So without any further ado, here are the most recent tips: 

1. The Poll Charts feature allows respondents to view the overall results of the poll 

2. Associate a descriptive label to each of the numbers when using satisfaction scale questions 

3. The Auto-format features forces survey taker to enter a particular value rather than a random answer  

4. If you notify respondents in advance of sending the survey they’ll be more likely to recognize the survey when it arrives 

5. If you had a particularly long survey, consider using the Save And Continue Button feature  

If you can’t wait for the weekly update be sure to follow SurveyGizmo on twitter to get the new tip each day. You can find the compiled lists of the Survey Tip of the Day and additional online survey tips and suggestions here at the SurveyGizmo blog as well as links to helpful SurveyGizmo tutorials. If you have any survey tips you would like to share leave us a comment or send us an email, SurveyGizmo is all about feedback.

Email the Link to Continue the Survey Later

The Save and Continue feature works by emailing the survey taker a unique URL to return to the place they left off in their online survey at a later date and time. When the respondent returns to the survey using the link, it will open on the page where they left off.

You can find the new Save and Continue survey feature under Edit Survey -> Advanced Options. To use this feature you need a Pro or Enterprise Account and you’ll need to toggle it on for your survey.

If you haven’t noticed, we pride ourselves on being the most powerful and flexible online survey software tool. So, as with everything else in SurveyGizmo, we allow you to customize every aspect of this new feature from the Advanced Options page, including all the text settings and the email we send to the respondent containing their save and continue link.

Special for Enterprise Users! Automated Email Reminders

If you are an Enterprise user, you can even schedule automatic reminder emails to be sent urging the survey taker to wrap up their work. Simply set the frequency of the email and its content at the bottom of the ‘Save and Continue’ section in Advanced Options.

Alternate Use: Pass-Along Surveys

One of the other uses for this feature is for ‘pass-along’ surveys. We’ve noticed this is most common in online surveys asking for detailed information at many levels in an organization. The director of sales may have the information for one part of your survey and a secretary in the finance office may have the rest. If you simply reword the text links to “Forward survey” this feature allows your survey takers to complete the portion of the response they are responsible for, then send it along to the next individual!

The Old Way… Pro20

The old way of returning to a survey to continue your work was to tell your survey takers to bookmark the unique URL that they received after they started a survey. That way of ‘saving and continuing’ was a bit challengin — and it only worked for 7 days. This new method is designed to replace bookmarking, which will not work in the future because of URL changes. On a side note, previously bookmarked ‘pro20′ links will continue to work for a time.