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You can set quotas to specify the number of responses you would like to receive for different sub-samples or target groups, or to limit the total number of responses for the overall survey. The quota count is incremented when the respondent completes the survey. However, as quotas are often based on questions placed early in the survey, additional respondents can have passed the quota question before the respondent who triggers the quota limit has reached the end. In a long interview, this can allow for considerable over-representation of the quotas. On the other hand, if the quotas prevented any further respondents from passing from the moment the quota was achieved, respondents abandoning the interview before completing would cause the quotas to be under-represented. The Optimistic Quota functionality therefore enables a preliminary incrementation of the quota count immediately a respondent has answered the appropriate question, but allows a preset "maximum overshoot" to cover for eventual non-completes. The preliminary quota count can later be decremented in the event the respondent abandons the survey before completion. This thereby allows tighter control over the number of respondents who are allowed to participate in an interview once the quota that the respondent falls into has been achieved.
Optimistic Quota Functionality
Optimistic Quota is a quota-level option and functions as follows:
If Optimistic Quota is enabled for a quota, when a respondent answers the question, Authoring first checks the answer(s) against the standard quota. If that quota is not already full pessimistically (that is, not enough respondents have yet completed the survey) then Authoring checks further to see if the quota is "optimistically" full, that is, the previous respondent to answer that question filled the optimistic quota. If the optimistic quota is also not yet full, then its counter is incremented and the respondent is allowed to continue with the survey. This state, where the respondent has passed through the question but has not yet completed the survey and is therefore still "live", is termed "In Progress". If the optimistic quota is full however, then the predefined "quota full" procedure is run for that respondent (go to Terminating the Interview for Respondents when Quota is Full for more information). When the respondent completes the survey, the "normal" quota counter is incremented, and the In Progress counter is decremented. The specified quotas, totals and current counts can be viewed in the Quota Details page in the List mode.
If a respondent makes no changes to the survey for longer than a preset period (the timeout), then he/she is assumed to have left the survey. The In Progress counter is then decremented for that respondent to allow another respondent through. If the respondent later re-enters the interview, the In Progress count is immediately re-incremented and the respondent is allowed to continue. The default setting for this timeout period is 5 minutes, but this can be changed at the survey, company or site level on the Survey Settings > General Options tab.
An In Progress counter is automatically incremented:
- When all the questions for that quota have been answered.
- When a respondent returns to an incomplete interview after it was previously decremented (i.e. the respondent answered the question thereby incrementing the counter, then left the interview for longer than the preset timeout limit so the counter was then decremented).
An In Progress counter is decremented (if it was previously incremented):
- If any question in the specific quota command becomes unrecorded (the respondent deletes the answer).
- If the specified timeout period of respondent inactivity is exceeded (i.e. the respondent leaves the interview for more than a specified time).
- If the interview is successfully completed (the standard quota counter is then incremented in its place).
The number of In Progress counts that are allowed over and above the standard quota limits is preset individually for each quota.
The following restrictions and limits apply when using optimistic quotas:
- The functionality is available only for CATI/WEB surveys using the Optimized database format.
- A quota can consist of single-type questions only (the quota can include several questions, but they must all the singles).
- No "Any" cells can be included in the quota command (all cells must have explicit targets).
- If you launch a survey with quota definition changes, this will force all In Progress counts to be reset. In the event respondents are in the survey when it is launched, the Optimistic Quotas will be set as appropriate immediately the respondents submit their next answer.
- It is not currently possible to use separate quota-based functions to access In Progress counts.