How to pipe question and answers in forms and surveys?

Creating personalized and engaging surveys has always been a challenge for survey creators. Traditional surveys often lack the personal touch that makes respondents feel valued, leading to lower response rates and engagement. Respondents are more likely to provide thoughtful and honest answers when they feel involved and acknowledged. Personalization creates a conversation-like experience, increasing the sense of connection and boosting completion rates.

BlockSurvey’s piping feature empowers survey creators to address this challenge. By dynamically adapting to respondents' input, piping enables you to craft interactive and personalized surveys that keep respondents engaged.

What is Piping in Surveys?

Piping is a technique that allows survey creators to reuse a respondent's previous answer in subsequent questions, answer choices, or even the survey’s Welcome screen or Thank-you screen. There are two types of piping in BlockSurvey:

1. Question Piping (aka Recall information): This uses the participant’s response from one question and incorporates it into a subsequent question.
2. Answer Piping: This takes the participant’s response from one choice-based question and uses it as an answer choice in another choice or matrix-based question.

Piping can produce more precise and insightful data while greatly increasing participant engagement. It's particularly useful in market research and customer experience surveys.

What are the benefits of having piping in forms and surveys?

• Personalization: Tailor your questions and answer options based on the responses already given, creating a more relevant and engaging experience for your respondents.
• Better Quality Response: Respondents are more likely to provide thoughtful, accurate answers when they feel their responses matter.
• Reduce Drop-off Rates: Personalized surveys are more engaging, motivating respondents to complete the survey without losing interest.

How to use Question piping in BlockSurvey?

Question piping allows you to make surveys more engaging and personalized by dynamically incorporating respondents' inputs throughout the survey. Here’s how you can use the piped text in different parts of your survey with an example:

Welcome Screen

Make respondents feel valued right from the start by personalizing the welcome screen. For example, if you already have a respondent’s name from prior data collection, you can use it to create a warm, inviting introduction.

Steps to Implement:

• Create a Text variable eg., “name” under Setting-> Assignment & Formulas-> Text Variables.
  
  
• Give a value for it as “John Doe”.
• Use the Recall feature or type “@” to insert this value into your welcome message.
  
  

Once your survey is published, the piped text will appear on the Welcome screen. This personalized touch leaves a positive impression and sets the tone for an engaging survey experience.

Question Level

Use piping to carry over responses from one question to the next, creating a seamless, personalized flow.

Example:

• Question 1: What is your name?
• Question 2: What is your age?

Steps to Implement:

1. In Question 2, type “@” or click the Recall button in the question input field.
2. Select the question whose response you want to reference (Q1: What is your name?).
   
   

This feature ensures that each respondent sees questions that feel tailored to them, increasing engagement and response accuracy.

Thank You Screen

Personalization doesn’t have to end with the last question. Make your thank-you screen memorable by using the recall feature.

Steps to Implement:

• Use the Recall feature to bring in the respondent’s input into the closing statement.

Example:

Personalizing the thank-you message leaves respondents with a positive impression, making them more likely to engage with your future surveys.

Try out the example survey:

How to use Answer piping in BlockSurvey?

Answer piping is useful for questions with multiple-choice or matrix answers. Both the source and target questions must be either multiple-choice or matrix questions.

Let us see the setup with an example:

• Question 1 (Multiple Choice): "Choose all the movies you have watched from the list."

Which has 10 options (The Shawshank Redemption, The Godfather, Pulp Fiction, The Dark Knight, Fight Club, Inception, Forrest Gump, The Matrix, The Lord of the Rings, and Star Wars).

• Question 2 (Single Choice): "Pick your favorite movie from the choice of movies you have watched."

Step-by-Step Guide:

1. In Question 2 click on "Pipe Answer."
   
   
2. Select the source question as Question 1 from the dropdown menu.
3. Choose the answer option to be displayed:
   • All choices: All options from Question 1.
   • Selected choices: Only the options selected in Question 1.
   • Unselected choices: Options not selected in Question 1.

In this example, selecting "Selected choices" will display only the movies the participant has watched as answer options in the second question.

Try out the example survey:

Conclusion

BlockSurvey’s piping feature takes personalization to the next level, allowing you to create surveys that adapt to each respondent’s input. By personalizing the welcome screen, questions, and thank-you screen, you can craft a truly engaging experience that boosts response rates and data quality.

Ready to make your surveys more personal and impactful? Try out the piping feature in BlockSurvey today and experience the difference!