Survey Statuses

Surveys in demeterrr can exist in one of three states:

• Draft — The initial state for new surveys. Used for building and testing before going live.
• Active — The survey is live and can be sent to contacts. Responses are being collected.
• Archived — The survey has been retired but all data is preserved for reporting and analysis.

All status changes are manual. Surveys don't automatically transition between statuses based on time, response count, or any other criteria. You have complete control over when a survey moves from Draft to Active, and when it gets Archived.

When you create a new survey, it starts in Draft status. This is your workspace for building and refining the survey before it goes live.

• Add, edit, reorder, and delete questions
• Configure all survey settings (title, description, branding, conditional logic)
• Preview the survey in the builder
• Save changes without affecting any live surveys

• Send the survey to contacts (the API will return a "Survey is not active" error)
• Collect responses from customers
• Include the survey in automated sequences

Keep your survey in Draft status while you're still making changes, testing question wording, or waiting for stakeholder approval. Once you're confident the survey is ready for customers, you can activate it.

Active status means your survey is live and ready to collect customer feedback.

• Send the survey to contacts via email, SMS, or direct link
• Receive and process customer responses
• Include the survey in automated sequences
• Continue editing questions and settings (changes apply immediately to new survey sends)
• View response data and analytics

There are no functional restrictions on Active surveys. You can even edit questions while the survey is active, though this should be done carefully to avoid confusing customers who might receive different versions.

Activate your survey when it's ready for customers and you want to start collecting responses. You can keep a survey active indefinitely if it's part of ongoing feedback collection (like a post-service satisfaction survey).

Archiving a survey retires it from active use while preserving all data for historical reporting.

• The survey is soft-deleted (hidden from default views, not permanently erased)
• All responses, answers, and audit logs are preserved
• The survey cannot be sent to new contacts
• Existing response data remains accessible in reports
• The survey is hidden from the main surveys list (unless you filter to show archived surveys)

Archive surveys that are no longer needed for active feedback collection but whose data you want to preserve:

• Seasonal campaigns that have ended
• One-time event feedback surveys
• Surveys being replaced by updated versions
• Legacy surveys from previous workflows

Archiving is preferable to deletion because it maintains your historical data integrity. If you need to reference past customer sentiment or track trends over time, archived survey responses remain available.

You can change a survey's status at any time using the Activate/Deactivate button at the top of the survey builder.

1. Open the survey in the builder
2. Click the Activate button in the top-right corner
3. The status badge changes from yellow (Draft) to green (Active)
4. The survey is now ready to send

1. Open the survey in the builder
2. Click the Deactivate button in the top-right corner
3. The survey returns to Draft status

Once deactivated, the survey remains visible in your surveys list and you can reactivate it at any time. To archive a survey, update the status to Archived through the survey settings.

Survey statuses are clearly marked throughout the platform with color-coded badges:

• Draft — Yellow badge
• Active — Green badge
• Archived — Gray badge

You'll see these badges in several places:

• On survey cards in the main surveys list
• At the top of the survey builder
• In survey selection dropdowns (when choosing a survey for sending or sequences)
• In reports that filter by survey

The surveys list page allows you to filter by status, making it easy to view only Draft surveys you're working on, only Active surveys collecting responses, or Archived surveys for historical reference.

• Use Draft status liberally while building and testing. Don't rush to activate until you're confident.
• Keep Active surveys to a minimum to avoid confusion when selecting which survey to send.
• Archive completed surveys rather than leaving them active indefinitely. This keeps your active survey list clean and reduces the chance of accidentally sending an outdated survey.
• Review archived surveys periodically to determine if any data can be exported and the survey permanently deleted (if your organization has data retention policies).

For more information on building surveys, see Creating Your First Survey. To learn how to organize and find surveys efficiently, read Managing Surveys.