How to pipe question and answers in forms and surveys?

Personalized surveys are harder to build than standard ones. A generic questionnaire can feel impersonal, and respondents who don't feel acknowledged tend to answer less carefully or drop out. People give more thoughtful, honest answers when a survey responds to what they have already said. Piping makes a survey feel closer to a conversation, which usually lifts completion rates.

BlockSurvey's piping feature lets you build that kind of survey. It pulls in each respondent's earlier answers as they go, so the questions adapt to the person taking them.

What is piping in surveys?

Piping reuses a respondent's earlier answer in later questions, in answer choices, or on the survey's Welcome and Thank-you screens. BlockSurvey has two types of piping:

1. Question piping (also called Recall information): takes a participant's answer to one question and drops it into a later question.
2. Answer piping: takes a participant's answer to one choice-based question and uses it as an answer choice in another choice or matrix-based question.

Piping can produce more precise data and keep participants more engaged. It is especially useful in market research and customer experience surveys.

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

• Personalization: adjust questions and answer options based on what someone has already told you, so the survey stays relevant to them.
• Better quality responses: people answer more carefully when they can see their earlier input being used.
• Fewer drop-offs: a survey that adapts holds attention better, so more respondents finish it.

How to use Question piping in BlockSurvey?

Question piping carries a respondent's input across the survey. You can place piped text in several parts of a survey, and the examples below cover three of them.

Welcome screen

Personalize the welcome screen so it addresses the respondent directly. If you already have someone's name from earlier data collection, you can use it in the opening message.

Steps to implement:

• Create a Text variable eg., "name" under Setting-> Assignment & Formulas-> Text Variables.
  
  
• Give it a value such 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 appears on the Welcome screen. It gives each respondent a personal opening instead of a generic greeting.

Question level

Carry an answer from one question into the next so later questions reference what the respondent already said.

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?).
   
   

Now each respondent sees a question that references their own earlier answer, which keeps the survey feeling tailored and helps with response accuracy.

Thank-you screen

Personalization does not have to stop at the last question. You can use the recall feature on the thank-you screen too.

Steps to implement:

• Use the Recall feature to pull the respondent's input into the closing statement.

Example:

A closing message that uses the respondent's name ends the survey on a personal note, which can make them more willing to take your future surveys.

Try out the example survey:

How to use Answer piping in BlockSurvey?

Answer piping works with multiple-choice and matrix questions. The source question and the target question both need to be multiple-choice or matrix questions.

Here is the setup with an example:

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

This question 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" displays only the movies the participant has watched as answer options in the second question.

Try out the example survey:

Conclusion

With piping, a BlockSurvey survey adapts to each respondent's input. Personalizing the welcome screen, the questions, and the thank-you screen tends to improve both response rates and data quality.

Try the piping feature in BlockSurvey to make your surveys more personal and see how respondents react.

Explore related BlockSurvey features: data lookup and repeating questions.