Survey Question Response

A Survey Question Response in Salesforce (SurveyQuestionResponse in the API) is a standard object that captures a single respondent's answer to a single Survey Question. Each Survey Question Response record holds a parent SurveyResponseId (the completion record for that respondent's full survey submission), a SurveyQuestionId, a ChoiceId for choice-based questions (or null for free-text and other types), the literal text or numeric value the respondent provided, a CompletionDate, and references back to the parent Survey, Survey Version, and Survey Subject. Survey Question Responses are the row-level data that populate every Salesforce Surveys analysis - when a respondent completes a five-question survey, Salesforce creates one Survey Response record plus five Survey Question Response records. Aggregating Survey Question Responses by Survey Question reveals the distribution of answers (50% chose Option A, 30% Option B, 20% Option C); aggregating across Survey Versions reveals trends over time. Survey Question Responses also link to the parent record (Case, Account, Contact) through Survey Subject, enabling cross-object reporting like 'average CSAT for Cases owned by each agent in the past quarter'.

The data shape of Survey Question Response varies by Survey Question type, which makes raw SOQL analysis non-trivial. ChoiceId is populated for Single Select and Multi Select questions; ResponseText holds Free Text and Long Text answers; ResponseValue (numeric) holds Rating, NPS, Slider, and Numeric question values; ResponseDate handles Date and Time types. A single SOQL query against Survey Question Response returns rows of mixed shape that require type-aware extraction. Most reporting flows go through standard Salesforce Reports with Survey-specific report types or through CRM Analytics datasets that handle the polymorphic structure transparently.

Cross-object analysis through Survey Subject is one of the most valuable patterns in Salesforce Surveys. Every Survey Question Response inherits the Survey Subject of its parent Survey Response - typically the Case, Account, Contact, or Opportunity that triggered the survey. This linkage enables analyses like 'average CSAT for Cases handled by each support queue', 'NPS by customer-success-manager-owned Account', or 'survey response rate by Account tier' - joining survey data with CRM data without requiring custom integration.

Anonymous survey responses are supported but limit cross-object analysis. When a survey is configured for anonymous submission, the Survey Question Response records are created without identifying the respondent and without a Survey Subject link. Anonymous mode is appropriate for sensitive feedback (employee engagement, exit interviews) but breaks the cross-object reporting that makes Salesforce Surveys most useful - choose the mode deliberately based on the use case.