People avoid long format questionnaires. Simply because of a high cognitive fatigue associated with it. In the era where millennials and Gen Z dominate the digital space, long questionnaire surveys might not make it to the top. Give way to microsurveys. Due to user brevity, businesses can collect very specific user feedback. It can be used at multiple touchpoints. We will discuss more on microsurveys in this blog.  

What Is A Microsurvey?

Micro surveys are short and focused surveys designed to gather quick responses from customers. These surveys contain 1 to 3 survey questions (a combination of closed-ended questions and open-ended questions). Micro surveys can be pushed via in-apps, website chatbots, WhatsApp and Facebook messenger. Users take only a few seconds to fill the bite-sized surveys. 

Why do you need a micro survey?

Micro surveys offer superfast access and fulfil the goal of market research in a short span of time. Here is why you need a microsurvey for user research.

• Microsurveys have more advantages over traditional surveys. Traditional surveys are time consuming vis-a-vis a microsurvey that can collect customer data efficiently.  
• Microsurveys can collect customer feedback at critical touchpoints in the buyer journey. For example: an ecommerce website can share an in-app microsurvey to get feedback on the post-purchase experience. 
• Organisations can get employee feedback with microsurveys. It can track employee satisfaction and locate areas for improvement in the workplace. 
• Microsurveys are compatible across various devices: phones, tablets, laptops and desktops. These are also compatible on platforms of iOS and android. 
• Microsurveys bring a high response rate. Micro-surveys focus on in-the-moment experience collection that can capture responses from busy people on the go. 

Difference Between A Microsurvey and Short Survey

Survey length: 

Microsurveys are very concise with 1-3 specific questions. It is experience oriented and very in-the-moment in nature. For example, an in-app microsurvey will ask users about their experience with a particular event or interaction. 

Short surveys can have from 4 to 10 questions on a certain topic. 

Respondent effort:

Micro surveys take minimal effort. It can be completed in a few clicks.Short surveys take considerable effort since it requires deeper insights from respondents. Customers can take a few minutes to share responses. 

Question structure: 

Customer satisfaction metrics are a part of micro surveys. It comes with a pre-defined question template. It is easy to fill. Short surveys are curated based on structured questions. It may have external links and a mix of open-ended questions and closed-ended questions. 

Timeline to share: 

Micro surveys are good for continuous feedback. It is common in customer experience (CX) and product improvement. Short surveys are best for periodic check-ins. It is ideal for customer satisfaction, employee feedback, and market research.

Types Of Microsurveys

Net Promoter Score (NPS) 

Net promoter score is a micro survey that gathers information about a customer’s brand loyalty. The main aim is to understand if people would recommend a certain product or service to their friends. 

Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)

The CSAT score will probe a customer on their experience with a conversation they had with the brand. This includes in-app surveys to rate a product/ conversation, resolving a ticket etc. This is an event oriented survey and only triggered at touchpoints that have an interaction with the customer. 

Customer Effort Score (CES)  

CES surveys are meant to evaluate customer experience and service. The goal is to identify how easy or difficult it is for a customer to perform a certain task. CES surveys are triggered after an interaction with customer support. 

Customer Exit Surveys

This survey type gets triggered when a user unsubscribes to a service. It is frequently used in a SaaS product. A customer exit survey has a single question. It seeks to understand why a current user terminates their usage with a product/ service. Example: when a user exits a cart without purchase, cancels product subscription, or a user leaves a page without a sign up. These surveys are also called churn prevention surveys or customer off-boarding surveys. 

Product Market Fit (PMF)

A product market fit aims to understand if users are satisfied with the current product. These short surveys try to understand current need-gaps to rectify them in the upcoming upgrades. Depending on the responses, product developers need to make changes.  

Persona Microsurvey

The aim of a user persona microsurvey is to identify your customer base. It seeks personal information such as your name, age, your professional industry, location, phone number. These micro surveys can be triggered during the welcome screen.

When should you run a microsurvey?

As mentioned prior, microsurveys are targeted and goal-oriented surveys that collect bite-sized yet crucial information. Here are the situations when you can use them:

• For product usage feedback: Ask users to rate certain features on the basis of importance or priority. You can ask users short questions on features that need upgrading or are missing.
• For customer churn research: These are also known as exit surveys. For example when people cancel product or service subscriptions, you’ll typically receive questions like: “Tell us why you are leaving us”. This indicates a customer’s satisfaction levels or gaps that need to be addressed. 
• For competitor analysis: Micro-survey questions are a good way to identify your current potential competitors. You can detect your unique selling proposition and find your competitive advantage. For example, rely on questions such as:
  “Why did you choose <BRAND> over the competitor?”
  “Are you considering switching over to a competitor product?” (include an open-ended response question to get clarity)
• For customer insight collection: CX professionals can get quick insights on general user satisfaction at certain touchpoints. For example, after a user has used your product for a 7 day trial, you can publish a microsurvey.
  “Which features did you enjoy the most?” .
• For customer persona research: Saas industries conduct user-persona research with microsurveys. This will help founders understand how their product will benefit the end user. It captures user information about who will use the product and how they will utilize it. For example:
  “Choose where you would use this product: At work, At school, For personal use, for research purpose.” 
• For customer support satisfaction: Microsurveys for customer support are useful to determine if the problems were resolved in a satisfactory manner. Common type is the Customer Effort Score Surveys that capture the effort taken to resolve an issue. This is an apt way to close the customer feedback loop.

4 Tips to Design Compelling and Highly Responsive Microsurvey

Here are some useful tips that can get your microsurvey, to bring a high response rate. 

1. Stick to the goal of the survey:

Micro surveys are short- mainly two to three questions at best. Keep it highly goal oriented and to the point. The main aim is to capture the right information with the right questions. Keep it free from jargons. This can prevent cognitive barriers for respondents while reading the survey in a short time frame. 

2. Microsurveys must add an open-ended question:

A mix of qualitative and quantitative questions give you the best of both worlds- numeric data and expressive data. People can share their experiences with the help of text, audio, video or photographs to explain personal experiences. Enable your microsurvey to capture media rich data.

3. Share the microsurvey at an appropriate touchpoint:

 A micro survey triggered at apt touchpoints can get data quickly. This can be after an interaction, a post-purchase or immediately after a user unsubscribes to a product. Be mindful of the timing to capture in-moment survey responses. 

4. Use multi channel platform for microsurvey distribution:

Merren uses interactive platforms of WhatsApp surveys, Facebook messenger, website chatbots and dynamic emails (including email signatures) to launch micro surveys. These platforms are responsive, compatible and bring a high response rate on your CX dashboard.

Pros and Cons of Using Microsurveys

Pros of micro surveys

• Easy to create – Pre-designed templates simplify survey creation, requiring only minor edits.
• Captures in-the-moment feedback – Collects genuine responses while experiences are still fresh.
• Ideal for post-transaction and in-app surveys – Helps in gathering instant feedback after key interactions.
• Multi-platform compatibility – Works seamlessly on WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and website chatbots.
• No technical expertise required – Simple to deploy without technical skills. Merren CX makes it easy to create these surveys without any technical expertise.

Cons of micro surveys

• Limited depth of responses – Not suitable for collecting detailed feedback.
• May not fully address customer grievances – Some issues require follow-ups via support calls.
• Not ideal for comprehensive research – You need a full-fledged questionnaire for deeper insights.

Create Microsurveys with Merren

Sign up for a 14 day free trial and access all our features on Merren. Use our AI survey builder to create instant feedback templates. Access 200+ survey templates and customize it as per your research requirements. Build microsurveys in a few clicks for a high response rate.