Writing Survey Questions, Options and Texts

The Questions step holds what a survey asks, and the Theme step holds the words on its buttons. Both start with sensible defaults, so you only change what you want to.

Four question types

• Score: a scale the visitor picks one point on. NPS uses 0–10, CSAT 1–5 stars and CES 1–7.
• Single choice: a list of options you write. The visitor picks one.
• Multiple choice: a list of options you write. The visitor picks as many as apply.
• Text: an answer in the visitor's own words, up to 1,000 characters. You can add placeholder text, up to 200 characters, shown in the empty box.

Add a question with the + Score, + Single choice, + Multiple choice and + Text buttons under the list. Question text can be up to 500 characters.

Up to five questions, one at a time

A survey has between one and five questions. Visitors see them one at a time, in the order you set, with a Next button between them and Submit on the last. When there is more than one question, a counter such as 2/3 shows how far along they are.

There is no back button and no branching: every visitor is shown the same questions in the same order. Fewer questions keep completion high, and a score with one follow-up is still the shape that gets answered most.

NPS, CSAT and CES keep their score question first

On an NPS, CSAT or CES survey, the score question is fixed in first place and is always required, so the score always means the same thing. You can rewrite its wording, and add up to four more questions after it, of any type except score. A second score question is only possible on a Custom survey.

Custom surveys and their scales

On a Custom survey any question can be a score question, and each one picks its own scale with the Scale buttons: 0–10, 1–5 stars or 1–7. A Custom survey can have several score questions, or none.

Choice options

A choice question needs between 2 and 10 options, each up to 256 characters, and no two options may say the same thing. Add one with Add option and remove one with its × button; the last two cannot be removed. An empty option has to be filled in or removed before you can continue.

Optional questions

Every question has a Required switch. Turn it off to make the question optional, and visitors can skip it with Next. On NPS, CSAT and CES surveys, the score question's switch reads Always required.

On your site, Next or Submit stays disabled until a required question is answered, and Submit needs at least one answer.

Reordering and removing

Move a question with its up and down arrows, and remove it with its bin icon. Every control can be reached with the keyboard and is labelled with its question number for screen readers, and after a move, focus stays with the question you moved. On NPS, CSAT and CES surveys the score question cannot be moved or removed, and nothing can be moved above it.

Scale end labels

Each score question has two end labels, the words under each end of the scale, up to 60 characters each. Leave them empty to use the defaults, shown in grey:

• NPS: "Not at all likely" to "Extremely likely"
• CSAT: "Very unsatisfied" to "Very satisfied"
• CES: "Very difficult" to "Very easy"

Widget texts

The Widget texts section of the Theme step sets the rest of what a visitor reads:

• Next button: up to 40 characters. Default "Next".
• Submit button: up to 40 characters. Default "Submit".
• Thank-you message: up to 200 characters. Default "Thank you for your feedback".
• Close button, for screen readers: what assistive technology announces for the × button, up to 60 characters. Default "Close survey".

Write them in your site's language. Any field you leave empty uses the English default shown in grey inside it.

The preview shows your button texts and scale labels as you type. It does not show the thank-you message or the close label.

Once a survey has run, its questions are fixed

After a survey has been started, its questions can no longer be edited, because the responses already collected point to them. That includes the options, scale labels and placeholders. The Questions step then shows them read-only. To ask different questions, duplicate the survey and start the copy.

The widget texts, targeting, trigger and theme can still be changed at any time. See Starting, Ending and Managing Surveys.