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Understanding Microsurveys

Learn how to use and configure Microsurveys for efficient user feedback

Tiago Mota avatar
Written by Tiago Mota
Updated over 3 months ago

Chameleon Microsurveys enable you to collect in-product feedback from your users without requiring additional coding or engineering time. You can create on-brand Microsurveys with custom questions triggered at the right time for your users.

πŸ‘‡ Check out an interactive demo on how to build a multi-button Microsurvey!

preview of a rating Microsurvey triggered on click

Availability & Usage

πŸ” Startup: 5 Microsurveys

πŸ” Growth & Enterprise: unlimited Microsurveys

πŸ“© Contact: to discuss your plan needs


What are the components of a Microsurvey?

Chameleon Microsurveys include up to three different Steps:

  1. Question Step -- a question with a response option (a button response).

  2. Follow Up Step -- an optional Step where users can share more insights; this Step can have two different questions (e.g., an input and a multi-button choice); the question and placeholder text can be updated based on which button the user clicked in the Question Step.

  3. Thank you Step -- an optional thank you message that displays briefly.


How to create a Microsurvey?

To create a Microsurvey, pick this Experience type from the Dashboard's left-side menu, and click "+ Create a Microsurvey".

You can also create a new one from your Homepage - just click the "+ New Experience" button at the top-right corner and select Microsurveys.

You'll pick a type and a style in the Dashboard, and then you'll use the Builder to edit the copy, its position on the page, and configure other options for how and where your Microsurvey should display.

Let's cover the configuration flow together.

Select a Microsurvey Type

This sets the format and specific options for the Microsurvey Question Step. Each type offers different customization options (e.g., a CES Microsurvey has a choice of emojis, numbers, text, etc.) and reporting (e.g., an NPS Microsurvey requires a different analysis than a CSAT).

Once you pick a type, the others will be locked, and you won't be able to switch types. This keeps your data clean and responses organized. πŸ˜‰

Build your Microsurvey

In the next panel, start building your Microsurvey by picking a style: between a Template or a blank canvas (that uses your Brand Styling). Enter the Builder in your application to configure each Microsurvey Step.

β„Ή You can add a Follow Up Step and/or a Thank You Step from the Dashboard or enter the Builder and add them from the Builder Topbar. In the Builder, switch between these Steps to edit the content in each one.

These are the options you can set using the Builder:

  • Where the Microsurvey should be positioned and how it can be triggered or dismissed by users

  • Set specific Element or URL Rules needed for the Microsurvey to display to users

  • Adjust the width of the Microsurvey Canvas, corner radius, opacity, and color

πŸ‘‰ You can choose a manual or an auto option for the Canvas width. When set to auto, the Canvas size will adapt to fit the buttons in it. A manual Canvas also allows you to adjust the Canvas width for each Step individually, while the auto option will keep the same width for all 3 Steps in your Microsurvey.

  • Add Step level Custom CSS for styling tweaks

  • Add custom text to the Body and define its color, formatting, and font size, as well as personalization options

  • Add a custom visual - image, GIF, or video

  • Add a Shroud that darkens the screen to highlight your Microsurvey

  • Customize how buttons look and what "Actions" they can launch

πŸ‘‰ With Rating & Multi button Microsurveys, you can pick between a horizontal and a vertical button layout. Find these layout options under Styling in the Builder.

β„Ή For a better end-user experience, the styling you set on the Question Step will remain consistent across all Steps. This includes the canvas color, text color, button alignment (vertical/horizontal), text alignment, and button styles.
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​The same applies if you use a Shroud, for example. If you add it to the first Step, it will carry to the Follow Up and Thank you Steps as well. These options are available on the Microsurvey (first) Step and not subsequent Steps.

Configure your Microsurvey questions

On all Microsurveys, there are two components you can customize for each question:

  • the body -- applying a bold or italic style, adding hyperlinks, or personalizing with user data

  • the response -- customizing the type of input, adding labels, or adjusting the placeholder text

β„Ή The "response" section in the Builder can have different options based on the Microsurvey you create, but the editing process is the same. You can click directly into the Builder component or the Builder section to edit either the body or the response in a Microsurvey Step. The Builder will always highlight the component you're about to edit.

In a Follow Up Step, you can add 1 or 2 questions. In the "Question" panel, you can adjust:

  • the question body -- applying a bold or italic style, adding hyperlinks, or personalizing with user data and customizing the copy for different responses

  • the question type -- picking a type and adjusting its specific options, such as the labels, allowing for an "Other" option, picking an input type, or personalizing the placeholder text with user data

β„Ή In Follow-up Steps, you can set if the response should be mandatory or optional. Select any Question and find this option in the 'Question Type' section.
​

On a Follow Up Step, the body section includes each response from the first (Question) Step. This is where you can adjust the message, so users can see a custom message based on their specific response in the first Step of your Microsurvey. For example, you may want to ask different questions depending on whether a user answered the Microsurvey Step positively or negatively.

To adjust the copy for the right responses, select each group/response from the Builder and then update your copy. Or use the "All Responses" option to update the copy for all responses at once.

β„Ή For Input and Dropdown Microsurveys, you can adjust the button position on the Question Step or add an Action by selecting it in the Builder.

