Whenever SatisMeter can show a survey, it runs a series of checks to decide who sees it and which survey they see. Knowing these checks helps you predict how often a survey shows, and why a user does or doesn't see it.
This article walks through the checks in the order SatisMeter runs them. It then explains URL rules, the sampling percentage, audience rules, survey frequency, and the global throttle. It ends with a short FAQ and two worked examples.
In this article:
- Checking surveys in priority order
- The checks each survey must pass
- Understanding each check
- Link and email-template surveys
- FAQ
- Worked examples
Checking surveys in priority order
SatisMeter goes through your surveys in priority order. Priority 1 comes first, and surveys without a priority come last.
The first survey that passes every check is shown. SatisMeter skips the rest of your surveys for that page view, so only one survey shows.
Note: No surveys show at all while your organization is on hold, for example after a cancellation or after reaching your monthly response limit. See Plans and response limits and How can I cancel my SatisMeter subscription? for details.
The checks each survey must pass
For each survey, SatisMeter runs these checks in order. A survey shows only if it passes all of them:
- The survey is live. Paused surveys still accept responses through link surveys and email-template surveys. See How can I pause a survey? for details.
- The user's browser or device qualifies. This check applies to web surveys only. See Survey not showing? Troubleshooting checklist for details.
- The user's widget or mobile SDK version supports this kind of survey.
- The survey's channel is enabled, and the URL rules match. URL rules apply to web surveys only.
- The user is in the sample and matches the audience rules.
- For SatisMeter-sent email surveys, the user hasn't unsubscribed.
- The user hasn't been surveyed within the frequency window.
- The event trigger has fired, if the survey uses one.
- The global throttle allows the survey.
Understanding each check
Most surprises come from a few of these checks. The sections below explain how each one behaves.
URL rules
URL rules control which pages of your website can show a web survey. Each rule uses one of four types: "equals," "starts with," "ends with," or "contains." None of the rule types is case-sensitive.
What a rule matches depends on how you write it:
- A rule that includes
https://matches the full URL, including the query string and the # part. - A rule without
https://matches the host, path, and query string. It never matches the # part. - SatisMeter doesn't strip
www.from URLs before matching. - A trailing slash is tolerated only for "equals" and "ends with" rules.
- Block rules beat allow rules. If a page matches both, the survey doesn't show there.
Limitation: URL rules don't support wildcards, such as
/users/*/settings.
Sampling
Sampling limits a survey to a share of eligible users. SatisMeter puts each user in or out of the sample permanently for that survey, so recurring surveys go to the same group each time.
- Changing the sample percentage changes who's in the sample.
- A user who gets a new profile, for example after a userId change, gets a new sampling result.
- Older sampled surveys use one value per user that's shared across surveys. As a result, the same users tend to be sampled for all of those surveys.
See Sampling for more details.
Audience rules
Audience rules target users by their traits and the events you track. Text comparisons ignore case. Dates can be absolute, such as "before January 1st," or relative, such as "more than 30 days ago."
Limitation: You can't target list traits in the survey editor, such as a list of user levels. You also can't target event properties. Audience rules use event names only.
Survey frequency
Frequency sets how often one user can be surveyed by the same survey. After a user is surveyed, a cooldown applies before they're eligible for that survey again. These defaults apply:
- With no frequency set, SatisMeter surveys each user only once for that survey.
- The Net Promoter Score (NPS) template defaults to every three months.
- The Customer Satisfaction (CSAT), Customer Effort Score (CES), Product-Market Fit (PMF), and Custom templates default to once.
- Choosing the Email or Link channel sets the frequency to every day.
Frequency is per survey on projects where surveys are independent, which is the default for new projects. Answering survey A doesn't block survey B unless the global throttle is on. Some older projects share frequency across surveys.
What counts as surveyed
The frequency check depends on whether SatisMeter has recorded the user as surveyed. For web and mobile surveys:
- Closing the survey counts the same as answering it.
- Answering even one question counts as answered.
- Refreshing or leaving the page without answering records nothing. The survey can appear again on the next page load.
- With the "every time the event is tracked" frequency, answering or closing never blocks the next showing.
Global throttle
The global throttle sets the minimum number of days between any two surveys for one user. It's off by default on new projects.
When you turn the global throttle on, it works like this:
- It counts the last time the user answered or closed any web or mobile survey, including the same survey.
- It also applies to SatisMeter-sent email surveys and reminders.
- You can set individual web and mobile surveys to ignore it. An excluded survey's own emails skip the throttle too.
See Survey Throttling for more details.
Link and email-template surveys
Link surveys are shared as a URL, and email-template surveys go out through your own email tool. Both skip the audience, event trigger, global throttle, and browser checks. See How to send a survey via URL for details.
Frequency still applies to these surveys, but it counts only answers.
SatisMeter-sent email surveys are different. SatisMeter sends these emails itself, and they go through the full targeting rules.
FAQ
These questions come up most often when a survey shows more or less often than expected.
Why did a survey show again after a user refreshed the page?
Refreshing or leaving the page without answering records nothing. The user isn't counted as surveyed, so the survey can appear again on the next page load.
Does answering one survey stop other surveys from showing?
Not by default. On new projects, frequency is per survey, so answering one survey doesn't block another. Only the global throttle, when it's on, spaces out different surveys. Some older projects share frequency across surveys.
Why does my survey keep reaching the same users?
SatisMeter puts each user in or out of the sample permanently for a survey. A recurring survey reaches the same group each time unless you change the sample percentage.
Worked examples
These examples show how the checks combine in common setups.
Example 1: 25% sampling and an NPS survey every three months
You set an NPS survey to 25% sampling and a frequency of every three months. SatisMeter asks the same 25% of users every three months. The remaining users aren't asked unless you change the sample percentage.
Example 2: Two surveys match the same page
Survey A has priority 1, and survey B has priority 2. Both pass every check on the same page. SatisMeter shows only survey A, the higher-priority survey. Survey B can show on a later visit if the global throttle allows it.