Thumbs Projects

In this article:

• Introducing Thumbs.
• The Thumbs survey flow.
• How the Thumbs score is calculated.
• 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?

Suggested next section: 3. Distribution Platforms & Sending

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!

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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

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How the Thumbs score is 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.

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Testing and previewing a Thumbs question vs. a full questionnaire

There are two — very different — preview options to consider. You can:

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 CX Customization Basics.) You can also add Additional questions and tweak your Thank you page all in one place.

2. Preview an entire Thumbs project 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:

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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.

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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.

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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 that we were disappointed with the agent?
• Does "thumbs up" suggest that we were super satisfied with our experience with the agent or that we purchased clothing from Hem & Stitch that 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. (It presents as a loyalty question that would be a better fit for an 11-point NPS method.)

For instance, 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!

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