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Opt-In Survey Upon Site Exit

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Qtip: If you don’t have access to any of the features described on this page, reach out to your Account Executive. For more information about the differences between Digital Feedback and CustomerXM for Digital, see Digital Feedback vs. CustomerXM for Digital.

About Opt-in Surveys Upon Site Exit

Site exit surveys ask visitors to provide feedback after they leave a website.

Most site exit surveys pop under the webpage without asking the visitor to opt-in. For example, a standard Pop Under creates a window containing a survey invitation and hides behind the web page until the visitor ultimately exits the site. Once the visitor exits, the survey invitation window comes forward. However, in recent years, major browsers now prevent this behavior the same way they block Pop Ups.

By asking the visitor’s consent (allowing them to “opt-in”) before giving them your site exit survey, you can circumvent ad blockers. In the initial Creative, the visitor is asked whether they’d be okay with the Pop Under window appearing, thus bypassing any blocking behavior from the browser. Using this opt-in method for site exit surveys is widely regarded as a best practice for collecting site satisfaction scores and other information from a representative audience.

Qualtrics' home page, with a pop over asking if the visitor would like to participate in a feedback survey

Setting up an opt-in site exit survey involves three main steps:

  1. Building two Creatives: one that invites visitors to take your survey and one that is the actual Pop Under survey.
  2. Setting up an Intercept that shows the invitation Creative.
  3. Linking your Pop Under Creative to the Intercept Target.
Qtip: This outline assumes basic understanding of the following concepts: building Creatives, Responsive Dialogs, Pop Unders, and building Intercepts.
Attention: Pop Unders are not compatible with mobile browsers. Prevent these Intercepts from activating on mobile browsers by using Device Type logic.

Building Your Creatives

  1. Build a Creative to display your survey invitation. This is typically built as a Responsive Dialog, but other Creatives such as Sliders and Info Bars may be used as well.
    In the creative editor, a pop over asking if the visitor would like to complete a feedback survey

    Qtip: Be sure to publish your Creative.
  2. Create a Pop Under Creative.
    A Pop Under. ITs only feature is a text box with a message asking the visitor to please not exit the window because it will contain a survey when the visitor exits the site
  3. We recommend including a text box on your Creative explaining that the window must be left open and that your survey will appear there. Some version of the following text is usually appropriate: “Thanks for participating in our survey. Please leave this window open and a survey will appear in its place after your visit.”
  4. For the Pop Under, go to the Options page. First, enable Show Intercept target on specific events and then enable Site Exit.
    Image of the Site exit and Show Intercept target options

    Attention: You may see a yellow warning message about Pop Unders and Chrome. This warning message refers to the use of Pop Under Creatives without the opt-in portion. When you add the opt-in portion, this ensures that the Pop Under appears after the visitor closes their page.

Setting Up Your Intercept

image showing setting up the intercept

  1. Create an Intercept and if desired, set up your display conditions. These conditions will determine which visitors qualify for the initial invitation and are totally up to you.
  2. Select the Creative that invites users to take the survey. This was the Creative you made in step 1 of the Building Your Creative section above.
  3. Select the Target. This is the survey that should display when the Pop Under window appears.

Connecting Your Pop Under

  1. Click on the Action Set Options and select Advanced Options.
    image showing how to access the advanced options menu
  2. For the Display Options, select Open Target in a PopUnder Window.
    Open target in popunder window is selected on the left and content to display on load is set to the site exit pop under on the right
  3. For the Content to display on load dropdown, select the Pop Under that you made in steps 2-4 of the Building Your Creatives section above.
  4. Click Save.

The Result

  1. The visitor receives a Responsive Dialog asking them to participate in the survey.
    Qualtrics' home page, with a pop over asking if the visitor would like to participate in a feedback survey
  2. If the visitor agrees, the Pop Under pops up over the screen with its message.
    A window over the page saying the site exit survey will appear after the visitor exits

    Qtip: Any Embedded Data being collected by your intercept is set the moment the Pop Under loads (i.e. when your visitor opts-in to the survey). For example, if you’re recording Site History, the Site History is not updated in the Pop Under if the visitor navigates to a new page after the Pop Under loads.
  3. The visitor can freely browse the site, making the Pop Under go back under.
  4. Once the visitor navigates to a different website and then revisits the Pop Under, or exits the browser within your website, the Pop Under will load the site satisfaction survey.
    A window that no longer has the Qualtrics home page pulled up, but another one. Under the window is a site exit survey in a new window

