What is survey logic?
Survey logic is a set of rules that changes which question comes next based on an answer, or ends the survey early. It keeps each person on the questions that apply to them, so surveys stay short and the answers stay relevant.
Surveys that follow the answers
Without logic, every person sees every question in the same order. With it, a survey can react: a customer who gives a low score is asked what went wrong, a happy one is invited to refer a friend, and someone who has never used a feature skips the questions about it.
Every question that doesn't apply costs attention. Irrelevant questions get careless answers or none, and they make people more likely to leave before the end. Short paths that fit the person keep the answers honest and complete.
The most common forms are skip logic, which jumps past questions that don't apply, and branching, which sends people down different paths that can meet again later. Some tools also offer display logic, which shows or hides a single question based on earlier answers.
- Also called
- Skip logic, branching, conditional logic
- Rule shape
- If the answer is X, go to question Y or end the survey
- Used for
- Follow-ups by score, skipping questions that don't apply
- Keeps
- Surveys short and every question relevant
How survey logic works
A logic rule sits on a question and checks its answer. If the answer meets the condition, the survey jumps to the question the rule names, or ends. If no rule matches, the person goes on to the next question, or to a fallback you set.
The conditions you can use depend on the question type:
- Scores: equals, at least, at most, greater than or less than a value
- Single choices: is or is not a given option
- Multiple choices: contains or doesn't contain an option
- Text: contains or doesn't contain a word
- Any question: answered or not answered
Survey logic examples
Most logic in customer surveys does one of a few jobs: asking a follow-up of the people it fits, skipping a section that doesn't apply, or ending the survey for people with nothing more to add.
| If the answer is | Go to | Why |
|---|---|---|
| NPS of 6 or lower | “What went wrong?” | Hear the reason from unhappy customers |
| NPS of 9 or 10 | A referral invitation | Ask the happiest customers for a favor |
| No to “Have you used the app?” | The questions about the website | Skip what doesn't apply |
| “Price” as the reason for canceling | A question about plans and pricing | Dig into the main reason |
| No to “Can we contact you?” | End of survey | Skip the contact details |
Skip logic vs branching vs display logic
The names overlap, and tools use them loosely. Skip logic and branching both move people forward from a question based on its answer, while display logic decides, question by question, whether to show it at all.
| Skip logic | Branching | Display logic | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it does | Jumps past questions | Sends people down separate paths | Shows or hides one question |
| Typical use | Skip a section that doesn't apply | A path per score group or customer type | One follow-up inside a longer page |
| Example | No to “Did you contact support?” skips the support questions | Detractors get a recovery path, promoters a referral path | “Which plan?” shows only to people who pay |
A survey logic example
Say a six-question survey uses logic after its NPS question, and 200 customers answer. Detractors go through five questions, passives through three and promoters through two.
Without logic, each of them would see all six. With it, the average person answers 3.1 questions, and each group sees the questions meant for it.
- Detractors, 0 to 6
- 50 people × 5 questions = 250
- Passives, 7 to 8
- 70 people × 3 questions = 210
- Promoters, 9 to 10
- 80 people × 2 questions = 160
- Average path
- 620 ÷ 200 = 3.1 questions
How to test survey logic
Before you publish, walk each path yourself: answer as a detractor, a passive and a promoter, and pick each option that has a rule. Check that every path reaches the end and that nobody meets a question that assumes an answer they didn't give.
- A rule that points to a question you moved or deleted
- Follow-ups that never rejoin the questions everyone should answer
- A path that ends the survey before the closing question
- A follow-up that refers to an answer the person never gave
How survey logic works in Usertick
In the survey editor, on every plan, each question can carry logic rules: if this question's answer meets a condition, go to another question or end the survey. Rules are checked from top to bottom, a fallback sets where everyone else goes, and the conditions follow the type, from “at least 9” on an NPS score to “contains” on a text answer.
Logic runs when questions are shown step by step or as a chat, and a single-screen survey keeps its rules but shows every question. The preview follows your rules as you edit, and the publish checks point out a rule that jumps nowhere, with Fix to take you to it.
Each rule checks the answer to the question it sits on, so place it on the question whose answer decides the path. To show different questions by country or device, or on a website by page or user trait, variants on Business can hide questions or add their own.
Mistakes to avoid with survey logic
Small choices that keep the results useful.
- 01
Follow-ups that never rejoin
A branch that ends before the shared questions loses those answers from that group. Point every path back to the questions everyone should answer.
- 02
Publishing without walking every path
A rule that looks right in the editor can still skip a key question. Answer the survey once for each path before it goes live.
- 03
Reading a branch as everyone's view
A question shown only to unhappy customers reflects only them. Note who saw each question when you report its answers.
- 04
Adding branches nobody needs
Each rule adds a path to check and maintain. Keep logic to the answers that change what you need to ask next.
Frequently asked questions
Skip logic jumps past questions that don't apply, and branching sends people down different paths based on an answer. In practice one rule can do both, and many tools use the two words for the same thing.
Shorter, relevant paths make a survey easier to finish. In Usertick, completion rate is the average share of questions answered, so questions skipped by logic count as unanswered and lower it.
In some tools, yes. In Usertick, a rule checks the answer to the question it sits on, so put the rule on the question whose answer decides the path, and it can jump past any number of questions after it.
Yes. In Usertick, logic runs in step-by-step and chat surveys. In a chat, people can change an earlier answer, and only the answers on the path they took are sent.
Logic rules move people past questions based on their answers, and Usertick has no show-if rule for a single question. To show different questions by country or device, or on a website by page or user trait, use variants on Business.
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