashboard as part of your analysis.

How Makerble's alert feature works

Within Makerble, you can configure alerts that trigger automatically when a specific response is submitted to any survey question. The setup is straightforward: you choose the question, you choose which response or responses should trigger an alert and you choose who receives the notification.

When that response comes in, the designated person is immediately notified by email with the details of who submitted the response and what they said. They can then act on it by reaching out to the person directly, escalating to a clinical contact if appropriate or following the safeguarding policy your organisation has in place.

The alert can be configured for any question type, for example:

Safeguarding. Questions about suicidal ideation, self-harm, domestic abuse, or significant distress. Any response that indicates someone may be at risk triggers an immediate notification.

Welfare follow-up. Questions about how someone is feeling, their level of support or their confidence in managing their condition.

Disengagement signals. Questions about whether someone is planning to continue attending or whether they feel they're getting what they need. A response indicating someone is thinking of stopping can prompt a proactive conversation before they simply stop coming.

Why this matters for volunteer-led services

For organisations that rely on volunteers to deliver their programmes, there is a structural gap between the moment when someone might disclose distress and the point at which a paid member of staff becomes aware of it. The volunteer facilitating a support group may not always feel equipped to respond to a significant disclosure, or may not know who in the organisation to contact. And between sessions, the communication channel between volunteer and staff can be informal and inconsistent.

Configuring alerts in Makerble doesn't remove that gap entirely. But it creates a direct channel from the person who is struggling to the person in your organisation who can respond without relying on the volunteer to notice, escalate and be heard quickly enough.

This is particularly important for organisations working with people living with serious health conditions, people who have experienced trauma or communities where mental health challenges are common. The survey serves two purposes at once: it builds your evidence base and it creates a real-time welfare monitoring mechanism.

Setting it up thoughtfully

Configuring alerts requires some care. A few things worth considering:

Who receives the alert? This should be a named individual, ideally the person in your organisation with safeguarding responsibility, rather than a generic email inbox. Make sure that person knows the alerts exist and has a clear protocol for what to do when one comes in.

What is the response protocol? The alert tells you that something needs attention. Your organisation needs to have agreed in advance what the response looks like: who contacts the person, by what means, within what timeframe, and what they say. The technology creates the notification. The human response is yours to design.

Which questions should trigger alerts? Be specific about which responses indicate a genuine welfare concern, so that your designated person isn't receiving notifications for every survey that reflects a difficult week. The goal is timely, targeted intervention rather than constant interruption.

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To find out how to configure alerts in Makerble, visit our help centre. For questions about how this could work for your organisation, get in touch.

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