Question types

On all Follow Up Steps, you can pick out of 4 question types:

  • rating

  • multi button

  • input

  • dropdown

This way, you can essentially mix together any type of Microsurvey in Chameleon to collect insights from users.

Response logic

On Any Follow Up Step, head over to the "Response Logic" panel to set which responses get to see which additional question(s). Use the toggles to disable questions for each response.

If you disable both questions, those respondents will see the "Thank you" Step or exit the Microsurvey.

Launch powerful Actions

You can add up to 2 buttons to all Microsurvey Follow Up Steps, each of which can launch dynamic Actions once users click them. This is powerful for driving users' discovery, providing further help, or easily engaging them with specific guides.

Actions can launch other in-product Experiences, your integrations, or update data in your account. For example:

  • πŸ“ You can launch a Typeform survey to collect more detailed feedback or responses, including varying input options or logic based on responses.

  • πŸ•ΉοΈ Share Figma prototypes with power users and ask them to share feedback on upcoming features.

  • πŸ“† Schedule a call or meeting with a user (e.g. for product feedback or customer support, or sales) from inside your product using Calendly or Chili Piper.

β„Ή The Input and Dropdown Microsurvey types support Actions on the first Question Step as well. Simply select the 'Submit' button, and add your desired Action.

Once you're done configuring your Microsurvey Steps, try using the "Preview mode" to test how it displays to end-users. Once you're happy with it, return to the Dashboard to pick an audience and publish your Microsurvey.

πŸ‘‰ Learn more about testing a Chameleon Experience to ensure your Experiences always display correctly.

Any changes you make in the Builder will be reflected in your Dashboard. In the Dashboard, you can also easily review all Step interactions by toggling on "Show interactions".

Publish to an Environment

If you have your Environments set, this is where you'll choose where you want your Microsurvey to show up. This is very useful when you have staging and production environments. Or when you have multiple web pages that cater to different audience groups.

πŸ‘‰ Read more about managing Experiences across different Environments, to learn how to effectively target your Microsurveys to specific groups of domains or subdomains.


Choose a target audience

Next, select the Segment that should see your Microsurvey. You can search in the drop-down menu and combine multiple Segments or choose one of the pre-defined audiences created by Chameleon.

You can create a Segment using the data you send to Chameleon, using the default Chameleon data, or any data received from integrations.

Set the Recurrence

You can set a recurring cadence for your Microsurvey to display to users with Recurrence. Define how often a Microsurvey should repeatedly display to your users after it has been exited or completed.

Recurrence dropdown options in the Dashboard

When Recurrence is set the Microsurvey will repeat after the set period, which begins after the user last completes/exists the Microsurvey.

πŸ“ For example, if Nathan saw the NPS Microsurvey, set to repeat each half-year, on Feb 1 and Janice saw it on March 1, Nathan would see it again the next time they visit the app after Aug 1, and similarly, Janice after Sept 1.

β„Ή When creating a Segment based on a user's Microsurvey response, the most recent response will be used. However, all responses will be available within the Chameleon Dashboard to view or download.

If Rate Limiting causes the Microsurvey to be suppressed, then it will appear at the next available opportunity. If the Recurrence is adjusted and the Microsurvey re-published, then the most recent Recurrence setting will be used.


Review and Publish

When you're done creating your Microsurvey, you have a few options to ensure you also deliver it at the right time. As the last step, in the 'Review and Publish' panel, you can choose to:

  • Publish immediately: Microsurvey is immediately live for all targeted users

  • Schedule publishing: set a date and time for Microsurvey to start being displayed.

  • Set end date: set a date and time to stop being shown to your users; the Microsurvey will switch to a Draft.

    • Unpublish after # responses: set a specific number of responses to trigger the Microsurvey to stop being displayed.

β„Ή If you use both options, your Microsurvey will stop being displayed for whichever comes first -- the unpublish date you set or the number of responses.

Whenever you want to make changes to a live Microsurvey, you can easily do it from the Dashboard; don't forget to apply your changes from the Dashboard once you're done in the "Review and Publish" section.

πŸ‘‰ If your Microsurvey isn't showing up as expected, use the Debugger console tool to see detailed information about its settings and quickly solve the issue.


Chameleon automatically collects all user responses, along with analytics around the display and completion of your Microsurveys. This is available in the Chameleon Dashboard, via our API, via CSV download, and also directly to analytics integrations, including Slack.

All your Microsurveys' data will be available in your Chameleon Dashboard. From here, you can download the data as a CSV and also connect your analytics tool to have the data automatically sent there.

Find all responses for each Microsurvey on the "Analytics" page in your Dashboard. Here you have a few useful options to efficiently review user feedback:

  • download all responses

  • filter responses

  • summarize responses with AI -- see the summary on the Activity feed

You can leverage your Microsurvey data to target users with other in-app Experiences. When creating a Segment, you can use survey data to filter out users based on specific actions or responses.

This is powerful to connect user responses to other in-product Experiences and continue to guide and engage your users.

You can also leverage our API to delete responses, here's a quick video walking you through the steps πŸ‘‡


Can I trigger other Experiences using Microsurvey data?

Can I collect free-form feedback using Microsurveys?

Can I show an on-demand Microsurvey?

Yes, you can use Chameleon to show a Microsurvey on-demand.

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