SurveyMonkey

Data Trends allow you to assess how your response data has changed over time. For example, you can use the same customer satisfaction survey for a year and create a new Collector each time you send it out. Then use Data Trends to see if the number of satisfied customers has gone up or down over the course of the year.

From Analyze Results, click the Data Trends tab, between Question Summaries and Individual Responses.

The chart at the top of the page (labeled Responses) represents the total number of responses submitted to the survey in each time interval. To customize the Responses chart, you can change the chart type, choose the preferred time interval, and/or zoom in on a shorter time frame.

Below the Responses chart, a chart is generated for each survey question, allowing you to see how different answer choice selections have changed over time. There are several ways to customize these charts:

  • From the Chart Type drop-down menu, choose to display the data as a Column Chart, Area Chart, or Line Chart.
  • By default, the y-axis represents the absolute response count. From the Display Options menu, you can choose to switch the axis to represent response percentages instead.
  • From the Trend by... menu, you can change the time interval represented by the horizontal x-axis.
  • From the Zoom menu, you can choose to zoom in on a shorter time frame.

Mouse over a section of a stacked chart to view the response count or percentage.

The horizontal axis of the bar charts will default to the time interval that makes the most sense with your data set: hour, day, week, month, quarter, or year. The default interval is determined by the following criteria:

Time Between First & Last ResponseTime Interval
≤ 24 hoursHour
≤ 30 daysDay
≤ 6 monthsWeek
≤ 3 yearsMonth
≤ 10 yearsQuarter
> 10 yearsYear

You can change the time interval from the Trend by... drop-down menu. The interval options available are determined by your data, if your survey's been open for years, you may not see the hourly option. You can change the time zone on the My Account page.

Filter, Show and Compare rules will carry over to the Data Trends tab. However, in Data Trends, the Compare rule acts as filter rather than a tool for cross-tabulating the results. Only the answer choices included in the Compare rule will show in Data Trends, but the results will not be cross-tabulated.

At this time, you cannot export Data Trends charts. If you click the Save As button in the upper right and select Export file while in the Data Trends tab, you will only be presented with the option to export response data or summary data.

Data Trends will generate charts for all close-ended question types excluding the Matrix of Dropdown Menus and Slider question types.