What are Behaviours?
Two things can end a survey part-way through, whatever question is being asked: the respondent is busy, or they want to stop. The Behaviours fixed section is where you describe what counts as each. It is described as “Busy and stop — what counts as each, in the respondent’s words.” The pane adds: “What each route does is fixed — busy ends the call as callback_requested, stop as refused. What counts as one is survey content.” Open Behaviours in the Outline on the Questions tab, edit the two groups and click Save. The confirmation is Behaviours saved.The two routes
Both are live for the whole call, from the consent question to the last question. When either fires during a question, that question is recorded as
abandoned, and the session ends as terminated in Results with the outcome code saying which.
The busy route does not ask for a callback time. A time is asked only when the respondent says “not now” to the consent question at the start of the call (see Gatekeeper). Whether and when the contact is called again is decided by the batch the survey runs in — see Calling Rules & Retries.
Write the closing texts for both codes in the Closing section — for example “No problem, we’ll try you another time.” for callback_requested and “No problem at all, I’ll let you go.” for refused.
Fields
Each group has:Example Accept lines
Busy / call me back- Says it is a bad time, or asks to be called back later
- Says they are driving, at work or about to go out
- Asks to stop, or says they do not want to continue
- Asks to be taken off the list or not called again
Reject lines that matter
A short answer to a question can sound like a behaviour. “No” to “Do you use public transport?” is an answer, not a request to stop; “Not right now” to “Are you currently working?” is an answer, not a request to call back. The interviewer already checks each reply against the question just asked and treats a direct answer as an answer by default, and it automatically keeps busy and stop from firing on a refusal of one question (“I’d rather not answer that one”) or on a voicemail greeting. If you still see a behaviour fire on answers, add Reject lines naming them, for example “A one-word answer to the question, such as yes, no, never or unsure” or “Declining to answer one question — that is a skip, not a stop”.Why Always fires is normally off
Always fires takes a route out of the answer-or-detour check, so it fires whenever its Accept lines match. For busy and stop that is almost always wrong: the words that trigger them are the same words respondents use to answer questions, and a false stop throws away the rest of the interview. Leave it off unless a real call shows the route being missed. See Answers given early and interruptions.Behaviour step levels
The pane ends with its own Step levels group: “The gates the busy and stop closes are spoken under — their own, not the survey’s. The reason is already recorded and the call is ending, so the line is delivered and the wait after it is short.”
Each can be set to Survey default, Low, Medium or High.