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Start a new survey

You need the surveys.create permission.
  1. Go to Outbound Calls → Surveys.
  2. Click New survey ▾ and choose Start from scratch — “Blank survey with an empty draft version”.
  3. The Start a new survey dialog opens: “Create a native Voxworks draft with a ready-to-edit first section.”
  1. Click Create survey (it reads Creating… while it saves). The toast “Survey created” appears and the new survey opens in the survey workspace.
You can change the name and description later on the Settings tab.

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What a new survey contains

  • Version v1, with the status draft — the only version you can edit until you publish.
  • One section, titled Main survey (key main), ready for your first question.
  • The fixed sections — Agent, FAQs, Behaviours, Gatekeeper and Closing — empty, waiting for you to fill them in.
  • Moving-on lines turned off — the interviewer won’t say “Alright” or “Noted” after each answer unless you turn it on. See Agent section.
A new survey starts with blockers on the Readiness tab — it has no questions, no greeting and none of the outcome codes every survey needs. The walkthrough below clears them. If you already have a survey definition in Voxworks JSON, you can import it instead. To start from an existing survey, use Create Voxworks copy on the Surveys list.

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Walkthrough: from empty draft to first publish

Work down the Outline on the Questions tab. Each fixed section has its own form with a Save button.

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1. Agent — who is calling

Open Agent and fill in Agent name, Organisation and Study name, then choose a Voice. The outbound greeting (step 2) is spoken exactly as you write it, so name the agent and organisation there too; a respondent who calls back hears the organisation and the study name.
There is no default voice. If you don’t choose one, Readiness warns “No voice is chosen — the compiled script will carry none and cannot place a call.”
This is also where the survey-wide attempt caps and step levels live. The defaults are a sensible start. See Agent section and Attempts and step levels. Open Gatekeeper → Outbound and write the Greeting. It is the first thing a person hears, and it must end with the consent question — for example “Hi, it’s Alex from Acme Research. We’re running a short survey about local services and would love your views. Are you happy to take part?” An empty greeting is a blocker. See Gatekeeper. Decide what an answering machine gets under Voicemail - Message and Voicemail - SMS — see Voicemail and SMS.

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3. FAQs — what respondents will ask

Add answers to the questions people ask interviewers: who is calling?, how long will this take?, where did you get my number?, what is it for?, what happens to my answers? Without them the interviewer has no answer for these. See FAQs.

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4. Your questions

Under Main survey in the outline, click Add question. Pick a Type, write the Voice prompt — the words the interviewer reads out — and fill in the type’s own settings. Click Add question at the bottom of the pane to save it. Add more sections with the + beside Outline when the questionnaire has distinct parts. See Sections and Question settings.

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5. Routing (optional)

If some respondents should skip questions or be screened out, add rules on the Logic tab. Without rules, everyone is asked every question in order. See Routing rules.

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6. Closing — outcomes and farewell

Open Closing. Write the Farewell — spoken last on every call where someone is on the line. Then add the four outcome codes every survey ends with: completed, callback_requested, refused and no_contact. The alert at the top of the section lists any that are missing, with an Add them link. Give each a closing text. See Closing and outcomes.

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7. Check readiness and compile

Click Validate in the header. It opens the Readiness tab, and when there are no blockers (and you have the surveys.publish permission) it starts a compile. A badge beside the survey name reads Queued…, then Compiling…, and the toast Compiled for voice confirms it has finished — typically in under a minute or two. See Readiness and Validate, compile and publish.

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8. Test

The compiled script appears in Call Scripts, named after the survey. Place a test call to it and listen to the whole interview, including a “no” at the greeting and a “don’t know” on a question. See Running a survey.

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9. Publish

When you’re happy, click Publish. The version becomes published and can no longer be edited — to change anything later, create a new draft from Version history. See Versions and drafts.

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Next Steps