Tips for New Qualtrics Surveys

There are a few options we recommend checking for each Qualtrics survey you create. After logging in to Qualtrics and opening your project, make sure you are in the Survey tab and select "Survey Options" from the left side menu. Then check the following options:

From the Responses section:
- Back button - defaults to off; allow respondents to return to a previous page of the survey
- Incomplete survey responses - By default, Qualtrics will record incomplete survey responses after 1 week, at which time respondents will be unable to continue their in-progress response; this is especially problematic for surveys distributed through Qualtrics. You can change the behavior to record or delete in-progress responses and select a time period between 1 hour and 1 year. The best option will vary depending on your survey and your specific needs.
From the Security section:
- Prevent multiple submissions - defaults to off; prevent respondents from taking your survey multiple times (but relies on browser cookies, so there are ways your respondents can get around this)

Some additional recommendations and things to consider:

Distribution method - If you distribute your survey using the anonymous link, respondents' names and email addresses are only collected if you explicitly ask for them in your survey. Otherwise, you can create a contact list and distribute through Qualtrics to collect contact information and track who has and has not completed the survey.
Next/Previous Button Text- By default, the "next button" and "back button" (if enabled) appear as arrows. At a minimum, for the best respondent experience, you should change the label for the "next button" in the last block of your survey to read "Submit". To adjust the next/previous button text for an individual survey block:
- Select the block by clicking inside the block but outside any questions and then click "Next/Previous button text" from the left side menu.
- Click into the "Next Button Text" field and type "Submit" (or whatever label you prefer).
- Then click "Save".
Please note that adjusting "next button" text will apply to all next buttons within the block, so this is not recommended for blocks with line breaks. Instead consider adding text to the bottom of the last page that indicates clicking the "next button" will submit the survey. Or you can remove your line breaks and instead separate the single block into multiple blocks.

Finally, make sure to Publish your survey each time you're done making any changes. The published version is what your respondents will see, which may vary from what you see in the Preview version.