Create online survey: how it works and how to set it up

When you create online survey questions for your own clients and prospects, the useful output is not a chart. It is a list of contacts sorted by what they told you, each one with a next step already running. This article answers one question: how do you build a survey on the levelpartner.ai platform that asks one question at a time, branches on the answers and writes the results onto each contact so your team can act on them?

Survey or form: which one you need

Forms and surveys both collect answers, and on the platform both live in Sites. The difference is how they feel to the person answering. A form shows every question at once and suits short, practical requests such as an enquiry. A survey shows one question per screen, can skip questions based on earlier answers, and suits anything longer or more reflective.

Use a survey when you have more than about eight questions, when later questions depend on earlier ones, or when you want to score the answers. A client satisfaction check, a needs assessment before a first meeting and a quiz that recommends a service are all survey jobs.

Decide what you will do with each answer

Before you write a single question, list the actions the survey should drive. Unhappy client: the account owner calls this week. Ready to buy: a salesperson books a meeting. Not a fit: a polite reply and a nurture sequence.

Then write only the questions that tell those groups apart. A survey that asks twenty questions and drives three actions has seventeen questions it does not need. Every question you cut makes the survey more likely to be finished.

Before you start

You need access to Sites, Automation and Settings. Write your list of actions and the questions that decide them. Create custom fields for answers you want on the contact, such as satisfaction rating or service interest. Decide who receives the survey: a tagged group of clients, everyone who booked a call, or visitors to one page.

How to set it up

1. Go to Sites, then Surveys, and create a new survey.
2. Open the Survey Builder and add contact fields to the first slide.
3. Add one question per slide, using single choice for deciding answers.
4. Give every question a unique Query Key.
5. Click Conditional Logic, then Add New Condition.
6. Choose Jump To so irrelevant slides are skipped.
7. Set the rule with Select Field, Select State and Provide Value.
8. Save the rule, then preview and test every answer path.
9. In Automation, add the Survey Submitted trigger to a new workflow.
10. Under Filters, set Survey is to this survey.
11. Add an If/Else action that branches on the key answer.
12. Add a tag, task or message to each branch, then publish.
13. Check responses under Sites, Surveys, then Submissions.

Writing questions people answer honestly

Ask about the past, not the future. "How many times did you contact our team last month?" gets a truer answer than "How often would you use a faster support line?" People are poor at predicting their own behaviour and good at remembering it.

Keep each question to one idea. "Was our service fast and friendly?" cannot be answered by someone who found it fast and unfriendly. Split it in two or pick the one that matters.

Offer a free text box only once, near the end, with a specific prompt such as "What is the one thing we should change?" Open answers are valuable, but someone has to read them.

What it costs to run

Building a short survey takes two to three hours, most of it on the questions and branches. A survey sent once a quarter then takes about an hour each time to review results and adjust a question. The calls and meetings it creates are real work, but they are the work you wanted.

When not to use a survey

Do not survey people to avoid talking to them. If you have ten key accounts, call them. Do not send a survey to a list you have never emailed, because the reply rate will tell you nothing. For short enquiries, a form is quicker; designing a form people finish covers that.

Surveys of your own staff need different rules on anonymity, which running an employee net promoter score survey explains. If you need answers from people who are not on your list at all, see when to use a survey panel instead. To keep survey answers usable in reports, mapping every answer to a contact field applies just as much here.

Troubleshooting

Respondents drop out at the same screen. That question is too hard or too personal for its position. Move it later or make it optional.

Answers do not appear on the contact. The question is not mapped to a custom field. Map it and test again with a new response.

Branches send everyone down the same path. The condition checks a score range that no one reaches. Look at real scores from the test group and adjust the ranges.

Clients answer the survey twice. The link was sent in two campaigns. Add a condition to the workflow that ignores a second response within a set period.

Frequently asked questions

How long should an online survey be?

Short enough to finish in three minutes. For most business surveys that means six to ten questions, with logic skipping any that do not apply.

Can I send a survey by SMS?

Yes. Send the survey link in an SMS from a workflow or a campaign. Keep the message short and say how long the survey takes.

Are survey answers linked to the contact?

Yes, when the respondent gives an email or phone number that matches a contact. Put those fields on the first screen if you need every response tied to a person.

Can I build a quiz that recommends a service?

Yes. Use scoring or conditional logic to group respondents, then show a closing screen or send a message that matches their group.