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Retake Survey Link

Suite

Customer Experience Strategy & Research

Product

Qualtrics

What's on this page

About the Retake Survey Link

Retake survey links allow you or your respondent to go back into a survey response and edit it after it’s been submitted. This is useful if a respondent wants to change their answer to a question, or if the respondent’s incomplete response was closed because of inactivity, but they would still like to finish the survey.

This page covers how retake links work in surveys, XM Solutions, Conjoints, and MaxDiff projects. For retakes in Employee Experience projects, see either Retake Survey Link (EX) or Retake Survey Link (360).

Qtip: Although you can issue retake links for any recorded response, responses in progress must be closed and moved to recorded responses first. See Responses in Progress for instruction on closing responses.

Warning: If you issue a retake link and the respondent completes it, the retake counts as a new survey session and will count towards your auditable responses.

Retake Link Types

There are 2 types of Retake Survey links:

Retake Response: The edited response replaces the original response.
Retake as New Response: The edited response is saved in addition to the original response.

In both cases, the link starts the survey at the beginning. The respondent’s original answers are prepopulated in the survey, and any questions they didn’t answer will be blank. You can leave these answers as they are or make changes as you progress through the survey. In either case, the retake counts as a new auditable response for your license.

Issuing Retake Links

Qtip: You cannot issue retake links in bulk. Each response must have its own retake link issued manually.

Attention: If you edited a response or created custom fields before issuing a retake, your response edits and custom fields won’t carry through to the retake.

Navigate to the Data section of the Data & Analysis tab.

Retake Response options in the righthand Actions column dropdown

Select the 3 dots next to the response you need to retake.

Qtip: To make finding the response easier, we recommend having a survey question that asks for some identifying information. You can then use response filtering to quickly locate the response.

Select the retake link type.

Copy the link that pops up. Anyone can use this link to retake that particular response.

image of the new retake link for a recorded response

Qtip: If you have a large group of people you’d like to take the survey a second time and you want to collect new responses in addition to the old responses, then you won’t use the retake survey link. Instead, distribute the survey again through emails, personal links, or the anonymous link.

Qtip: If you have large edits to make to many different responses, try using the response editing feature instead.

Building a Retake Link

Sometimes it’s necessary to immediately send a retake link to a respondent or another person once the initial survey is submitted. For example, you might have a survey filled out by job seekers, which then triggers an email with the retake link to your Human Resources department. HR then fills out additional questions about the applicant and resubmits the information.

Qtip: The method outlined below is for sending the retake link in an email task, but this can be applied in a message at the end of the survey, including messages at the end of different survey branches.

Navigate to the Workflows tab of your survey.

In the workflows tab, clicking "create a workflows" and then "started when an event is received"

Create a new workflow.

Select Started when an event is received.

Select the Survey Response event.

the survey response event in the event selection window

Choose the types of responses that will trigger the workflow. See types of survey response events for more information about these options. Most of the time, you’ll choose Newly created responses.

choosing newly created responses and clicking finish

Click Finish.

Click the plus sign (+ ) and select Add a condition.

Create a condition for Embedded Data Q_URL doesn’t contain Q_R.

Attention: Adding this condition ensures that only the original survey response prompts a retake link by checking that the URL associated with this response doesn’t contain the retake tag. Without this condition, the respondent will also receive this email workflow after they take their retake link survey.

Navigate to the Distributions tab of your survey.

copying the retake link from the distributions tab

Select Anonymous Link.

Click Copy survey link to copy the anonymous link for your survey.

Return to the Workflows tab and select the workflow you created earlier.

In the workflow, click the plus sign ( + ).

Select Add a task.

Choose the email task.

the email task in the task selection window

Paste the anonymous link into the body of the email.

Shows retake link in the body of the email.

Qtip: Be careful that you don’t paste in a hyperlink here! This can prevent you from properly editing your link. If your anonymous link is blue and clickable, then highlight the text and click the break hyperlink icon.

Append “?Q_R=” to the end of the URL.

a retake link in the message editor. the string "?Q_R=" is added at the end of the url

Example: If the URL was brandid.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_1234567890, then the link is now brandid.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_1234567890?Q_R=

Place your cursor after the equal sign in your URL and click the piped text icon {a}.

the piped text menu in the message editor is open and the response id option is selected

Hover over Response and select Response ID.

Example: After selecting Response ID, your link should look like this: brandid.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_1234567890?Q_R=${e://Field/ResponseID}

If you want the retake link response to replace the original response, append “&Q_R_DEL=1” to the end of the link, after the Response ID piped text. If you want to keep the original response, skip this step.

a retake link in the email editor. the string "&Q_R_DEL=1" is added at the end of the url so that the retake overwrites the original response

Example: If you wanted the retake to replace the original response, your link would look like this: brandid.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_1234567890?Q_R=${e://Field/ResponseID}&Q_R_DEL=1

Qtip: If this new link seems too long, you can make a clickable word or phrase in your email instead by inserting a hyperlink.

Qtip: When a survey respondent uses this retake link with Q_R_DEL=1 at the end, their old response will be deleted as soon as they submit the last page of the survey. If a respondent just clicks the link without filling out the survey, their old response will not be deleted. If a respondent partially completes the retake but stops before submitting, and incomplete responses are set to record, the incomplete retake will eventually be recorded as a new, separate response that does not overwrite the original.

Finish setting up your email task. See Email Task if you have questions about setting up this task.

When finished, click Save.

