Survey Features

Survey quota control

Get your current survey solution evaluated by our experts.

What is quota control in a survey?

Response quota refers to limiting the total number of responses gathered for the survey. Whereas quota control refers to limiting the number of responses for each answer option. Adding a quota to your survey means defining a logic through a program in your survey.

Also known as answer quota control, allows you to personalize the survey flow based on the responses gathered for each answer option. This quota decides the next step in the survey, once the respondents reach the limit of the answer options. You can decide to either terminate the survey or choose to delete older responses.

See Voxco’s survey platform in action

Take a guided tour of our platform with our on-demand survey demos.

Why to use quota control in your surveys?

Setting a quota to the answer options in your surveys makes sure that the responses do not exceed the limit imposed on them. This puts hold on the data that comes in through survey responses.

Although, applying survey quota control is only possible with multiple-choice questions. In cases where respondents can choose multiple options and one of the answer options has its quota full, respondents can choose another option. The survey termination action won’t be executed and it will keep on going.

Example of quota control in surveys

In the below example, if the respondent chooses DELL, if the quota for DELL has reached its limit, the survey will terminate for the user. But if he chooses DELL and Lenovo both, even if the quota for DELL is out of limit, he still can continue the survey because the limit for Lenovo is yet to reach it limit. Hence, the respondents can go ahead and answer questions related to Lenovo.

Types of quota controls in surveys

Automatic quota control – you can limit the total number of responses for the entire survey.
Complex quota control – apply quota control on responses to multiple choice or custom variables. It is also known as weighted quota control.
Customer variable quota control – set up quota control on responses to multiple custom variables.
Dynamic quota control – set up the quota as the survey is live to determine how many responses you want for your survey.

Quota control actions

In this section, let us discuss the actions you can take once the answer option reaches its quota limit:

Another question – direct the respondents to another question.
Terminate survey – once the answer option/options have reached its limit, you can decide to terminate the survey. This is a logical step to take when that one primary question is full and now you don’t want people to take your survey.
Quota over limit – when the respondents choose an answer option and it exceeds the limit, you can show the quota over limit page to them signifying the end of the survey. Creators can customize this page to embed important messages or information.
Thank you page – similar to overlimit page, thank page denotes the end of survey but thanking the respondents for their time and efforts for taking the survey.

Feature Sheets

Need a map of our platform? Browse through all that we have to offer.

Uses of quota control in surveys

When the sample size is uneven, it leads to one answer option getting more responses than the other. This can result in skewing of data. It is a tough job to equally choose the sample size for every answer option, right? But what we can do is limit the responses on the answer options themselves. And to do so, quota control helps you in limiting the number of responses every option gets. That way, you will have an equal number of responses to the answers and can fairly derive conclusions without any bias and skewing.

As we saw in the above example, the primary use of quota control is to collect a proportionate number of responses of each answer option.

Advantages of quota control in surveys

Limiting the answer responses to each option using quota control provides you with accurate data, since there is no skewing or bias.
The data accuracy is highly affected due to online surveys. You have no control over the sample size. This sample size may or may not be representative of the entire population. But with quota control, you can get proportionate data regardless of skewed sample.
You have the privileges to add and edit applied quota even after the survey goes live. This way you can make impromptu decisions for data collection.
When you decide to conduct a reward-based survey, quota control helps you to stay in your budget, as you will have to give rewards to only those respondents who are counted in the response limit for every answer option.

Related Features

Voxco is trusted by Top 50 Market Research firms, Global Brands & Universities in 40 countries. Voxco offers full omnichannel capability including CATI, Predictive Dialler, Online surveys, offline CAPI, and Panel Management.

Follow Voxco on