Using Conversation Logic to Control Flow

After reading this article, you will be able to create conditional rules that change the path a respondent takes through your conversation based on their answers. This includes qualifying questions that end a conversation early, skip logic that bypasses irrelevant questions, and branching that routes different audiences to different sets of questions. Tips at the bottom.

When to Use Conversation Logic

Conversation Logic applies to Conversation for Web only. Conversation for Email does not support logic rules because it contains a single question with no branching path.

Logic rules are useful any time different respondents should have different experiences within the same conversation. Common scenarios include:

  • Qualifying questions: A wine industry survey asks "Are you over 21?" at the start. Respondents who answer "No" are sent to the completion screen immediately. Respondents who answer "Yes" continue to the remaining questions. This prevents unqualified responses from entering your data.
  • Audience branching: A school survey asks "Are you a student or a teacher?" and then routes each group to a different set of questions tailored to their perspective. Both groups complete the same conversation, but their paths through it are different.
  • Follow-up targeting: A customer feedback conversation asks a satisfaction rating question. Respondents who rate below a certain threshold see an additional open-ended question asking what could be improved. Respondents who rate highly skip that question entirely.

Each of these scenarios uses the same underlying mechanism: a condition ("if the answer to this question is X") paired with an action ("then do Y"). The Conversation Logic tab is where you define these condition-action pairs.

Before You Start

Build your conversation in the Conversation Designer tab before creating logic rules. Logic rules reference specific questions by their question ID, so the questions need to exist first. If you have not yet built your conversation, see Creating and Configuring Conversations.

To find a question's ID, click the question on the canvas, then click Properties >. The question ID is the number displayed in the dropdown at the top of the Properties panel. Make a note of the ID for any question you plan to use as a condition.

Creating a Logic Rule

Navigate to the Conversation Logic tab at the top of the conversation builder.

Define the Condition

  1. Click Add New under the Build tab.
  2. In the Select question... dropdown, select the question ID that will serve as your condition trigger. The questions are usually listed in the order they appear in the conversation, but verify against the question ID you noted in Properties to be sure.
  3. Set the operator. The default is equals, which checks for an exact match to the value you enter in the next field.
  4. Enter the value that triggers the rule. For example, if your qualifying question is a Yes/No type and you want to catch respondents who answer "No," enter no in the value field.
  5. (To add more than one condition to the same rule, click Add condition. Multiple conditions on a single rule must all be true for the action to trigger.)

Using our earlier example of the wine industry survey that asks "Are you over 21?" at the start. Here is what it looks like when respondents who answer "No" are sent to the completion screen immediately. Respondents who answer "Yes" continue to the remaining questions. This prevents unqualified responses from entering your data.

Define the Action

Under Define action(s), click the Select an action to add... dropdown. The available actions are:

  • Complete survey: Ends the conversation immediately and sends the respondent to the completion screen. Use this for qualifying questions where a disqualifying answer should stop the conversation.
  • Skip to question: Jumps the respondent forward to a specific question, bypassing everything in between. Use this for branching where different audiences should see different questions.
  • Question visibility: Shows or hides a question based on the condition. Use this to reveal follow-up questions only when they are relevant.
  • Question enable/disable: Enables or disables a question so it appears but cannot be interacted with. Use this when you want respondents to see a question exists but not answer it under certain conditions.
  • Question optional/required: Changes whether a question must be answered. Use this to make a question required for one audience segment but optional for another.
  • Set question value: Pre-fills a question with a specific value based on the condition. Use this to auto-populate a field when you already know the answer from a prior response.
  • Copy question value: Copies a respondent's answer from one question into another. Use this to carry forward a response without asking the respondent to enter it again.
  • Custom 'Thank you page' text: Displays custom completion text based on the condition. Use this to show different thank-you messages depending on how the respondent answered. For example, a disqualified respondent could see a different message than someone who completed the full conversation.

To add more than one action to the same rule, click Add new action. Multiple actions on a single rule all execute when the condition is met.


Save the Rule

Click Save and return to save the rule and go back to the Conversation Designer, Save to save the rule and stay on the Conversation Logic tab to create additional rules, or Return without saving to discard the rule.

To edit an existing rule, return to the Conversation Logic tab and click the Edit tab next to Build. Your saved rules will appear here for modification.

Example: Setting Up a Qualifying Question

This walkthrough creates a rule that ends the conversation when a respondent gives a disqualifying answer. The example uses a Yes/No question ("Are you over 21?") where answering "No" should end the conversation.

  • In the Conversation Designer, click on your qualifying question, then click Properties > and note the question ID from the dropdown at the top of the Properties panel.
  • Click the Conversation Logic tab.
  • Click Add New under the Build tab.
  • Under Define condition(s), click Select question... and choose the question ID you noted. The questions are usually in order, but verify against the ID to be sure.
  • Leave the operator set to equals. In the value field, enter no.
  • Under Define action(s), select Complete survey from the dropdown.
  • Click Save and return.

Tips for Effective Logic Rules

Place qualifying questions early. If a respondent does not meet your criteria, ending the conversation on the first page respects their time and keeps your data clean. A respondent who answers ten questions before being disqualified is a poor experience for both of you.

Use Yes/No or Radiogroup for condition triggers. These question types produce predictable, single-value answers that make conditions straightforward to define. Open-ended or multi-select questions are harder to build reliable conditions around because the possible values are less constrained.

Test every path. If you have three possible branches, you need three separate test runs. A logic rule that works for one path does not guarantee the others are configured correctly.

Keep rules simple. A single condition with a single action is easiest to test and troubleshoot. If you find yourself chaining many conditions and actions on one rule, consider whether restructuring your conversation (adding pages, reordering questions) would achieve the same result more reliably.

What's Next

Related Articles