FAQs

There are numerous potential causes as to why an intercept may not be appearing once it has been implemented. These causes may stem from the setup of the intercept itself or the implementation of the code.
  • Logic: intercept targeting logic and action set logic are the conditions that must be met in order for an intercept to be displayed to a visitor. Checking this logic will be helpful in discovering why the Intercept is not displaying on a page.
  • Logic sets that use “Contains”: A common cause of logic error is the use of the “Contains” vs. “Is.” To say a condition “Contains” means that the parameter you are basing the logic off (i.e., Current URL) will have the specified value present in addition to more information. For example, if I had logic that read as Current URL contains ‘qualtrics’, this would cause the intercept to display on any URL that has the word qualtrics present. The other option you have is using Current URL is [URL]. This condition depends on the visited URL being an exact match. Any differences or additional characters will prevent the intercept logic from passing.
  • Intercept Revisions: When making edits to intercepts, changes are not made live until the intercept is published. When publishing an Intercept, a version of the intercept, or a “revision,” is saved. Reviewing the revisions that have been made is very useful for identifying any changes that may have suddenly prevented the intercept from appearing.
  • Debug Window: The debug window is an invaluable tool for testing why an intercept is not displaying on a particular page.

    For intercepts whose deployment code was implemented before March 2019, to enable the debug window, append a query string to any given URL called Q_DEBUG. This must be prefixed with a ? or a & like the following examples: https://www.qualtrics.com?Q_DEBUG, https://www.qualtrics.com/blog?item=value&Q_DEBUG.

    For intercepts whose deployment code was implemented after March 2019, run the following JavaScript snippet in the Console of your web page: 
    
 QSI.API.unload();
 QSI.isDebug = true;
 QSI.API.load();
 QSI.API.run();
    The debug window breaks down all conditions required for intercepts running on the URL to appear. If you find that an intercept is not appearing, locate it in the debug window and identify any red failed warnings.
    Qtip: The Website Feedback debugger does not function if the code has been implemented using a tag manager. Also, if the URL already has a query string with a ?, then the debugger will require a & instead.
  • Network Request: Most browsers possess a developer tools menu that allows a user to see a site’s source code, resources, cookies, and network calls. Website Feedback possesses a distinct presence in the Network section of these tools. To check for these scripts running, open the developer tools and navigate to the Network section. Once here, reload the webpage and the menu should begin to populate with all network requests being made by the website. To identify Website Feedback code, look for calls that begin with ?Q_ZID or ?Q_SID. This is the code itself running checks on the display logic. If you cannot find anything matching this format, then there is an issue with the implementation of your project code. You can refer to our support page on implementation for advice on where is best to place the code.
  • Content Security Policy Issues: If you receive a console log that violates a Content Security Policy, there is most likely a restriction on your website that is blocking our intercepts from deploying. We recommend reaching out to your web-development team to resolve. To ensure your intercepts work, we generally recommend allowlisting the following items in your Content Security Policy headers:
    • connect-src https://*.qualtrics.com
    • frame-src https://*.qualtrics.com
    • img-src https://siteintercept.qualtrics.com
    • script-src https://*.qualtrics.com
There is a tool called a bookmarklet that allows you to test any intercept without having to activate it.
Within the Intercept Options, you will find the Display Intercept dropdown menu. This menu allows you to decide when a creative will be shown once the logic on the action sets has been successfully validated:
  • On Load: The On Load option is the most basic display option. With this option selected, an intercept fires on a valid page as soon as the page itself loads. This means that a website visitor could load a URL in a separate tab or browser instance and have a creative shown to them without seeing it themselves.
  • On Focus: The On Focus option allows us to more reliably ensure that a website visitor is active on a page before encountering an intercept. When a page loads that would display an intercept, the On Focus setting prevents the script from running until the visitor is active on the page. This is determined by mouse movement and clicking. This means that if the URL loads in a new tab, for example, the user will need to navigate to that tab and interact with the page first before the script runs. This is useful if your creatives are set to display on a timer.
  • On Exit Intent: This option aims to display a creative when the website visitor attempts to leave your site. When deployment code is present on a page, we can detect the movement of a user’s mouse within the bounds of the browser. The Exit Intent feature detects the moment a cursor moves to the upper regions of a browser and triggers the intercept at this moment. Thus, when someone attempts to close a tab, you can catch their attention.
  • Manually: This option is primarily used in Single Page Application setups. Selecting this will prevent anything from being displayed automatically. Instead, the Website Feedback API must be run by the site itself to make the script fire and a creative display. Commonly, this is used when you want an intercept to trigger when certain elements on a single page are changed, such as changing filter values or loading elements within the same URL.
Site Intercept has been renamed Website / App Feedback, since the primary function of these projects is to gather data on your online presence. The functionality for Website / App Feedback is on par with Site Intercept, with notable improvements and a beautiful new user interface.