Its like choose your own adventure, but the adventure is work and the outcome is always a workorder

October 12, 2009 5:13 PM

TechFilter: I need a way to do information gathering questions that adjust based on previously asked questions. Must be easy to put on a website or transmit to customers and then receive their responses.

We are swamped in these requests for custom data integration of our product to our customers' databases; and mired when integrations that should take hours stretch on for weeks due to mis-communication.

We need something that is part worksheet, part check list, and part request form/work order for the customer to fill out. Something that will give them context and information about what we do, give us all the needed information about their systems, force them to answer questions about exactly what they want and keep a copy of what they give us so later we can explain why what we did is what they asked for. It would also be cool (not essential) if it could "tally" the answers. IE "yes we can automate", or "no we can't" or "someone will get back to you".

The problem is ideally we want to keep it simple, but still gather all the needed information and easy to transmit to (sometimes technologically limited) customers.

I am thinking a dynamic questionnaire that will have conditional parts. IE, if you answer Question 1 with YES, then questions 4, 5, and 6 appear, but if you answer with NO, then question 3 appears and question 10 disappears, and if you answer with "I don't know" question 2 appears with an open ended question and a text box, etc.

at the end we need a readout of what they answered so that we have a record of what they want.

I already know a few ways to do this that are merely adequate, but I'd like to hear a broader view of options. That said, don't tell me for the 6th time it can be done in excel unless you can provide me with a really good example of a finished product that is professional looking and drop dead easy to use.

THAT said, I ALSO need this in 2 weeks (or at least a working prototype sans content).

Thanks Hive Mind!

posted by DetonatedManiac to Technology (3 answers total)

Survey Monkey lets you do that: that is, you can set up a conditional questionaire so that if they answer Q5 with yes, it takes them onto the option that says "xyz" but if they answer it no, it takes them to "abc". You have to pay for more than 10 questions or more than 100 responses (I think - I'll leave verification of that as an exercise for the reader), but for that, it will even collate your responses, instead of emailing them to you individually.
posted by b33j at 5:53 PM on October 12, 2009

The code for this kind of thing is fairly simple, although I haven't ever looked at survey options out there. The issue you'll run into is just building up the tree of questions. Once you go from linear to a tree structure, the number of items grows very quickly to hand-generate. Certainly doable, but expect to spend time creating the questions.
posted by cschneid at 7:44 AM on October 13, 2009

I recently launched ProductPerks -- it does everything you're looking for. "Choose Your Own Adventure" styled decision-tree, fill-in-the-blank multiple choice, qualifying questions, guided imagery questions, contact information, compiled customer information stored and/or emailed to you, and much more, including the ability to add pictures and video to your questions, and the ability to write questions using words the customer typed in as earlier answers.

Alex Linsker, ProductPerks.com, [phone] [e-mail]
posted by alexlinsker at 10:01 PM on October 28, 2009