Identify & Track Users
Identifying and tracking your users lets you use Refiner fully. Once Refiner knows who your users are, you can segment and target specific groups, see who responded and how, and sync that feedback to the tools you already use. The sections below cover each of these.
Why identify and track users
Section titled “Why identify and track users”Segment and target the right users
Section titled “Segment and target the right users”For in-app surveys, an identifier, traits, and tracked events let you target users by who they are, what they did, and how they answered before. For example, you can survey users on a specific plan, ask for feedback after a key action, or follow up with people who already responded.
Refiner also uses the identifier to recognize returning users across sessions and devices, so each user’s survey history stays connected.
Know who responded to a survey
Section titled “Know who responded to a survey”Responses from identified users are stored on the user’s profile, next to traits such as plan, role, or signup date. You can see who said what and follow up for interviews or support.
Sync feedback with other platforms
Section titled “Sync feedback with other platforms”You can sync responses to matching user profiles in other tools, including Amplitude, Mixpanel, and Salesforce, and combine feedback with your product or customer data. Each integration matches users in its own way.
What data to track
Section titled “What data to track”Send a unique User ID, an email address, or both. If you have both, send both.
You can also send traits. You decide which data to share. Common examples:
role: The user’s role, such as “admin” or “member”.subscribed_at: When the subscription started.is_paying_customer: Whether the user is a paying customer.subscription_plan: The current plan, such as “free”, “pro”, or “enterprise”.country: Where the user is based.
Installing the SDK is a good time to decide which data will be useful later. You use traits and events to segment users, so you can target specific groups with surveys and analyze their responses. For example, you might survey only paying customers, ask admins about account management, or compare feedback across plans.
When you implement the SDK, we recommend sending the user traits and events you might need in the future. Once that data is in Refiner, you can configure surveys and analyze results in the Refiner dashboard, and your developers will rarely need to change the SDK installation again.
Track user traits
Section titled “Track user traits”Each delivery method passes user information differently.
| Delivery Method | How to identify users | Setup guide |
|---|---|---|
| Web App Surveys | Call identifyUser with the JavaScript SDK, passing the user’s ID or email and any traits. |
Identify users with the JavaScript SDK |
| Mobile App Surveys | Call identifyUser with the Mobile SDK. See your SDK’s docs for the exact syntax. |
Identify users with the Mobile SDK |
| Survey Pages | Add contact_id or contact_email to each user’s survey link. |
Personalize Survey Page links |
| Email Surveys | Set the Identify User field in the embed code. Use your email provider’s personalization tags for each recipient’s ID or email. | Generate Email Survey embed code |
| Embed Surveys | Call identifyUser with the JavaScript SDK. |
Identify Embed Survey respondents |
Track behavioral data
Section titled “Track behavioral data”In addition to user traits, you can track events with the JavaScript SDK and Mobile SDKs. Events record actions users take in your app, such as completing onboarding, using a feature, or upgrading their plan.
Use events to segment users by behavior and to launch surveys after specific actions. Event tracking requires an identified user. See Tracked Events for setup instructions and ways to use event data.
Survey users anonymously
Section titled “Survey users anonymously”Sometimes you won’t have a user ID or email, for example when you survey visitors on a public website or share a Survey Page through a public link. You can still collect feedback, with a few limits:
- Responses aren’t linked to a known user profile unless you provide an identifier.
- Web App Surveys in anonymous mode can’t use user segment targeting or Tracked Event triggers.
- Returning respondents are recognized through browser storage, which is less reliable across devices or after storage is cleared.
- Integrations that need a user ID or email can’t match the response to an existing profile.
For website surveys with the JavaScript SDK, skip the identifyUser call and set the survey’s Audience Type to Website visitors. Use Logged-in users when you identify people.
You can share Survey Pages without identification parameters. Mobile App Surveys always need an identifier. If your app has no user accounts, use a device ID as described in the Mobile SDK guide.
Surveying without an identifier sends less personal data to Refiner. Responses can still contain personal information if your questions ask for it, and you can also identify users with only a user ID. See Data Lifecycle for how Refiner handles user data.
Users identified through an SDK count toward your Monthly Active Users (MAU) even if they don’t respond. For Email Surveys and Survey Pages, only submitted responses count. Anonymous website surveys also use Pageviews as a secondary metric.