Add Comments or Notes box to Questions in Survey

I tried to use the new survey form but found it missing a lot of things I liked about the "legacy" format. I missed adding a Comment even after multiple choice and other types of questions. The question types before offered more variety and flexibility: I am not sure you can do this with the new format. - Multi-Select Multiple Choice - Select one or more answer options - Rate Items on a Scale ( Continue editing / No change ) Also, why could we not import an old survey and revise it in the new layout? Thanks, Malui Schloss, Society for Technical Communication NY

11 Comments
UUSara
Campaign Expert

You're going to leave us in a bad way if you discontinue our use of the Legacy Survey template on June 30.  We use that template to allow our church members to make a pledge for the year.  The template is used through out the year. 

I've tried to replicate our Legacy form with your new form, but you have not allowed a separate Comments box.  Your Comments box is connected to the answer Other, and that will be unduly confusing for everyone.  Please provide a separate Comments box for each question.  thank you.

Frankie_P
Moderator
Status changed to: Open Questions

Hi @UUSara does placing a question block after your multiple choice block help fit these needs?

TysonH
Marketing Expert

I just attempted to re-create our existing survey that we have been using for years into the new Survey Builder, and have found some unacceptable limitations:

 

1.  In the legacy builder, it was possible to add a comment field to a multiple choice question.  The new Builder only includes an "Other - Explain below" response option, which isn't the same as simply allowing customers to provide explanatory comments to their chosen response.  It has been our experience that we gain valuable information in the comments way beyond just the multiple choice response.

 

2.  The Open Answer response field in the new Builder only allows a maximum of 500 characters, whereas in the legacy builder 1000 characters was allowed.  We often get testimonials (one of our survey questions) that exceed 500 characters.  I strongly recommend a 1000 character Open Answer response field option. 

 

I hope CC will add this lost functionality back into the Survey Builder very soon!

TysonH
Marketing Expert

I just posted the same concern about the lack of a Comments field within a Multiple Choice survey question.  Adding an Open Answer Question after each Survey Question as suggested by Frankie_P is a workaround for me.

M.ElaineD
Marketing Legend

The Open Answer Question is also handled as it's own entity in the reporting - there is no way to determine which Open Answer response was intended to be a comment to a specific multiple choice question.  The report exports all the Open Answer responses questions at the top of the report regardless of their order in the survey.  

kathyb_biav
Marketing Legend

Completely agree. We will need to find another platform if this feature is not available.

PeterP3
Rookie
It will be crucial for my survey questions to include a mixture of multiple choice questions AND the ability of respondents to leave comments. This has been one of the most important areas of feedback for my surveys. It's helpful to have the option to include the answer "Other" along with a comment area to explain what the respondent's "Other" is, and each question should also have the option to include a separate "Comment" section. Many times respondents want to leave comments in addition to simply marking answer A, B, or C. Please consider including the ability to add a "Comment" section at the end of each question, no matter what format the question may take (i.e. multiple choice, ranking, check the box, etc.). Thank you.
Caitlin_M
Administrator
Status changed to: Voting Open

Hi @STCNYMetro. I have a few points to address.

I'm going to open this idea up for voting in regards to the request of letting respondents add a comment to a question block.

With "Multi-Select Multiple Choice", this can be done using the Checkbox question block where multiple answers can be selected. Rating on a scale is available within the survey page product. Was there another style you were looking for that was available through our legacy survey?

Legacy surveys cannot be imported due to the difference between the two editors.

PhylissM1
Rookie

I've got to say I really dislike the new surveys. It's like you threw out the full functionality in a bid to just improve the aesthetics. Form over function is an awful approach. There is now no way to add comment boxes to multiple choice questions (for example, "are you undergrad or grad or alum" please add in the comments the class year) or have multiple write in answers under one header question (for example, "please give your info" - name, address, email, city, college, company). The reporting is unprofessional and terrible to use. When you export a crv, no one want a vertical column with all the information lined up that way. Please reposition it so each respondent has a line on the x axis with all the questions on the y axis.

 

In it's current form, your surveys have become practically pointless to use. I will be looking for an alternative from now on if the functionality and reporting features don't improve ASAP, especially because without the choice to copy our legacy surveys, I might as well change platforms since I need to recreate each one already. 

SymphonyInTheValley
Campaign Contributor

Based on the lack of functionality in the new survey tool, I believe I will seriously begin looking at other platforms

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