Training Tips

SPSS Trainer Tip: mrInterview™

Instructor profile

Name: Keith Krystek

About Keith: Before joining SPSS in May 2003, Keith worked with SPSS survey software as a market research and human resources consultant. He has a BA from Illinois Wesleyan University, and an MBA from Thunderbird–Garvin School of International Management. In his spare time, Keith enjoys hiking, biking, and traveling with his family.

Creating end-of-interview text

Creating a “thank you” display screen is an easy way to customize the end of your survey. However, there is one potential hazard to keep in mind: if the “thank you” screen appears too soon, then respondents may mistakenly fail to complete the survey.

After a respondent answers the final question in a survey, he typically views a default end-of-interview page like the one shown below in Figure 1.

Figure 1: The default screen marks the true end of the survey.

At this point, mrInterview considers a survey complete.

However, if you include a thank-you screen earlier in your survey, then respondents may simply close their browsers instead of pressing the "Next" button.

Figure 2: A respondent must still click on the "Next" button to complete the survey.

Once a respondent closes the browser, mrInterview allows the survey to remain "active" for only ten minutes. After the ten-minute time out period elapses, mrInterview considers the survey "timed out."

How will you know if you are having this issue with one of your surveys? If you notice far more "timed out" interviews in your status report than you expected, it's likely that respondents are accidentally exiting your survey too early.

Using end-of-interview text

You can prevent this by using mrInterview's end-of-interview text. While the default text reads: "End of interview. Thank you for your participation," you can easily change the text with an IOM Script item in mrInterview's Build activity (or in the routing section of your mrStudioT interview script). Make a change by inserting this line:

IOM.Texts.EndOfInterview = “Your Text Here”

This line will change the text on the final screen to your desired departing message. As a result, your respondent will be more likely to finish the questionnaire, which, in turn, enables mrInterview to count the respondent as a "complete."

Figure 3: The IOM script sets the text for the final screen.

"Good-bye!" "Adios!" "Auf Wiedersehen!"

Translating your survey? The script in the last section works well if you are only using one language, but you’ll need to change it for a multi-lingual study.

If you are using mrTranslate™, you have the ability to add translations to question text, category text, and information items. Questions and error messages will appear in the language that you selected at the beginning of the survey.

You can translate your end-of-interview text by inserting it into a question or information item. Then, return to your original information item. When you go the Advanced tab and select “Hide this question,” (or simply remove it from the Routing section in mrStudio™), you create a hidden item that can be translated.

In order to show the text in the selected language, change your IOM Script item (or Routing section) as follows:

IOM.Texts.EndOfInterview = Thanks.Label

This references the information item “Thanks” as well as the text for that item in the appropriate language.

Figure 4: The IOM script will use information item text in the selected language.

Need directions?

Sometimes "thank you" is not the final message you want to leave with a respondent. Perhaps you'd like to send the respondent to another Web site or even to another survey. By modifying the text in your information item or IOM Script item to include some HTML, you can easily direct respondents elsewhere.

IOM.Texts.EndofInterview="< META HTTP-EQUIV=""refresh"" CONTENT=""1;URL=http://www.spss.com""/>Terminating –
You will be redirected in 5 seconds to SPSS"

In this example, just add a redirect to the "thank you" text, and the respondent will be directed to the SPSS Web page.

Figure 5: After the last question, the respondent is redirected to a Web site.

Different directions?

You can use these basic scripts to make your end-of-interview text more useful and functional. Depending on which groups use different information items, for instance, you may want to select conditionally from various end-of-interview messages. Or, depending on respondents' responses, you may want to use different redirects conditionally to send them to different Web sites. You may also include information on the redirect link that will be passed to other Web sites or to a different survey.

Summary

You can ensure that respondents complete your survey by placing your departing message at the true end of your survey. When needed, you can use mrTranslate to create end-of-interview text in multiple languages. Finally, you've learned how to point your respondents in the right direction-whether to another Web site or survey-with the possibility of doing this conditionally or while passing information with them to their destination. There's so much potential beginning with one simple line of DimensionsT interview scripting!

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