Features

Features that power your research

From quick forms to advanced studies, Survey Automator helps you build smarter surveys—fast. Below is the full list of features that streamline setup, boost quality, and give you full control.

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Overview

AI-powered tools: Survey Automator includes built-in AI assistants that help with translations and generating answer alternatives. These tools save time and improve consistency in multilingual projects.
Copy/paste Word-based question drafts: You can build surveys by copying content directly from Word or Excel documents. Each pasted line becomes an answer alternative or question text, making it fast to transfer structured survey drafts into the system.
Built-in bookmark editor: Bookmarks let you insert dynamic content like videos, images, links, and personalized text (e.g. “Hi #FirstName#”) directly into questions or messages. You can also show different content based on earlier answers, using conditional bookmarks.
Advanced Logic Expressions: Survey items, answer options, and rows can be shown or hidden based on logic conditions written in expression format (e.g., Q1 = 1). These rules control visibility, validation, screen-outs, and dynamic survey flows.
Built-in backup system: The system allows you to create manual backups, you can view, restore, or export these backups if needed.
Dynamic response logs: Each project tracks major actions — publishing, exporting, imports, fieldwork start/stop — in an exportable log. This gives transparency into who did what and when, useful for audits or troubleshooting.
Custom branding options: Each survey can be visually tailored using your own logo, colors, header/footer messages, and even a branded subdomain.
Export logs and project management: You can export an activity log of the project, create duplicates and move projects across folders while keeping permissions and templates intact.
Folder permissions and roles: Roles include Administrator, Project Manager, Protection Manager, and more. Permissions control who can view, edit, distribute, or export data.
Responsive layout: Surveys are mobile-optimized and work well on all screen sizes and devices.

Question Types

Single Select: Respondent selects one answer. Displayed as buttons, radio buttons, or dropdown. Ideal for clear, exclusive choices.
Multiple Select: Respondent can select multiple answers. Ideal for “Select all that apply” formats. Exclusive answers like “None of the above” are also available.
Button: Displays answer options as clickable buttons, where only one answer can be selected. Often used for clean, mobile-friendly single-select interactions.
Dropdown Select: Presents answer choices in a dropdown menu. Saves space and is especially effective when listing many options, such as countries or years.
Likert scale: Shows a grid with standard scale points (e.g., Strongly Agree → Strongly Disagree) for rating multiple statements in a consistent way.
Button Grid: A matrix layout where respondents answer each row using clickable buttons. Ideal for rating multiple items side by side with fast, touch-friendly input.
Vertical Grid: Displays a compact question matrix with answer options arranged in columns and items in rows. Ideal for efficiency when asking repeated questions.
Sliders: Provides a movable scale where respondents can slide to choose a value. Great for measuring intensity, satisfaction, or probability.
Open Comment: A simple open-ended text field for collecting thoughts, ideas, or explanations. Common for follow-up questions or general feedback.
Open Numeric: Accepts numeric input only. Supports validation like minimum/maximum values — great for age, quantities, or scoring questions.
Multi Comment: A grid where each row collects one open text response. Useful for gathering written feedback on several items in a compact format.
Multi Numeric: Captures numeric input across multiple items in a grid layout. Each row allows a number entry, ideal for collecting scores, amounts, or time spent across categories.
Drag and Drop: Lets respondents move items between multiple target columns or categories, not just sort them. Used for sorting, grouping, or classifying items into buckets (e.g. matching, categorization, multi-priority sorting). Each column can represent a meaning, such as sentiment or category.
Ranking: Displays a two-column layout: one with items to rank, and one with ordered placeholders. Respondents drag items into ranked positions (1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.). Designed for clear priority ranking — not grouping.
Contact Info: A grouped input that collects personal details like name, phone, and email in a structured format. Fields include built-in validation to ensure clean data.
Header: Inserts a large, styled section title into the survey. Visually separates parts of the form and improves flow in longer surveys. Great to add after a page-break.
Text Info: Non-question content used to provide information, instructions, or context. It appears inline with the survey flow but doesn’t require any response.
Screen Out: Ends the survey immediately for disqualified respondents. Triggers based on a logic condition and displays a custom message to the user.
Info Message: Displays a dynamic message during the survey based on a specific condition — without blocking progress. Used for soft guidance or context.
Error: Used to enforce logic-based validation. Shows a blocking message if a rule is broken (e.g., one value must be higher than another).
Language Selection Buttons: Presents clickable buttons at the start of the survey for selecting a preferred language. Automatically switches the entire form to the chosen language.

