Do you have a survey that you wish for the respondents to take repeatedly using the same link? Using Recurring Responses along with the Alchemer unique identifier (SGUID) you can set this up.
Frequency Options
- Yearly
- Monthly
- Weekly (Sunday to Saturday)
- Daily (based on your account timezone)
You can also choose to prepopulate the survey with the previous response's data.
To set this up go to Tools > Response Settings. Select Allow respondents to start a new response with the same link on a set schedule. Indicate whether you wish to Prepopulate new response with data from last record response and select your Frequency.
Sharing Your Recurring-Response Survey
The key to enabling recurring responses is the use of an Alchemer unique identifier (SGUID) on a survey link. This can be done by adding ?sguid= to the end of each link for each respondent.
For example, let's imagine we have a survey link that looks like so:
http://survey.alchemer.com/s3/1234567/Treatment-Log
For our first respondent we could simply add ?sguid=1 like so:
http://survey.alchemer.com/s3/1234567/Treatment-Log?sguid=1
Our second respondent would then receive the following link and so, on:
http://survey.alchemer.com/s3/1234567/Treatment-Log?sguid=2
Options for Sharing Your Recurring-Response Survey
Using an Email Campaign your survey links will automatically include an sguid. Typically an email campaign allows one response per email address. With the recurring responses setting enabled, once the specified increment has passed, respondents can access the original link in their email and will begin a new response.
Even if you don't wish to send out your survey via our Email Campaigns you can take advantage of it to generate unique links with an sguid.
You can also manually append the unique identifier to each link, or, if you have a lot of respondents, create a spreadsheet with the link in one column and the unique identifier in a second and use Excel's concatenate function.
Testing
If you would like to test your recurring responses, you can append the URL Variable skiptofuture=true to your link in order to record a second response for a given sguid.
Not sure how to do this? Let's take our example link from above:
http://survey.alchemer.com/s3/1234567/Treatment-Log?sguid=2
In order to add our second URL Variable we'll start with an ampersand (&) and then simply append the skiptofuture=true like so:
http://survey.alchemer.com/s3/1234567/Treatment-Log?sguid=2&skiptofuture=true
Survey Taking
The first time a respondent visits their unique link (with an sguid appended) their experience will be like taking any other survey.
If a respondent returns to their unique link before your specified frequency (daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly) has passed they will return to where they left off in their first response.
Once the specified increment has passed they will begin a new response. If selected, it will also prepopulate with the first response's data.
It is important to note that if the respondent misses an increment, the previous response is now "empty" and therefore will not prepopulate in their next new response.
You may want to add text in your survey to explain how your increments are set up. We recommend doing so both at the beginning of the survey and on the thank you page. This way respondents that are returned to their response before your specified increment has passed will understand what is happening.
Reporting
Each time a respondent takes your recurring-response survey, a new response will be recorded. On the Details tab of each Individual Response the sguid will be recorded. You can use this to tie responses together. You can also report on this data by adding a URL Variable element to your Standard Report.
Compatibility
- The prepopulate option is not compatible with File Upload questions.
- Recurring responses are not compatible with Save and Continue.
- Recurring responses are not compatible with the Embed Share Methods.
- Recurring responses are not compatible with Test links.
