Save Survey Button Pros & Cons

Ask any expert in research methods and there is a good chance they will recommend a “save survey” button that allows your sample to save the survey and come back to it at a later date. People have busy lives and distractions, and for many surveys – especially long surveys – it’s possible that they need a break to answer the phone or go to the bathroom, etc. The “save survey” button allows them to finish and come back to the survey later, improving your response rate.

But the save survey button is not perfect. Here are some of the benefits and weaknesses of including this button:

Improved Response Rate The idea behind the “save survey” button is a valid one. If respondents cannot save their survey they may not be willing to re-fill in all of their answers that got lost when they had to take a break from their survey, and you hurt the response rate.

In addition, when a survey is saved, you will have the data on hand in case the respondent never comes back to complete the survey, and a saved survey also allows you a good excuse to send additional reminders that will hopefully provide you with more responses. All of these should help you receive a better response rate from your sample. May Avoid Central Tendency You never want your respondents to be in too much of a rush, otherwise they may simply answer all of the questions with central tendency bias in order to get the survey over with and move on to their next task.

Save buttons give the respondent faith that they do not need to rush through your survey, because in the event that something interrupts them they can always come back to it later. Helps Relax Respondent A respondent’s emotions during a survey can play a role in how they answer your questions. The knowledge that they can save the survey and come back to it at any moment is useful as a tool for improving their relaxation and hopefully provide you with more accurate responses.

Clearly there are some benefits to including a “save survey” button, but as always with an addition to a survey there may be some potential weaknesses. In the next article, we’ll look at some of the possible problems that may arise from adding this type of feature.