This article explains how the response allowance works for your Voice of Customer (VOC) plan. Your response allowance is the number of responses your users can leave on any surveys you have activated. The response allowance is specific to the VOC product and is not affected by your session capture allowance.
Your response allowance resets on the first day of the month, which can be different to your account's billing cycle date. Below, you'll find some scenarios to help demonstrate how the response allowance works when making changes to your VOC plan.
You upgrade your Voice of Customer plan mid-billing cycle
Upgrading your VOC plan mid-billing cycle will result in a pro-rata payment. With this payment, you'll receive the response allowance for the plan you upgrade to, minus any responses already collected. We don't pro-rata your response allowance.
For example, if you have already collected 20 responses on the VOC Free plan, then you want to upgrade, here's what this looks like:
1. VOC Free plan: Collected 20 responses.
2. On 15 July, you upgrade to VOC Growth with 500 responses: 500 responses (VOC Growth) - 20 already collected (VOC Free) = 230 responses for the remainder of July (the responses will later reset on the 1st day of the month).
3. On 1 August: Any responses left from the 230 will not roll over. A new allowance of 250 responses are allocated.
4. On 15 August: You’re charged for the VOC Growth plan in accordance with your monthly billing date falling due.
5. On 1 September: Unused responses don’t roll over, a new allowance of 250 responses are allocated.
6. Moving forward, your response allowance will then continue with a new 250 responses on the 1st day of each month.
You downgrade your Voice of Customer plan mid-billing cycle
When downgrading your VOC plan mid-billing cycle, the downgrade takes effect at the end of your current billing cycle. Any remaining responses will be available in your allowance until the downgrade takes effect on your billing date.
If the 1st of the month occurs before your next billing date, your VOC plan responses will reset as normal on the 1st of the month. The response allowance will then reset to the allowance in the VOC plan you downgraded to when the downgrade takes effect on your billing date.
For example, if you have already collected 450 of your 500 response allowance, then you were to downgrade mid-billing cycle, here is what that would look like:
1. VOC Growth plan with 500 response allowance purchased on 15 July.
2. On 15 August: your VOC Growth plan is renewed, and you have used 450 of your 500 responses so far for the month of August. An allowance of 50 responses remains for that month (response allowances reset on the 1st of the month).
3. On 20 August: you downgrade to VOC Free (which will take effect at your next billing date, 15 September). You will still receive the 50 remaining responses available until the end of the month of August.
4. On 1 September: your VOC plan responses will be reset to your VOC Growth plan allowance of 500 responses and be available until your next billing date when the downgrade takes effect (15 September).
5. On 15 September: the downgrade to the VOC Free plan takes effect, and your VOC Growth plan response allowance will be replaced with the VOC Free plan allowance of 20 responses.
6. On 1 October: your VOC Free plan allowance will reset for a total of 20 responses.
You move from monthly payments to yearly payments
When changing your billing frequency to a yearly subscription, the response allowance behaves identically to the scenario of upgrading your VOC plan mid-billing cycle outlined above:
1. You will be charged a pro-rata amount to align with your yearly billing renewal date.
2. You will receive the full response allowance for the plan you upgrade to, minus any responses already collected.
3. Your VOC plan allowance will continue to be reset on the 1st of each month.
FAQs for how the response allowance works
Response calculations and resetting the allowance
These questions relate to the response allowance limit, how it works, and what happens when the limit is reached.
How is the response allowance calculated?
The response allowance is a total allowance for all surveys in your account. For example, if you have two surveys that have received 50 responses each, your total responses would be 100.
I ran out of responses this month, when will they reset and what can I do?
The response allowance resets on the first day of the calendar month for all sites. You can upgrade to get more responses or wait until the next calendar month when you’ll get a new response allowance.
Can I delete existing responses to increase my response allowance?
The response allowance is the number of responses that occurred during your current allowance cycle. Deleting already collected responses will not change your allocated allowance.
What happens to a survey widget when I’ve reached my response allowance limit?
We stop showing any surveys when your response allowance limit is reached. They will reappear when your response allowance is reset in the next calendar month or if you upgrade in the meantime to make more responses available.
What will respondents see if a link survey has reached its limit?
They’ll see a message that the survey isn’t collecting responses or was removed.
Can I still create a new survey when I’ve reached my response allowance limit?
You can create a new survey, however it won’t show until your allowance limit is increased by upgrading or until the next calendar month starts and you receive a new response allowance.
If I upgrade, can I see responses that I couldn't access at the time because I had reached my allowance limit?
When your allowance limit is reached, we stop showing any surveys. This means users cannot leave a response and so you past responses will not be available by upgrading.
Managing and controlling survey responses
These questions cover managing surveys, limiting responses, and handling partial completions.
Is a response only for completed surveys or does it also count for partial completions?
Some users will choose to abandon your survey widget or leave the page when responding. You will have access to their answers, and the response is counted as part of your response allowance.
How can I collect fewer responses?
Surveys offer the ability to set up conditions for when they’ll be shown to your users. By using these targeting options, which include settings like traffic percentage, you can reduce how often your survey will appear and therefore the number of responses.
Can I limit the number of responses to be collected for a specific survey widget?
It's not possible to put a limit on the number of responses each survey should receive. However, you can manually deactivate a survey inside its setup page when it has reached the number of responses you want.
Do I need to pay for previously collected responses?
No, previously collected responses are yours, and we won’t charge you for them. Even if you downgrade your plan, you’ll still have access to past responses.
What if I don’t know how many responses I need?
You can start with one of our lowest plans and upgrade as you go. Visit our pricing page to see the available response options.