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The moment it happens

Run a survey one question at a time on WhatsApp

People answer your questions in the chat, and each finished response lands in your inbox.

Runs
The moment it happens
Apps
WhatsApp Business
AI
Not needed
Access
whatsapp_business_messaging

Send this to your assistant

Create a ClickRuntime automation: when someone texts 'start' to our WhatsApp, ask these 5 customer survey questions one at a time, save the answers, and email each completed response to feedback@example.com.

Paste it into your assistant. It tells you what it will send or change before it runs live.

First time? Adding ClickRuntime to your assistant takes about two minutes.

Why use it

Why teams use this automation

Surveys sent as web links get poor completion, because people must leave the chat, wait for a page, and fill a form on a small screen. Trainers, event organizers and shops asking for feedback see most recipients simply ignore the link. Doing it by hand, asking one question at a time and noting answers in a spreadsheet, works for five people and collapses at fifty.

This automation runs the survey or quiz inside the WhatsApp conversation. It remembers which step each person is on, sends the next question, using reply buttons where possible, stores each answer, and when the person finishes it calculates a score or emails you the completed results.

It suits training sessions, customer feedback after a purchase, and small community quizzes. A single link on a poster or a QR code is enough to start the whole conversation, with no app for participants to install.

What you get out of it

  • Higher completion than a link

    Answering a question with one tap in a chat people already have open is easier than loading a form. More recipients reach the end, so your results reflect more of your audience.

  • Many people at once, each at their own pace

    Because each person's step is tracked separately, fifty participants can answer in parallel without you sending anything by hand or mixing up whose answers are whose. You can run a session for a whole classroom or event hall without staffing the phone while the answers come in.

  • Scores calculated automatically

    For a quiz, the score is computed at the end and can be sent back to the participant immediately, which makes the experience satisfying and removes manual marking. Participants see how they did right away, and organizers skip an evening of marking papers or scrolling chats.

  • Results collected without a spreadsheet

    Each answer is stored as it arrives and you receive the completed responses by email, so you avoid copying from chats into a sheet after the event. That makes it simple to compare cohorts or sessions later, since the answers are already in one consistent format.

  • Buttons reduce messy answers

    Fixed choices give you clean data you can count, instead of free text where one person writes 'yes' and another writes 'yeah sure'. Cleaner data also means your summary at the end takes minutes, with fewer judgment calls about how to count odd replies.

How it works

What happens, step by step

  1. When someone messages your WhatsApp Business number, ClickRuntime starts your questionnaire.

  2. It sends one question at a time, with tap-to-answer buttons where it can, and remembers where each person is.

  3. Each answer is saved and the next question follows, until the last one, when the person gets a thank-you.

  4. You get an email with that person's full set of answers.

Before it runs live

  • Connect WhatsApp Business
  • Paste your automation's link into the other app's webhook settings

What you get

RunsThe moment it happens
Run a survey one question at a time on WhatsAppjust nowSucceeded
Email · Questionnaire from +447700900123How did you hear about us?: Friend How likely are you to recommend us?: Very Anything we could do better?: Longer opening hours

Build your own

Need it to work differently?

This template is a starting point. Copy the prompt and change it, or describe a different automation from scratch, with your own conditions, more apps or an AI step. Your assistant writes it, tests it and runs it on ClickRuntime.
  • Your own rules

    Conditions, thresholds, filters and exceptions, written the way you'd explain them to a colleague.

  • Any number of apps

    One automation can read from one app and update several others. Over 248 apps are ready, and anything with an API works too.

  • AI where it helps

    Summaries, classification, extraction and drafts use ClickRuntime's built-in AI, with no extra key.

  • On a schedule or on each event

    Runs as often as every 5 minutes, or the moment an app sends an event, and keeps track of what it already handled.

Changes you can ask for

  • Act only on the items that match your own rules, and skip the rest
  • Add an AI step, for example to summarize, sort or draft a reply
  • Add another app, for example also send it to Slack
  • Combine it with other WhatsApp Business steps into one automation

Under the hood

The code that runs this automation

This is the Python script that runs each time the automation starts. Your AI assistant writes it for you when you send the prompt, and you allow each step in your assistant. To change how the automation works, describe the change to your assistant and it updates the script for you. For every function it can use, see the script reference.
run_a_questionnaire_or_quiz_over_whatsapp.pyexample
from clickruntime import on_event, credentials, http, state, notify

PHONE_NUMBER_ID = "123456789012345"
QUESTIONS = [("How did you hear about us?", ["Search", "Friend", "Social"]),
             ("How likely are you to recommend us?", ["Very", "Maybe", "Not likely"]),
             ("Anything we could do better?", None)]

def send(to, q, options):
    msg = {"type": "text", "text": {"body": q}} if not options else {"type": "interactive", "interactive": {
        "type": "button", "body": {"text": q},
        "action": {"buttons": [{"type": "reply", "reply": {"id": o, "title": o}} for o in options]}}}
    http.post(f"https://graph.facebook.com/v21.0/{PHONE_NUMBER_ID}/messages",
              headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {credentials.secret('WHATSAPP_TOKEN')}"},
              json={"messaging_product": "whatsapp", "to": to, **msg})

@on_event
def handle(event):
    value = event.json["entry"][0]["changes"][0]["value"]
    if "messages" not in value:
        return {"skipped": True}
    m = value["messages"][0]
    answer = m.get("text", {}).get("body") or m.get("interactive", {}).get("button_reply", {}).get("title")
    s = state.get(f"quiz:{m['from']}") or {"step": -1, "answers": []}
    if s["step"] >= 0:
        s["answers"].append(answer)
    s["step"] += 1
    if s["step"] < len(QUESTIONS):
        send(m["from"], *QUESTIONS[s["step"]])
        state.set(f"quiz:{m['from']}", s)
        return {"step": s["step"]}
    state.delete(f"quiz:{m['from']}")
    send(m["from"], "Thanks, that's everything!", None)
    notify.email_me(f"Questionnaire from +{m['from']}", "\n".join(f"{q}: {a}" for (q, _), a in zip(QUESTIONS, s["answers"])))
    return {"done": True}

FAQ

Common questions

What if someone stops halfway through?
Their progress is remembered, so they can continue later from the same question. Incomplete responses can be left out of the final results or reported separately, depending on how you want partial data treated. Many survey tools send reminders; this can too, if you ask.
How many answer buttons can a question have?
WhatsApp reply buttons allow up to three options per message, and list messages allow more. The automation uses buttons where the question fits and falls back to a list or typed answer for longer sets.
Can the quiz be restarted by the same person?
Yes. You can allow a keyword like 'restart' that clears that person's step and score so they can retake it, or limit each number to one attempt if you need a fair comparison. Tell your AI assistant which approach you prefer.
What permissions does it need?
whatsapp_business_messaging. Nothing else in your accounts is used.
Does it need AI?
No. It runs without AI, so it doesn't use your plan's AI allowance.
How many runs does it use?
One run for each event the app sends.
Can I change how it works?
Yes. Describe the change to your AI assistant, for example a different schedule, channel or filter. It updates the automation, tests it and tells you what changed.

Set up “Run a survey one question at a time on WhatsApp” from your assistant

Copy the prompt above, or connect your assistant first. Free plan, no credit card.