Survey branching – also known as “skip logic” – is a simple but powerful concept that you are probably already familiar with: survey respondents proceed through a different branch of the survey (i.e. skip forward) based on their answer to the current question.

You’ve probably seen some funny decision trees online that visually illustrate this idea, where your answers take you down different paths. For example, Should I Buy This? The first question is “Is it for you?” If you answer Yes, question #2 is “Do you desperately need it?” If you answer No, question #2 is “For whom?” And so on. The path you take through the decision tree is customized according to your answers throughout.

Or if, for example, a restaurant performs a guest satisfaction survey after a meal, there might be a question like, “Did you enjoy your meal?” Guests who say No would be directed to a series of questions about what they did not like and why, whereas guests who say Yes would get a different set of follow up questions. The main idea behind using branching logic in your surveys is that it ensures that people are not reading or responding to questions that are irrelevant to them – instead, they get a personalized experience.

Advantages of Survey Branching/Skip Logic

If you are creating a survey, you may think that it would be easier and more effective if everyone gets an identical set of questions, but there are a number of benefits to using branching instead.

It reduces survey completion time. Since users only see and respond to the questions that are relevant to them, they have fewer questions to answer. This means they can complete the survey faster, which in turn reduces the chance that the user will get frustrated and bail out before they are finished.
It makes more sense. Have you ever filled out a medical form where it asks something like, “Do you smoke?” You respond “No” and the next question is “How long have you smoked?” followed by, “How many cigarettes do you smoke a day?” These questions make no sense if you answered No to the first question. Irrelevant questions annoy respondents and waste their time.
Respondents feel the survey is customized for them. When users are only asked questions that apply to them, they feel appreciated and more satisfied taking the survey, which results in…
Fewer dropouts. When surveys are smartly designed for relevance and they can be quickly completed, fewer people will drop out of the survey before they are finished. Incomplete surveys will not provide your business with the useful data you are seeking.
It yields better results. To gather vital customer intelligence, you not only need people to complete your surveys, you need a statistically significant number of them to complete them. Survey branching increases the chance that more people will take and complete your surveys, which will provide you with more actionable results.

To ensure effective branching, you will want to plan out the entire survey in advance, and determine the logic throughout. For example, if someone answers No to question #2, they will be sent to question #7 next. And so on.

Once you’ve determined the logic and flow for your survey, some programming will be involved to have it function properly. Or you can enlist a reputable survey solution provider to make it easy for you.

AfterWords is an intelligent customer satisfaction software that delivers the most relevant questions for the most relevant responses. We provide actionable data where you need it the most. To find out more, please contact us.