Create a survey

A survey asks visitors a short question at the moment it matters, such as why they are leaving a product page. Each answer is linked to the visit, so you can see whether that person ordered.

1. Start from scratch or from a template

Under New survey, click Start from scratch to write your own questions. You start with one open question that you can change or remove. Or pick a template below it: each card shows how many questions it has and when it appears. You can change everything in a template. New surveys are a Draft: visitors see nothing until you start them.

Template	What it asks
Why are you leaving?	What stops visitors from buying, when they leave a product page.
Anything stopping you from checking out?	The last objections before ordering, when visitors are about to leave your shop.
Is anything unclear about this product?	Which information is missing on a product page.
Net Promoter Score	How likely visitors are to recommend you, and why.
How easy was it?	How easy it was to find something.
How did you hear about us?	Where customers heard of you, in their own words. If you added a thank-you page in Settings → Tracking & privacy, it shows there, two seconds after the order. Without a thank-you page it shows on every page, so add one first.
Did you find what you were looking for?	A short check on category and search pages (/collections/, /category/, /product-category/ and /search).
Feedback tab	Anything, through a tab on the side of every page.

Templates come with settings for pages, timing and position, and most include follow-up questions.

2. Write your questions

The survey opens in the editor. In the Questions section, give it a name under Survey name (only you see this). Add questions with the buttons under Add a question, such as + Single choice. Each question is a card. Its top bar shows the number, a menu to change the type, the arrows to move it and × to remove it. Below that you write the question and, for choice questions, the answers. The bottom of the card holds Required and Only show if….

Visitors see one question at a time, with a progress bar. You can add up to 12 questions, but short surveys get more answers: aim for 1 to 3.

Type	What visitors see	Extra settings
Single choice	A list of answers; they pick one.	See below.
Multiple choice	A list of answers; they can pick several.	See below.
Long answer	A large text box.	Placeholder (optional)
Short answer	A one-line text box.	Placeholder (optional)
NPS (0–10)	The buttons 0 to 10.	End labels
Satisfaction (1–5)	A 5-point scale.	Show as, end labels
Rating scale	A scale of 1 to 3, 4, 5, 7 or 10, set under Scale.	Show as, end labels
Email address	A text box that checks the address looks valid.	Placeholder (optional)

• Choice questions need 2 to 12 different answers; click + Add answer for more. If two answers are the same, the editor marks the second one. Add “Other” with their own answer adds an "Other" answer with a text box for the visitor's own words, so don't type your own "Other" answer too. Shuffle answers shows the answers in a random order, so the first one doesn't get extra clicks just for being first. Each visitor keeps the same order, and "Other" stays last.
• Scale questions: Show as offers Numbers, Stars or Faces (faces only on a scale of 5). Low end label and High end label set the text under the ends of the scale. Leave them empty for a standard text, such as "Not likely" and "Very likely" for NPS.
• Required: visitors must answer before they can go on. Without it, they can skip the question with the "Next" button. For a required single choice or scale question, one click on an answer moves on to the next question. If a visitor picks "Other" on a required question, they must also type their own answer.

3. Show follow-up questions only when they matter

Every question after the first has an Only show if… option. Tick it and build a rule: Show this question if the answer to an earlier question, a condition and a value. The conditions are is, is not, is lower than, is higher than and was answered. is lower than and is higher than only work with scale questions. For a choice or scale question you pick the value from a list, so it always matches an answer that question has.

For example, the Net Promoter Score template asks "What should we improve first?" only when the score is lower than 7, so for scores 0 to 6.

A rule can only use an earlier question. Varly keeps your rules valid when you change the questions, and always tells you what changed in a yellow message on the question itself:

• You move a question above the one it depends on: its rule is removed, because a rule can only use an earlier question.
• You remove the question a rule depends on: the rule is removed. Right after removing a question you can click Undo to get it back, with its rules.
• You change the type of the earlier question, for example from single choice to NPS: the rule stays, but you pick a new value, because the old answer doesn't exist anymore.

When a question can still show a follow-up question, its button says "Next" instead of "Send". Skipped questions don't count in the progress bar.

4. Save and start

1. Set the look and language and click through the Preview on the right. On a phone, tap Preview in the bar at the bottom to jump to it.
2. Choose where, when and for whom the survey appears.
3. Click Save survey in the bar at the bottom of the editor. The bar always stays in view. It says Unsaved changes while you have changes, and All changes saved after saving. If you try to leave the page with unsaved changes, your browser asks first.
4. Open the survey from Research → Surveys and click Start survey. Its status changes to Live.

If something can't be saved, the bar says why, with a link such as Go to question 2 that takes you to the right place. The question with the problem gets a red border.

On the survey's page you can Pause survey and Resume survey. End survey stops it for good, so Varly asks you to confirm first. After that you can't start or change it again; its answers stay. To ask the same questions again, use Duplicate.

Changes to a live survey reach your site within a minute or two.

Duplicate or delete a survey

On the survey's page, click More:

• Duplicate makes a new draft with the same questions and settings, without answers, and opens it in the editor. Its name starts with "Copy of".
• Delete removes the survey and all its answers for good. Varly asks you to confirm first and tells you how many answers will be deleted.

You need the Owner or Editor role for both.

Each question keeps its own answers, so you can safely move or remove questions, also when the survey already has answers. A new question starts without answers, even if it takes the place of a removed one. When a survey already has answers, the editor shows how many, and asks you to confirm before you remove a question.

Common problems

• "remove the option "Other"; the "Other" answer is added for you". Add “Other” with their own answer is ticked and you also typed your own "Other" answer. Delete your own one.
• "two answers are the same". Two answers of that question have the same text. Change or remove one.
• "the condition needs a value" or "the condition uses the answer …, which question … doesn't have". Pick a value for the rule under Only show if…. This happens after you change or remove the answers of the earlier question.
• "This survey has ended, so it can no longer be changed". Duplicate the survey and change the copy.
• The survey is live, but you don't see it on your site. See Why is my survey not showing?.