Send each recipient their survey email or SMS in their own language — automatically, from a single trigger. You map one Salesforce field that holds each contact's language, set up your template in the languages you need, and Zonka Feedback sends the right version every time.
You can:
Send one trigger's email or SMS in many languages — no per-language duplication
Decide each contact's language from a Salesforce field (e.g.
Preferred_Language__c)Reuse your existing distribution email templates
Fall back to a default language when a contact's language is missing or unmatched
In this article
Requirements
Requirement | Details |
Connected Salesforce account | Already connected to Zonka Feedback (see Integration with Salesforce) |
Salesforce Email or SMS Trigger | An Email or SMS survey triggered from a Salesforce Outbound Message / Flow |
Multilingual Email or SMS templates | Available only in Enterprise plan |
Survey languages | The languages you want to send must already exist on the survey's templates |
Salesforce language field | A field on the triggering object that holds each record's language |
How it works
You map one Salesforce field for language. When the trigger fires, Zonka Feedback reads that field and sends the matching language template. If the value is empty or doesn't match a configured language, the default template is sent — a send is never skipped or blank.
Example: Templates in German, French, and Italian, with French as default. A contact whose field says German gets German; a contact with an empty or unconfigured value (e.g. Spanish) gets French.
The values in your Salesforce field must match the language names set up in Zonka Feedback.
Set up multilingual templates
Note: You can set up a multilingual email survey from Salesforce only if your plan includes configuring multilingual email templates for surveys.
New survey: In Configure Email → Salesforce Data, the Field that determines recipient language dropdown is available directly and defaults to No Mapping (whether the survey has one language or several). Leave it on No Mapping to send everyone the default language, or map a field (below) to send per language.
For SMS: Go to Configure SMS → Salesforce Data and use the same Field that determines recipient language dropdown. Set up your SMS template in each language from Distribute → SMS & WhatsApp → Settings → Configure SMS Template, or click Configure Template on the SMS trigger screen.
Existing single-language trigger: You'll see a "Send in your customer's language" card.
Click Setup Multilingual Templates and Confirm to switch. (Click Cancel to keep your current setup.)
Click Configure Templates to set up your template in each language.
Your existing trigger keeps sending as before until you switch — there's no automatic migration.
Map the Salesforce language field
Go to Configure Email or SMS → Salesforce Data.
Open Field that determines recipient language and select the field that holds each record's language (e.g.
Preferred_Language__c).
Field value for the contact | Email sent in |
Matches a configured language | That language |
Empty or unconfigured language | Default template |
No Mapping | Default template, for everyone |
Personalize with Salesforce merge fields
In Configure Template, click Insert Placeholder → Salesforce Merge Fields and click any field (e.g. First Name, Account ID, Email) to drop it into the subject or body or the SMS message”. Each email or SMS then shows that contact's own details, populated from Salesforce when it's sent.
The fields shown depend on the object you chose while setting up the Salesforce trigger (Contact, Case, and any custom object etc.).
Note: Merge fields populate only when the survey is triggered as a Salesforce outbound message.
Preview by language
Use the language dropdown in the top bar to preview each variant — the subject and body update in place. The preview is read-only; edit content via Configure Templates.
For SMS, the phone preview updates to show the message in the selected language.
Pass the field in your Outbound Message
The language field must be included in the Salesforce Outbound Message.
In Salesforce Setup, open (or create) the Outbound Message for this trigger — see Integration with Salesforce.
Under Fields to Send, include your language field (e.g.
Preferred_Language__c) along with name and Email for email surveys, or Phone for SMS surveys. The phone number must include the country code.Save.
If the field isn't in Fields to Send, every contact gets the default language.
Finish and test
Click Finish to save.
Trigger a test record set to a configured language and confirm the email or SMS arrives.in that language.
Test a record with an empty language value and confirm the default template is sent.
Troubleshooting
Issue | Fix |
Everyone gets the default language | Map a field (not No Mapping) and include it in the Outbound Message's Fields to Send. |
A contact got the default instead of their language | The field value didn't match a configured language. Match the value to a set-up template language exactly. |
No "Setup Multilingual Templates" button | New surveys don't show it — the language field dropdown is available directly. |
Can't edit the preview | The preview is read-only; edit via Configure Templates. |
A language is missing from the dropdown | Add it to the survey's templates first. |
Multilingual SMS not received | Check that the phone number includes the country code and the Phone field is in the Outbound Message’s Fields to Send. |