How To Enable A Timer On Your Online Survey: In 6 Easy Steps!

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Photo Credit: iStock.com/Artist’s YinYang

Many a times we ourselves have abandoned an online survey or quiz, just because our answer was left incomplete because of the timer. While on one hand, the timer can annoy the survey taker, on the other, it can help the survey’s creator a lot, that is, if he recognizes its correct function.

The main function behind setting a fixed answering time is to skim through survey respondents in order to reach an accurate conclusion. Any respondents taking less than the given time, are most likely just jumping from on question to another, instead of giving accurate responses. While those taking too long, might be searching for answers online or elsewhere, instead of giving an honest reply.  Another function of this is monitoring whether respondents are viewing your content properly or not. For example, if you have inserted an audio or video in your survey that is of approximately 3 minutes, but the survey taker only spends 1 and a half minute on the page,, then they probably won’t have viewed the required content, making their answers inaccurate. 

Timers ensure that you get (or rather short-list only) accurate data for your research, so don’t shy away from using them.  However, do you actually know how to insert that feature into your survey? SurveyCrest offers you this amazing feature and we here will tell you how to integrate it. For starters, you need to Sign-In to your SurveyCrest account and create a survey; or you can add a timer to one of your previously made surveys. Either way, the method is below.

Step#1: Select Your Survey

After logging in, select the ‘Dashboard’ button on the top center of the page, in the main menu.

Once you click on the Dashboard, a list of all the online surveys you have made until now, will appear. Next you have to select the survey you want to add the time limit to.

Select Your Survey

Step#2: Open ‘Launch’ Tab

After you click on the survey, you’ll be relocated to a new page. There you’ll see the ‘Launch’ button on the top center of the page, just below the title of the survey.

Click on ‘Launch’ to proceed!

Launch

Step#3: Go To ‘Personalize’

Now you’ll see three round (grey-green-grey) buttons on the right-side of your screen. Click on the ‘Personalize’ icon (grey one), which is the first from the left.

Personalize

Step#4: Check Out ‘Options’

Once the ‘Personalize Survey’ page appears, you will find a vertical menu on the left of the page. You have to click on ‘Options’, which is the last button in the bar.

Options

Step#5: Click On ‘Timer’

Amongst the list of options presented to you, you’ll see ‘Timer’. Just click on that!

Timer

Step#6: Set The Time

Next, check the ‘Timeout’ box that is now visible under the Timer option.

Now all that’s left for you to do is to enter a number (time in minutes) and click the green ‘Save’ button, present below the list of options.

Set The Time

This concludes our tutorial for enabling a response timer on online survey. You can check for more in the ‘How To Survey’ section of our blog. Feel free to leave questions and feedback in comments below.

About The Author

Kelvin Stiles is a tech enthusiast and works as a marketing consultant at SurveyCrest – FREE online survey software and publishing tools for academic and business use. He is also an avid blogger and a comic book fanatic.