Survey flow
When a survey is triggered there is a flow of steps as the respondent provides their feedback. For example the default thank you page displayed when feedback is submitted. Or use the powerful auto-progression features to make single question per page feedback progress automatically, making the flow as smooth as possible.
Standard flow
How a survey is triggered determines exactly how it is subsequently displayed. A code triggered survey is usually displayed when user requests it, for example by clicking a feedback menu option. An invite to provide feedback is usually triggered by the targeting features of Digital, for example when a user completes a transaction in an online shop. Or the survey could even have an invite based trigger but the actual invite can be skipped, in effect triggering the survey directly.
Regardless of how the survey is triggered, the standard flow in a survey is:
- Survey displayed to respondent
- Respondent provides feedback through survey components
- On multi-page surveys, respondent navigates through pages. By default the Next button is shown, the Back button is not.
- Respondent clicks submit to send the survey to Medallia
- Thank you page is displayed
This is a suitable flow for collecting feedback for many situations. But Digital provides options to modify the flow, for example to support auto-advance through surveys and auto-submit of surveys.
Thank you page
By default, when a respondent submits the survey, a thank you page is displayed. This is a standard practice in such user interactions, but it can be configured.
Use the Do not show Thank You page option to control whether the thank you page is displayed.
Designing for survey flow
To use the auto-submit and auto-advance features surveys require a specific design where only one question is on the page. These types of question are referred to as single-select questions because they accept a single response.
When a survey uses auto-submit and auto-advance, the survey editor displays a message about the requirement and prevents you from adding more than one question to a page that uses the feature. Similarly, to enable these features on a survey it must not have pages with multiple questions. To convert a survey to use these features, ensure one question to a page.
Only these question types can be used on:
Question Type | Single-select compatible | Behavior |
Text Input | ✅ | ‘Enter’ on on-screen keyboard (if on a mobile or tablet device) ‘Enter’ on a physical keyboard (if on desktop/laptop device) |
Text Area | ❌ | N/A |
Dropdown | ✅ | Selection of an answer |
Radio Buttons | ✅ | Selection of an answer |
Checkboxes | ❌ | N/A |
Rating (1-5 Scale) | ✅ | Selection of an answer |
Rating (1-7 Scale) | ✅ | Selection of an answer |
Rating (1-10 Scale) | ✅ | Selection of an answer |
Rating (0-10 Scale) | ✅ | Selection of an answer |
NPS | ✅ | Selection of an answer |
Date | ❌ | N/A |
✅ | ‘Enter’ on on-screen keyboard (if on a mobile or tablet device) ‘Enter’ on a physical keyboard (if on desktop/laptop device) | |
Screen Capture | ❌ | N/A |
Auto advance
Available from May 2026, use auto-advance to automatically move the respondent to the next page after choosing their answer. This is designed to progress through a survey using a single-select question on each page, see Designing for survey flow. This reduces the number of clicks the respondent needs to progress through the survey.
Auto-advance is only available for the following types of survey form: Embedded, Code Trigger, Invite. It is not available for Button surveys.
Use the Hide Next button when possible option to remove the Next button on pages where the question type is compatible with auto-advance. Optionally, the Back button can still be shown if you select the option under Navigation Buttons, and you can choose to show all navigation buttons (Back, Next) and still retain auto-advance functionality.
For respondents using a screen reader, a notification announces at the beginning of the survey that auto-advance is enabled and that the survey automatically progresses after making an answer selection.
As part of this feature, multi-page surveys automatically skip any pages that would otherwise appear blank, for example when a conditional question has not been triggered. Additionally, blank pages or pages with no content are also detected and automatically removed from the survey flow. This enhancement has been made to all multi-page surveys, regardless of whether auto-advance is in use.
Survey auto-advance is an independent capability from survey auto-submit, providing the flexibility to choose one or both of these features together.
Auto submit
Available from May 2026, use auto-submit to automatically submit the survey for the respondent when they reply to the final question of a survey flow. The survey you want to automatically submit needs a page that uses a single-select question, see Designing for survey flow.
Auto-submit is only available for the following types of survey form: Embedded, Code Trigger, Invite. It is not available for Button surveys.
To use auto-submit, the Thank You Page must be enabled. Surveys that use auto-submit must have the Do not show the Thank You Page option disabled. Attempting to enable auto-submit on a survey with the Thank You Page not enabled triggers a warning that provides the option to enable the option.
Use the Hide Submit button when possible option to remove the Submit button on a page where the question type is compatible with auto-submit.
For respondents using a screen reader, a notification announces at the beginning of the survey that auto-submit is enabled and that the survey is automatically sent to Medallia after answering the final question.
Survey auto-advance is an independent capability from survey auto-submit, providing the flexibility to choose one or both of these features together.
