Thumbs Surveys
In this article:
- Introducing Thumbs.
- What is the Thumbs survey flow?
- How do I calculate the Thumbs score?
- Testing and previewing a Thumbs question vs. a full questionnaire.
FAQs
- Who are Thumbs surveys for?
- When should I send Thumbs surveys?
- What are some best practices for Thumbs surveys?
Introducing Thumbs
Thumbs surveys are set apart by the power of simplicity. As a classic gesture, Thumbs is super intuitive.
If it's a "thumbs up," the feedback is positive. If it's a "thumbs down," the feedback is negative. It's a simple vote!
What is the Thumbs survey flow?
The questions you can ask with the thumbs survey are endless, but a common format is:
“How was your experience with [brand/product name]?”
Customers provide a score by selecting either a thumbs up or a thumbs down.
After providing a score, customers answer an open-ended comment question to explain their responses. They’ll then respond to any Additional Questions you’ve configured before being presented with a customized Thank You page.
Sample Thumbs question
Sample Thumbs comment
How is the Thumbs score calculated?
The Thumbs score is calculated with the following equation:
( Total number of “thumbs up” responses / Total number of responses ) x 100 = Thumbs score
The Thumbs score is rounded to the nearest whole number.
Let's say you receive:
- Thumbs up: 30 responses
- Thumbs down: 10 responses
With 40 total responses, the calculation becomes:
( 30 thumbs up / 40 total responses ) * 100 = 75 (your Thumbs score)
Testing and previewing a Thumbs question vs. a full questionnaire
There are two—very different—preview options to consider. You can:
- Preview a Thumbs question in customization mode
- Preview an entire survey questionnaire in a platform testing environment
1. Preview a Thumbs question in customization mode
Visualize how your Thumbs question will appear (with the Desktop and Mobile preview options) as you customize the look and feel of your survey. Preview the changes you make to the color scheme, logo, and text elements of your Thumbs question in real time. (See Customization Basics + Quick Start Video.)
2. Preview an entire survey questionnaire in a platform testing environment
Previewing how respondents will experience your full survey (particularly if you've added Additional Questions to your questionnaire) requires testing at the platform level.
To learn how to test and preview you entire survey questionnaire, click and explore each of the distribution platform(s) that you have deployed from this list:
- Testing and previewing Email platform surveys
- Testing and previewing Web platform surveys
- Testing and previewing Link platform surveys
- Testing and previewing Kiosk platform surveys
- Testing the SDK Platform — Previewing the SDK Platform
Additional questions are added to each platform independently of the others; ergo, you should preview and test each of your distribution platforms separately.
Who are Thumbs surveys for?
Thumbs offers a lightweight, adaptable solution for any company requiring quick and concise feedback from their customers. For businesses looking for product feedback, customer sentiment following support interactions, or product satisfaction, Thumbs can enable the collection of clear customer sentiment to help drive immediate improvements.
As an added bonus, because of the survey's simplicity, Thumbs often sees much higher engagement than traditional methods. They offer a great solution for companies looking to rejuvenate poorly engaged CX programs.
When should I send Thumbs surveys?
The ideal timing for sending a Thumbs survey is immediately following a key event. As thumbs provides one of the most lean and effective methods to collect feedback quickly, deploy Thumbs surveys in situations where you’d anticipate rapid feedback would be necessary.
Interested in learning about situations where others are using Thumbs? Consider these common use cases:
- Send directly following a support conversation
- Display in-product to capture feedback about app features
- Survey about products that add personalization based on feedback (like many streaming apps)
- Embed in your Help Center to get a gauge of how helpful customers find your content
- Use as opt-in forms—which is less feedback oriented and designed to help build internal lists for contact purposes
- Replace standard 1-5 CSAT or 1-7 CES scales to boost response rates
What are some best practices for Thumbs surveys?
Thumbs surveys are one of the most simple and effective methods for collecting quick customer feedback. With that in mind, Thumbs surveys are not always a great solution for every use case, and certain customizations to Thumbs surveys can lessen their effectiveness.
Align your question to the Thumbs scale
Mapping the survey question to the Thumbs scale is critical to avoid end-user confusion. To strategically frame a Thumbs question, phrase your question to work with one of the following answer pairs:
- Yes / No
- Like / Dislike
- Happy / Unhappy
Let’s take the following question as an unfortunate example:
Thumbs doesn't pair well with this question for a number of reasons:
- Does "thumbs down" indicate we didn't purchase from Hem & Stitch? (Or were we disappointed in our experience with Sara?)
- Does "thumbs up" suggest that we were super satisfied with our experience with Sara? (Or that we ended up buying clothing from Hem & Stitch, which we now enjoy?)
Avoid complex questions
Thumbs offers a powerful solution for distilling overly complex feedback programs into a simple rating scale with just two clear options. Avoid complicating the question to the point where Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down doesn't provide the immediacy for which the method is designed.
Here's an example of a question that would be a bad fit for Thumbs:
What's wrong with this question? First and foremost, the purpose of the survey isn't clear. What if we had a great experience purchasing Hem & Stitch products online, but our outreach with Hem & Stitch support was subpar? In this instance, the binary options for responding—thumbs up or thumbs down—simply can't work!