On longer surveys, you may want to allow respondents to come back later to finish their response.
Alchemer offers several features that address this need. Some of these options require a bit more setup time than others. The feature that you decide to go with will likely depend on your and your respondents' needs, as well as your survey configuration.
Let's review the options below!
Save and Continue
The Save and Continue Survey Toolbar adds an option for survey respondents to enter their email address to receive a link to return to their survey later.
- The Save & Continue feature adds a respondent-facing toolbar to every survey page (except page one).
- Respondents must provide a valid email address via the toolbar. A continuation link is sent to the provided email.
- When a respondent uses the Save and Continue feature, all survey progress up to that point is saved (including on the active page).
When to use it?
Use this feature when you don't have a list of contacts to upload to an Email Campaign* but you want to offer your respondents a way to save and return to their response.
Visit the Save and Continue documentation for step by step setup instructions and additional information.
Login Action: Save & Continue Password
The Login/Password Action allows you to set up access protection for your survey. When you set up a Login Action on your survey, respondents will be required to log in to take your survey.
You can also use the Login Action to allow your survey respondents to save their progress in your survey via the Save and Continue Password feature. With this Login Action feature enabled, respondents can use their password to pick up where they left off!
- The Save and Continue Password feature requires uploading a spreadsheet that contains all passwords that will be used.
- When re-accessing their response via their passwords, respondents will be forwarded to the survey page that follows the last page they submitted. If respondents re-access an already completed survey, they will be sent to the survey's Thank You page.
When to use it?
Use this feature when you want to restrict access to your survey to only individuals who have been provided with a password and when you want to allow these individuals to resume an in-progress survey by re-authenticating via their provided password.
Visit the Save and Continue Password documentation for step by step setup instructions and additional information.
Edit Link
An Edit Link will allow a survey respondent to complete a partial response or edit the information that they already submitted. You can obtain edit links one-by-one within your individual responses, you can include all edit links in a CSV/Excel export, or you can include the Edit Link Merge Code in your survey.
Ad edit link is a little different than the above-described Save and Continue options in that it is not intended as a continue where you left off link. Rather, it is best used as an edit your previously submitted response link.
- Edit Links are designed to take the survey respondent to Page One of your survey, allowing them to go through the survey again and update their answers, if necessary.
- If a respondent uses an Edit Link and re-submits their survey response, their Date & Time Submitted information will be updated.
When to use it?
Use edit links when there is a need for a respondent to update previously submitted information in their survey. Edit links are also particularly useful in any situation where a respondent did not finish their survey but has no way of accessing their original response (perhaps they misplaced the original survey link).
Provided that you can identify which response belongs to a specific individual, you can send the associated edit link to the individual.
Visit the Edit Link documentation to learn all about edit links.
Email Campaign
A Alchemer Email Campaign allows you to quickly send out your survey to a list of contacts via an email message set up within Alchemer.
The great thing about an Email Campaign is that it creates a unique link for each contact. This unique link allows for one response per contact and saves their progress through the survey. Contacts can return to the survey at a later time (via their original unique link) and pick up where they left off.
- Respondents do not need to provide a password or enter an email address (progress is saved once a page is submitted via the Next or Submit buttons).
- In order to re-access their surveys, respondents need to click on the survey link that was sent to them via an email campaign message.
- When re-accessing their response via their unique link, respondents will be forwarded to the survey page that follows the last page they submitted. If respondents re-access an already completed survey, they will be sent to the survey's Thank You page.
When to use it?
Use the Email Campaign feature when you have a contact list (email addresses are required) that you need to send your survey to. Each contact will receive a unique link which they can return to in order to finish the survey.
Visit the Email Campaign documentation for step by step instructions and additional information.
Sguid URL Variable
If none of the above options work for your use-case, consider using a URL variable called sguid. This variable is a great alternative!
sguid is a URL Variable that can be appended to the end of a distribution link in order to:
- Uniquely identify responses
- Act as a save and continue option
- Protect against duplicate responses
Alchemer uses sguids at the end of Email Campaign links (to provide duplicate protection, as well as, a save and continue option). You can employ sguid yourself by adding them to the end of your distribution links!
Access the sguid variable documentation to learn the ins and outs of this feature.
