Make Questions Required

What is this?

This feature allows you to set up a restriction that forces your respondents to answer a particular question before being allowed to move on to the next page of your survey. It will throw up a warning that will tell them exactly which question(s) they missed so they can go back and finish them before moving on.

What’s the difference between Required Question and a Soft-Required question?

A regular “hard” required question will throw up an error message if the required question is not completed. It will continue to do so if the respondent does not fill it out.

A Soft-Required will throw up the warning, but let them pass through the second time they leave it blank. For more information, please visit: Features: Soft-Required Questions

When would I use this?

You would use this feature if you wanted to make sure that you had answers for every question within your survey. You would also want to use this feature if you were basing future question logic on the answer of a prior question.

A great example case of this would be if you need someone to agree to a few terms and conditions prior to moving forward in the survey. You can set up a question that asks “Do you agree to the above terms and conditions?” with the answer options “yes” and no”. From there, if you require this question, they will not be able to move forward without agreeing. Even if they choose “no” you can set up logic to disqualify they so they do not end up as a part of your data.

When would I avoid this?

If you are asking questions that are specifically looking for an opinion that some people may not feel comfortable giving (or your answer options do not fit their views) it’s best not to require the question. If you absolutely need an answer to the question, you can require it, but be sure to include options such as “None of the Above”, or “Other” with an open textbox for them to explain their answers.

Other situations to avoid would be, if you do not actually need someone’s email address, but you’re offering them the chance to provide it if they want updates on your product, it’s best to avoid requiring that question. If you were to do so and they do not wish to receive product updates, they may abandon your survey if you force them to enter it, and that can lower your response rate.

What does the warning message look like?

Below is an example of our default error message, but you can also customize it to fit your particular needs.

Additional Articles Related to Required Questions

• Tutorial: Soft-Required Questions
• Tutorial: Remove the Asterisk on Required Questions
• Quick Tip: Change Required Asterisk Color