Verbatim answers

Sometimes a question on a questionnaire is, to all intents and purposes, a question you have already answered. When that happens, ResponseHub doesn’t write a new answer — it reuses the approved one exactly as written. That is a verbatim answer.

When it happens

A verbatim answer is used when a knowledge base item matches the question with a very high relevance score. The bar is deliberately high, so it only triggers on questions that are essentially the same as one you have answered before.

Below that bar, the knowledge base item is still used — it just informs a newly written answer rather than replacing it.

Why it works this way

Your knowledge base holds deliberately approved writing. Someone chose those words, and they were signed off.

Rewriting them for each new questionnaire would introduce variation for no benefit, and risks drifting away from wording that was settled on for a reason — which matters most for exactly the questions that come up again and again.

Spotting a verbatim answer

On the references card, a reference used verbatim is badged Used as answer rather than Used in answer, and outlined in a different colour so it stands out from the rest.

Multiple choice questions are never answered verbatim

Where a questionnaire restricts responses to a fixed set of options, answers must be one of those options. A knowledge base answer is free text and might not be, so these questions always go through the normal answering process instead.

Next steps

• Knowledge base vs sources
• References