Survey Features

Page Breaks: Add page breaks between questions or sections to control how the survey is divided across screens. Improves navigation, helps reduce cognitive load, and enables better logic control by isolating conditions per page.
Reusable answer blocks: Save common answer lists (like “Strongly agree” to “Strongly disagree”) and reuse them across multiple questions. Edits apply everywhere.
Image and video embedding (via bookmarks): Insert media like product images or instruction videos into questions using the {} bookmark tool, with support for YouTube, Vimeo, or uploaded files.
Dynamic personalization (e.g., #FirstName#): Use dynamic fields in question text or messages to personalize the content based on imported participant data.
Multi-language surveys with AI translation: Add additional languages with one click and auto-translate the survey using built-in AI, with manual override available for each item.
Custom header, footer, and survey theme: Customize the look and feel of your survey by changing headers, footers, fonts, and background colors.
Preview and List View editing modes: Switch between a visual preview of the full form and a fast-editing list mode that makes it easy to manage large surveys.
Answer piping from previous questions: Dynamically insert a respondent’s earlier answer into later questions to personalize the experience or simplify the survey flow.
Show/hide questions, rows, or answers based on conditions: Control visibility of any part of the form using logic conditions (e.g., only show Q5 if Q1 = “Yes”).
Randomize answers or blocks: Shuffle the order of answer options or whole question blocks to reduce bias in how options are presented.

Survey Settings

Question visibility logic: Show or hide entire questions based on previous answers using expression-based logic.
Answer option visibility: Control which answer alternatives appear based on earlier inputs or hidden variables.
Row-level logic in grids: Set logic for individual rows in grid/matrix questions — ideal for dynamically adapting complex scales.
Text piping: Insert previous answers or imported data directly into new questions or messages (e.g., “You said #Q1#”).
Quota logic: Set up quotas by value (e.g., only 100 from Region A) and close sections or end surveys when filled.
Custom conditions library: Re-use named conditions throughout the survey — useful for long, complex forms.
Expression-based logic for question visibility and validation: Advanced users can switch to HTML mode to embed code, add links, apply formatting, or include dynamic bookmarks for file downloads or external content.
Custom error messages: Use logic expressions like Q1 = 1 to show/hide questions, set error conditions, or drive routing logic across the survey.
Regex and numeric validation: Use regular expressions (e.g., email format, zip code) and numeric rules (min/max) to ensure responses are correctly formatted.
Hidden variables for reporting and filters: You can store background data (like region, customer ID, or source) in hidden questions. These are never shown to the respondent but can be used later for filtering and grouping in reports.
Survey chaining and redirect on completion: After finishing one survey, respondents can be redirected to another survey or an external URL (e.g., a website or follow-up form). Useful for multi-phase studies or thank-you pages.
Survey timer: The system automatically logs how long each respondent spends on the full survey. These response times are saved for analysis and can be exported to Excel.
Project duplication: Instantly clone an entire project — including questions, messages, and templates — without copying the response data. Ideal for recurring surveys or creating variants.
Move project between folders: You can relocate a project to another folder without losing user permissions or settings. This helps with organizing work by department, region, or study type.
Custom CSS styling per project: Apply your own CSS rules to customize layout, fonts, logos, spacing, and more. Great for advanced branding or UX needs — especially when embedded into client environments.
Backups (automatic and manual): Manual backups can be created on demand, while the system also runs automatic backups every 12 hours. You can restore or export from any backup if needed.
Personalized thank-you pages: Show a custom end message with dynamic fields (e.g., “Thanks,{FirstName}!”) or use conditional text to tailor the thank-you note based on the respondent’s answers.

