How to set up a sub survey?

A sub survey is useful when you want to ask the same questions about multiple items in one survey, such as event sessions, products, agents or accommodations. Instead of creating a separate question and logic rule for every item, you build the questions once and FeedbackPro repeats them for each item. Respondents complete everything in one continuous survey, and every item gets its own response in your reporting.

On this page, the following topics are covered:

• How does a sub survey work?
• Before you start
• Add a sub survey to your survey
• Send invites with a list of items
• What is the result?
• Frequently asked questions

How does a sub survey work?

A sub survey in Spotler FeedbackPro always involves two surveys. The main survey is the survey you send to respondents. The embedded survey contains the questions you want to repeat for each item.

When you send an invite through the API, you pass a metadata field with a list of values, for example a list of sessions. The main survey then shows the embedded survey once for every value in that list. If a respondent attended three sessions, they answer the embedded questions three times, once per session.

The embedded survey is a regular survey. You can also send it on its own, for example directly after each session, and add it to a larger main survey at the end of an event.

Before you start

Check the following before you add a sub survey in Spotler FeedbackPro:

• The survey you want to embed already exists, or you are ready to create it. You can also create a new survey while setting up the sub survey.
• The main survey and the embedded survey use the same survey type. Sub surveys are currently available for the Swift survey type. Read more in What survey type should I use?
• The metadata field that holds your list of items is set up in your environment settings. FeedbackPro only stores metadata fields that are set up. Read more in How do I set up metadata?
• Your invites are sent through the FeedbackPro API. A list of items can only be passed through the API, not through an Excel upload or a static survey URL.

Add a sub survey to your survey

You add a sub survey in Spotler FeedbackPro as a separate page in the survey builder of your main survey.

1. Go to Surveys and open the main survey in the survey builder.
2. Go to the Edit questions step and open Build.
3. Click Add a page and select the Sub survey question type.
4. Under Survey to embed, select the survey you want to repeat in the Survey field. To create a new survey instead, click Create a new survey.
5. Under Repeat, select the metadata field that holds your list of items in the Repeat for every field.
6. Click Save survey.

The selected survey now appears below the Survey field. You can use the icon next to its name to open the embedded survey and check its questions.

Send invites with a list of items

To repeat a sub survey in Spotler FeedbackPro, send your invites through the API and pass the metadata field you selected under Repeat for every. Normally, a metadata field has one key and one value. For a sub survey, you pass one key with multiple values, for example a field Session with the values of every session a respondent attended.

The number of values decides how often the sub survey is shown:

• Multiple values: the sub survey is shown once for every value.
• One value: the sub survey is shown once.
• No value: the sub survey is skipped.

Read more about sending invites through the API in API Documentation.

What is the result?

When a respondent completes the main survey, Spotler FeedbackPro saves every repeat of the sub survey as a separate response to the embedded survey. Each response contains the metadata of the original invite and the metadata of the specific item, such as the session name.

The responses appear in the report of the embedded survey, not in the report of the main survey. The report of the main survey only shows the answers to its own questions. In the report of the embedded survey, you can filter on the item metadata to see the results per session, product or agent.

Frequently asked questions