Resetting survey contacts

Resetting contacts makes it possible for those contacts to fill out the survey again using the same link that they have received before.

You can automate this task by scheduling a recurrence. Or you can do it manually, for example when it applies to only a handful of contacts.

Upon resetting a contact you can decide which status the contact receives and whether or not their previous responses may be deleted.

There are several occasions where resetting a contact is recommended:

  • You cannot find the original invitation anymore and you want to send respondents a new one.
  • Your contacts want to fill out the survey again because they misinterpreted something and made a mistake.
  • Your contacts got screened out and you want to clear them to take the survey again.
  • Your original invitation contained an error and you want to correct it.

Resetting contacts

  1. Open your survey.
  2. Select Distribute > Email > Contacts.
  3. Search for your contact using the filter options.
  4. Select Reset from the Actions dropdown next to the contact you want to reset.

    Reset contact.

  5. Alternatively select multiple contacts and click Reset at the top of the contact list.
  6. Select the status that you want to reset the contact to:

    • Included — This person will receive a new email invitation.

    • Invited — This person will not receive a new email invitation.

  7. If you want to delete their previous responses, select Delete their answers if they responded. This action cannot be undone.

  8. Click Reset selected contacts.

    Reset selected contacts.

The survey URL in the original email invitation (or reminder) will always work again after resetting a contact, regardless of the selected status.

Previous responses not deleted

When you reset a contact and you do not select Delete their answers, then the links between the contacts and their previous answers are broken. The previous answers of the contacts remain in the survey and are available in the reporting and downloads.

This means that you won't be able to filter directly on contact metadata. For example, if you have placed the employee department in custom field 1, you will need to create a hidden dropdown question to hold that information and pre-fill it with the custom field 1. That way, you will be able to filter on 'department' in the reports.

See Capturing contact data in hidden questions for additional information.