What is Survey Branching & Its Uses

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Survey Branching: Can Your Online Survey Software Support Complex Logic? Best Data Collection Tools
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Survey creators are always looking for ways to design a smooth experience for the survey takers to ensure the successful completion of the survey and collection of insights. Researchers are aware that incorporating advanced logic methods into their survey design is a great way to personalize the survey experience for every participant. 

Survey branching is one such form of advanced logic that helps design engaging surveys tailored to your respondent’s answers. 

In this blog, we will explore what survey branching is and how it benefits the respondents and the organization.

What is survey branching?

Survey branching is a feature that helps survey creators control the flow of surveys and display only relevant questions to the respondents. 

Survey branching jumps to the next question or page based on the respondent’s answer to the current question. You can apply branching to create an intelligent and customized flow of survey questions for each response. 

Example of survey branching: 

A customer at a salon is asked if he/she enjoyed the services. If the answer is “no”, the survey branching will display the question ‘how can we improve your experience with us?’ or ‘how would you rate us on a scale of 0-10’ on the basis of staff, pricing, quality of the product used, and the ambiance. 

But if the answer is “yes”, then they might be asked to share what they liked about your salon.

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How is survey branching useful for an organization?

Now that we have established what survey branching is, let’s check out how you can use survey branching. 

  1. Employee satisfaction
  2. Launching a new product
  3. Event management
  • Employee satisfaction

Every employee has different points of view regarding various matters. One employee may be satisfied with your company’s onboarding process, but the other employees may find it complicated. 

So, survey branching allows employees to answer questions relevant to their experience. 

  • Launching a new product

Survey branching can help you determine how successful your new product would be in the market. You can ask your current customers to gauge who is most likely to buy the new product & what they think about it. 

  • Event planning

Surve branching can help you create a perfect event. For example, if you plan a year-end office party, you can use survey branching to decide how many of the particular things you need. You can ask your employees, guests, and media reporters if they plan to attend the event. Those who say “yes” can be asked their meal preference.

How does survey branching work?

Survey branching is a smooth and intelligent way of asking relevant questions to the respondents. When applying survey branching to specific questions, you condition it to consider the respondents’ answers and display the next question accordingly.

Each question directs responders to a destination question, from which they are sent to a question that applies to them. The survey flow is built with each answer. Survey branching helps create a custom path that varies for each respondent based on their responses. 

Survey branching is designed to save your respondent’s time and yours. It makes sure that respondents don’t have to see unnecessary & irrelevant questions and that you gather meaningful insights.

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How do branching questions improve the respondent experience?

Survey branching improves the respondent experience in many ways:

  1. Personalized questions
  2. Keep it brief
  3. Ride the wave

Let’s get to know these experiences in detail.

  • Personalize questions

When asking respondents questions, survey designers must remember that relevancy is essential. Respondents will otherwise be frustrated if a question does not relate to them. The responder may feel compelled to provide a random response (ruining your data) or to quit the survey.

  • Keep it brief

It is critical to make surveys brief and to the point. Fewer questions lead to more engaged respondents and higher response rates.

Taking respondents along a relevant line of questioning will allow them to pass through questions that have nothing to do with their experiences, saving time and patience!

  • Ride the wave

Similarly to how you would go with the flow in a genuine discussion, if you asked a respondent anything unrelated and told you that, you would not bother them again about that insignificant information.

Keeping questions relevant to the respondent and adhering to the natural flow of a conversation will keep respondents interested.

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Advantages of survey branching

Following are the advantages of using branching in surveys:

  1. Less completion time
  2. Accuracy
  3. Completion rate

Let’s learn about them in detail.

  • Less completion time

Respondents only see questions relevant to them. This allows them to complete the survey faster. 

  • Accuracy

Asking them relevant questions means receiving relevant insights. Survey branching ensures that the survey is tailored to each participant’s responses. This means respondents don’t have to give answers to a question that doesn’t matter to them. 

  • Higher completion rate

Many respondents do not take up or complete the survey when asked irrelevant questions, resulting in a reduced completion rate. Hence, survey branching improves the completion rate.

[Related read: Why you should be using skip logic to enhance respondent experience?]

Conclusion

This concludes how survey branching makes the survey experience smooth for respondents and for you. Survey branching is a useful tool for accurate results as the respondent is asked relevant questions and they can automatically skip questions that are irrelevant for them to answer.

As such, it is well understood that having an online survey tool that is robust enough to handle complex logic on the back end is crucial. Voxco online offers advanced logic to ensure success in survey strategy.

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