The distribution method for your survey can affect how live report data is calculated.
Generally, the number of unique participants is equal to the number of responses received. However, depending on your distribution method, the calculation method will vary slightly.
Email invitations
For single-response surveys (participants are invited once), the report counts are based on unique participants. Each participant's participation is counted once regardless of how many times a participant achieves a certain participation status.
Example
A participant clicks on the link in an email invitation and attempts to start the survey 7 times. The Started count for the survey increases by 1, not 7.
For multiple-response surveys (the same participants are invited multiple times):
- Report counts the number of unique participants.
- Monitor counts the number of times participants achieve a certain participation status. If some participants have participated multiple times, the number of Completes in Monitor can exceed the number of Completes in Report.
Example
A participant completes a multi-response customer experience survey 12 times. The Completed count for the survey increases by 1 in Report, but increases by 12 in Monitor.
Activity links
If you share activity links with participants who are not already members, the report counts are based on the number of times that a participant achieves a certain participation status, not the number of unique participants. Therefore, it is possible that multiple responses can come from the same person.
Example
One participant clicks an activity link and completes the survey 5 times. The Completed count for the survey increases by 5, not 1.