The individual who receives the email task will have a link that allows them to see the original response and change its answers.

Qtip: Use piped text in the “to” field for your email to ensure the respondent receives their own retake link. For example, pipe in contact information.

Displaying Certain Content During Retakes

It’s possible to set up your survey so that certain questions appear only when a retake link is used (for example, when you have a reviewer going over responses, or you’re sending a form to a manager to review and sign). This section walks through how to set your survey up this way.

Attention: If you would like to hide the initial survey taker’s response from the person retaking the survey instead, please see the Hiding Certain Content During Retakes section below.

Once you’ve finished building your survey questions, navigate to the Survey flow.

Click Add a New Element Here.

adding an embedded data element to the survey flow

Select Embedded Data.

Add the field Q_URL.

an embedded data element at the bottom of the survey flow

Move your embedded data element to the top of your survey flow.

Click Apply.

the apply button at the bottom of the survey flow

In the survey builder, find the question that you want to only appear during retakes.

Showing display logic in the question editing page to the left

Under Question behavior, select Display logic.

Warning: You should only add the display logic to additional questions you want the reviewer to see. You don’t want to hide any of your original questions from the reviewer, as the retake link will not save responses to any questions not displayed to the reviewer.

Choose Embedded Data to base the logic on.

creating a logic condition for embedded data Q_URL contains Q_R

Enter Q_URL as the embedded data field.

Select Contains as the operator for your logic.

Enter Q_R as the embedded data value.

Click the plus sign ( + ) to add a second logic condition.

Make sure the logic conditions are separated by Or.

creating the condition for Q_URL contains Q_R_DEL

Create a condition for Embedded Data Q_URL Contains Q_R_DEL.

Click Save.

Warning: Make sure that you have only added display logic to additional questions you want the reviewer to see. You shouldn’t hide any of your original questions from the reviewer, as the retake link won’t save responses to any questions not displayed to the reviewer.

Qtip: If all the questions you want to display during the retake are contained in the same block, then you can use branch logic to display the questions instead.

Hiding Certain Content During Retakes

To prevent the second survey taker (a reviewer or manager, for example) from viewing or changing answers entered by the initial survey taker, you can hide the questions with a timing question. This method will ensure that even though the second survey taker won’t see the questions you choose to hide, the initial response data will save properly with the response.

Determine which questions you would like to hide, and make sure they are in the same block and will display on the same page to survey takers. See Timing a Question or Set of Questions for more details on how to set this up.

Create a new question at the top of the block of questions you would like to hide.

Showing how to hover over a question to get a plus sign to appear so you can add questions above it; then, when selecting a timing question, shows all the different options in the editing pane, from question type, to auto advance, to question behavior

Under Question type, select Timing.

Enable Auto advance.

Change the Auto-advance after (seconds) option to 1.

Under Question behavior, select Display logic. See Display Logic for more details on this feature.

Attention: You must use display logic to selectively time the reviewer’s response. If you forget to add display logic to your timing question, the survey will skip these questions for everyone!

Choose Embedded Data to base the logic on.

Q_URL containing Q_R as the embedded data element that will cause the question to display

Enter Q_URL as the embedded data field.

Select Contains as the operator for your logic.

Enter Q_R as the embedded data value.

Click Save.

Repeat this process for any other blocks or questions you would like to hide from reviewers.

Publish your changes.

This setup will cause the page of questions to auto-advance after 0.1 seconds. This means that the questions won’t be displayed to or editable by the reviewer. However, since the original answers will be submitted through the auto-advance setting, those answers will be saved with the response.

FAQs

Can a participant retake their survey?

Yes, a participant can retake their survey if they are sent a Retake Survey link. See the Retake Link support page for instructions on getting this link.

Note that in Retake Survey links, all of the participant’s original answers are prepopulated. If new questions have been added to the survey in the meantime, those questions will be blank.

What is the difference between Retake Survey and Retake Survey as New Response?

With Retake Survey, the edited survey responses replace the participant’s original responses; after the Retake session is submitted, the original survey session is deleted.

With Retake Survey as New Response, the edited survey responses are saved in addition to the original responses.

Can I edit or add information to a response after it has been submitted?

Yes! You can create new custom information to survey responses after they have already been recorded. See Editing Custom Fields. You can also edit responses generally.

If you would like an individual to retake their response instead, you can find instructions for this on the Retake Survey Link support page.

Can I let someone retake their response but also keep a record of their original response?

If you would like to keep a record of the original response upon resubmission, select the dropdown arrow to the right of the response and then select Retake as New Response to get a retake link that will maintain the original response submitted and record the new one from the retake link.

See the Retake Survey Link support page for additional information.

How do I get a retake link for a response so a respondent can change their answer or fill out a question they missed originally?

Use the filter at the top-left corner to find the response in question. Then on the right side of the response, click on the dropdown arrow and select Retake Response to get a retake link. You can send this link to the respondent and it will allow them to click through the survey and change previous answers or answer missed questions. Once the respondent submits this survey session, it will save over the original response. For more information regarding retaking surveys, visit the Retake Survey Link support page.

What happens if someone leaves their retake link in the middle? Will they be able to proceed with their new answers, or the old ones?

If you want respondents to be able to enter a retake link, stop in the middle, and return, you'll need to have Save and Continue enabled. The respondents will also have to come back on the same browser, because this feature relies on cookies to save progress. This is how retake links function regardless of how you originally distributed the survey.

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