> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.voxworks.ai/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Answers Given Early and Interruptions > How the survey interviewer decides whether a reply is an answer to the current question or a request — an FAQ, busy or stop — and what happens when a respondent answers before being asked, asks what a word means, asks for the options again, or talks over the question. ## Answer or detour? On every turn of a survey call, the interviewer is listening for two kinds of reply at once: * **An answer** to the question it has just asked. * **A detour** — something the survey handles outside the question: one of your [FAQs](/surveys/faqs), or the [busy or stop](/surveys/behaviours) behaviours. Most replies are clearly one or the other. The hard cases are short replies that could be either. *"No"* could answer *"Do you drive?"* or could mean *"no, I don't want to do this"*. *"How long?"* could be an answer to *"How long have you lived here?"* or a question about the survey. The interviewer resolves these the way a trained human interviewer would: 1. **Every detour is judged against the question just asked.** A direct answer, a refusal of that one question, or a request to hear it again is never treated as busy, stop or an FAQ. 2. **When an answer and a detour both seem to fit**, a second quick check picks the single best reading. The default is *an answer to the question just asked*. 3. **Built-in exclusions** keep busy and stop from firing on a refusal of one question (*"I'd rather not answer that one"*), on a voicemail greeting, or on a callback time the respondent has just been asked for. The effect is that respondents who answer tersely are not accidentally ended, while genuine requests — *"sorry, who did you say you were?"*, *"I have to go"* — are still handled. ### When a detour is handled * **FAQ** — the answer is spoken, then the open question resumes (re-asked in other words) and waits for the reply. The detour does not use up an attempt. * **Busy or stop** — the closing text for that outcome is spoken, then the farewell, and the call ends. The open question is recorded as `abandoned`. ### Which detour wins If more than one detour matches, the one with the lowest **Priority** wins: busy (20) and stop (30) by default, then FAQs from 41 to 99, with the catch-all FAQ last. The question's own handling of *"what does that mean?"* and *"can you read the options again?"* ranks after all of them. ### Always fires Each FAQ and each behaviour has an **Always fires** switch: *"Skips the check that decides whether the caller was answering the question instead. For a route where a miss costs more than a wrong fire."* A route with Always fires on fires whenever its Accept lines match and beats any route without it. It is off by default and should normally stay off, especially for busy and stop. *** ## Answers given before the question is asked Respondents sometimes answer a question before it is reached — *"I'm 42, by the way, and I live in Parramatta"* during the first question. By default **each question is still asked** when its turn comes. This keeps every answer tied to the exact question wording, which is what most research requires. The exception is the data-collection types. **First name** and **Phone number** questions have a **Look back for it before asking** setting in their Voice panel: when it is on, the question checks what the respondent has already said and confirms a value it finds instead of asking from scratch. See [First name](/surveys/question-types/first-name) and [Phone number](/surveys/question-types/phone-number). *** ## Requests the question handles itself Some requests are not detours at all — the open question deals with them and carries on. | Respondent says | What happens | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | *"Sorry, can you say that again?"* | The question is re-read in different words (see [Avoiding repetition](/surveys/repetition)). It counts towards the **Ask** cap. | | *"What were the options again?"* | Only the options are re-read — *"Sure — the options are: …"* — not the whole question. This does not use up an attempt, and an answer given straight afterwards is recorded. On a battery, the scale is re-read. | | *"What do you mean by 'wellbeing'?"* | A short, plain explanation drawn from the question's wording and its **Context for the matcher**. The interviewer does not re-read the question, give an opinion or suggest an option; it waits for the answer. | | *"Okay"*, *"uh-huh"*, *"right"* while the question is still being read | Treated as listening, not as an answer. Up to the **Acks** cap of these do not count as attempts. | On a question whose options are never read out (**Answer mode** set to **Unprompted**), a request for the options is answered with *"I'm not able to read the responses out — just tell me in your own words."* Because FAQs rank above these requests, an FAQ worded too broadly — especially the catch-all — can take them over. If you see that happen, add a **Reject** line to the FAQ such as *"Asking for the question or the options to be read again — that belongs to the question"*. *** ## Things to know * The check between answers and detours runs automatically on every survey; there is nothing to turn on. * Detours are judged by meaning, not keywords, so write **Accept** lines as plain descriptions (*"Asks to stop, or says they do not want to continue"*), not lists of exact phrases. * If a call review shows a reply taken the wrong way, fix it in the survey's content — an **Accept**, **Reject** or **Often heard as** line on the route or option involved — then compile and test again.