What are survey FAQs?
Respondents ask things: “Who is this?”, “How long will it take?”, “Where did you get my number?”. The FAQs fixed section is where you write the answers. It is described as “What the respondent may ask about the call, the study or the interviewer.” FAQs are live for the whole call — at the consent question and during every question. When a respondent asks one, the interviewer speaks your answer, then goes back to the question that was open and waits for the reply. The same FAQ can be answered as many times as it is asked. With none written, the pane warns: “No FAQs authored. Without them the interviewer has no answer for “who is calling?” or “how long will this take?”.” Open FAQs in the Outline on the Questions tab, click + Add FAQ, fill in the fields and click Save. The confirmation is FAQs saved. A survey can hold up to 50 FAQs.FAQ fields
Writing Accept lines
Accept lines describe what the respondent means, not an exact phrase to match. Write one condition per line, in plain words:- Asks how long the survey will take
- Asks how many questions are left
Often heard as and Reject
Leave these empty to begin with. Add to them only when you see a problem on a real call:- Often heard as — when the recogniser writes a question down wrongly and the FAQ misses it. Never add mishearings as keyterms.
- Reject — when the FAQ fires on something it should not. Say what it is and where it belongs, for example “Asking for the question to be read again — that belongs to the question”.
Answer and Asked again
Write answers as one or two spoken sentences. The answer is said over a question that is still open, so keep it short and let the interviewer hand straight back. If a respondent asks the same thing twice, a line from Asked again is used instead of repeating the answer word for word. Two or three variations sound more natural than one.Always fires
Every FAQ normally goes through a check first: when a reply could be either an answer to the current question or an FAQ, the interviewer decides which the respondent meant, and treats it as an answer by default. Always fires skips that check for this FAQ, so it answers whenever its Accept lines match. Turn it on only for an FAQ where missing the question is worse than answering it by mistake. See Answers given early and interruptions.Priorities
Every FAQ has a Priority from 41 to 99. A lower number ranks higher: when two FAQs match the same words, the lower number wins. + Add FAQ gives each new FAQ the next free number.- No two FAQs may share a number. The field warns “
nis used by another FAQ — the compiler refuses a duplicate.” - Every specific FAQ must sit below the catch-all. The field warns “
nis at or above the catch-all atc— the catch-all would answer instead. Give this one a lower number.”
The catch-all
Below the specific FAQs is the Catch-all group: “Answers any other question about the call, the study or the interviewer that no FAQ above covers. A specific FAQ that also matches always wins. Left empty, unexpected questions fall through to the question being asked.” The catch-all is the FAQ with the keyother. It sits at priority 99 on new surveys; surveys created before 23 September 2026 keep it at 49, and new FAQs on those surveys must stay below 49. It has its own Answer, Asked again and Always fires.
Write the catch-all answer as a polite deflection that steers back to the survey, for example “That’s a good question, but I’m not able to help with that on this call. Shall we carry on?” Give it two or three Asked again lines, and add Reject lines so it does not swallow “can you say that again?” or “what do you mean?” — those belong to the question.
FAQ step levels
The FAQ pane ends with its own Step levels group: “The gates every FAQ answer above is spoken under — its own, not the survey’s. An answer is one line said over a question that is still open, so it waits briefly and hands straight back.”
Each can be set to Survey default, Low, Medium or High. These defaults mean a survey slowed down for thoughtful answers does not also slow down a one-line FAQ answer. See Attempts and step levels.
A starter set
Most surveys need answers to the same handful of questions. A typical set:”Are you a real person?” and “Is this an AI?” have no built-in answer. If you do not write an FAQ for them, the question falls to the catch-all or back to the question being asked. Write the answer your organisation is comfortable with.