Analysis & Reporting

Trend analysis: Track how responses change over time using built-in filters for date ranges or wave labels. Ideal for recurring or ongoing surveys.
Visual results dashboards: View aggregated results in charts and tables. Pages can be customized, grouped by topic, and shared externally if needed.
Custom filters and segmentation: Filter and group results by any background field, imported column, or hidden variable to analyze specific segments.
Breakdown by internal variables: Use hidden metadata like region, department, or source to split results into meaningful categories.
Export-ready tables: Download cross-tabulated or banner-style tables directly to Excel or PowerPoint for deeper offline analysis.
Side-by-side comparisons: Compare groups (e.g., men vs. women, this year vs. last year) using side-by-side columns. Supports showing % difference.
Open text filtering: Search and filter written comments by keyword, tag, or background variable to find patterns or highlights.
Custom display formats: Choose between showing percentages, counts, averages, or “% positive” for each item — adjustable per chart or section.
Group-based exports: Automatically generate a version of the results per unit, team, or location using a selected grouping variable.
Reusable export layouts: Save preferred column formats and export configurations to ensure consistent outputs across similar projects.
Conditional content visibility: Show or hide content in charts, pages, or exports based on participation count, logic conditions, or custom rules.
Weighted results support: Apply statistical weights to specific groups or responses to match external targets or sampling proportions.
Thematic grouping of items: Group related questions under custom headers or logic-based categories to simplify how results are displayed.
Comparative metrics: Show differences, gaps, or medians side-by-side between groups or time periods to highlight patterns or shifts.
Net Promoter Score (NPS): Automatically calculate NPS based on standard 0–10 scale responses. The system classifies responses into Promoters, Passives, and Detractors, and displays the final NPS score.

Distribution

Email and SMS distribution: Send survey links via email or SMS. Each contact gets a unique link that tracks responses and status.
Dual-channel sendout: Use both SMS and email in the same project to improve reach. SMS is often used as a fallback if emails bounce.
Scheduled distribution: Set specific dates and times for when messages are sent. Helps coordinate across time zones or campaigns.
Delivery status tracking: Monitor delivery status for each contact: Delivered, Opened, Clicked, Bounced, or Blocked — all visible in the distribution log.
Hard bounce detection: Emails that cannot be delivered are flagged as hard bounces. Useful for list cleaning and deliverability troubleshooting.
Resend to non-respondents: Filter participants who haven’t replied (status: Idle) and resend the invitation or reminder message.
Batching & throttling: Control the rate of sendouts (e.g., 400/hour) by sending in timed batches. Useful for large sends or limited mail server capacity.
Personalized message content: Insert dynamic fields like #FirstName#, #Company# into messages using bookmarks to personalize invitations and reminders.
Language-aware invitations: Match the invitation message and survey language to the participant’s imported language field.
Import participant lists: Upload participant data via Excel/CSV including custom fields (e.g., Region, Role) used for filtering or personalization.
Token-based access: Each contact is assigned a unique token to prevent duplicate entries and enable progress tracking.

Video tutorials

Learn Survey Automator step by step

Survey Automator: Overview

Start here! This video provides an overview of Survey Automator, highlighting its key features.

Your First Survey

Learn how to create and edit questions, change types, and add comments or instructions. A great first step in building your survey.

Tweaking Your Survey

This video provides a step-by-step guide on how to enhance your survey in Survey Automator by moving questions, adding page breaks, setting up question conditions, and randomizing answer choices for improved respondent experience.

Exporting Responses & Reports

Follow how incoming responses are displayed and organized. This video also covers how to view aggregated results in the dashboard, and how to export data to Excel or PowerPoint for further analysis or presentation.

Distributing Your Survey

Explore how to share your survey through links, email, or SMS, customize messages for different respondent groups, import participant lists, and keep track of response activity as it comes in.

How To Follow GDPR

Unleash the power of GDPR-compliant surveys with this video! Discover how Survey Automator makes data protection easy, covering secure file transfers, minimal data import, transparency, and smart data anonymization. Tune in to transform your survey game!

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