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How to use the different Microsurvey types?

An overview of the types of Microsurveys you can create and the configuration options for each

Chameleon Team avatar
Written by Chameleon Team
Updated this week

Microsurveys are lightweight, in-product surveys that help you understand your users’ thoughts and experiences: what’s working well, what’s confusing, and where there’s room to improve 🪄. By collecting feedback directly within your product, you gain timely insights that can guide smarter product decisions.

Ready to start collecting insights? 💪 The first step is choosing a Microsurvey type in Chameleon. This decision will shape the options you can customize and the analytics you'll see in your Dashboard once the survey is live.

👉 To explore the configuration flow of a Microsurvey, read Understanding Microsurveys.


Availability & Usage

🔐 Startup: 5 Microsurveys,

🔐 Growth & Enterprise: unlimited Microsurveys

⚙️ Different Triggers available in the Builder


The Microsurvey types you can build with Chameleon

Chameleon offers five types of Microsurveys to choose from. Each one can include a "Follow Up" Step, letting you add up to two additional questions of any type. This flexibility helps you tailor surveys to explore the user insights that matter most to you.

Each time you go in to build a Microsurvey, you can choose a:

  • Rating Microsurveys (including CES & CSAT) -- users can share how easy/difficult a task or a process was for them

  • Net Promoter Score -- users can choose a likelihood between 0 and 10

  • Input -- users can share short responses

  • Dropdown -- users can pick between a set of options or add their own

  • Multi button (two, three, four, or five buttons)-- users can pick between a set of options

For each Microsurvey, you can customize components such as:

Buttons from 'Thank You' Steps, or buttons from Input, Dropdown, and Multi button Microsurveys can also trigger independent Actions after (e.g., load a page, start a Tour, launch a chat, etc.)


Rating Microsurveys

Rating Microsurveys help you understand how users feel about a task or process, whether it's smooth sailing or full of friction. They’re a quick way to gauge the overall experience and identify opportunities for improvement.

Configuration options

  • Choose a format: CSAT, CES, number ratings, or emojis

  • Add or hide labels to suit your tone

  • Customize pre-filled options to align with your brand

For each type, the options will be pre-filled, but you can easily adjust them from the Builder.

💡 For each type, the options will be pre-filled, but you can easily adjust them from the Builder.

Rating Microsurveys Subtypes

Customer Satisfaction (CSAT)

A Customer Satisfaction score is a simple way to measure user satisfaction. CSAT typically asks, “How satisfied are you with ___?” and lets you define the context—whether it's a feature, experience, or interaction. Make it your own by customizing the question to target exactly what you're curious about. 😃

Customer Effort Score (CES)

CES tells you how easy or difficult users found a particular task. It asks users to rate their experience from “Very easy” to “Very difficult":

This type of feedback can be really useful for product teams, especially when delivered immediately after a specific user action or workflow. Finding out the perceived effort is an important component of product and feature adoption.


Net Promoter Score (NPS)

NPS surveys help you measure customer loyalty by asking a simple question:

“How likely are you to recommend {Company} to a friend or colleague?”

Users respond on a scale from 0 (not likely at all) to 10 (extremely likely).

Responses are grouped into three categories:

  • Detractors (0–6): Unlikely to recommend

  • Passives (7–8): Generally satisfied but not enthusiastic

  • Promoters (9–10): Highly likely to recommend

Chameleon automatically calculates your Net Promoter Score based on the responses, and you can view your results right on the Analytics page on your Dashboard, no manual calculations needed 😄.

Customization options

  • Add a Follow Up Step based on a respondent’s score to dig deeper into their reasoning

  • Choose from any of our four question types for the follow-up to keep feedback relevant and actionable

👀 Up Next: We are working to enable embedding NPS Microsurveys in your emails, but meanwhile, you can use this method to share them via your email campaigns.


Input Microsurvey

Input Microsurveys let users share open-ended feedback in their own words. Whether they’re offering insights, reporting issues, or leaving contact details, these surveys give users space to express themselves freely 💃.

For each Input Microsurvey, you can select a different input type that corresponds with the message you're aiming to receive. In the 'Question' panel, you can choose between:

  • Short text – for quick comments

  • Long text – when users have more to say

  • Email – to collect contact information

  • Number – for capturing quantifiable input

  • URL – to gather website references or links

✨ Common use cases:

  • Design feedback: “What do you think about our new dashboard look?”

  • Customer development: “What brought you to our product today?”

  • Failure feedback: “We noticed you didn’t complete checkout—would you mind sharing why?”

Making sense of open-text responses

Open-ended input can be harder to analyze, but here are a few ways to make it manageable:

  • Use text analytics tools or word clouds to spot patterns

  • Manually scan responses to get a sense of common themes

  • Group replies into simple categories like “positive,” “neutral,” and “needs improvement”

  • Export your data to CSV or send it to Google Drive for deeper analysis


Dropdown Microsurvey

Dropdown Microsurveys allow users to choose from a predefined list of options. It's ideal for when you have more than five choices or want to include a flexible “Other” option for custom input.

Key features:

  • Randomize answer order to help reduce bias

  • Allow multiple selections when one choice isn’t enough

  • Include an “Other” option with a text field for custom responses

  • Choose between short or long input fields for “Other” answers

How results are handled:
In the Analytics page, responses submitted via the “Other” option are grouped together for easy review. You can still view individual entries in the data table or export everything (including custom responses) as a CSV file.


Multi button Microsurvey

Multi-button Microsurveys let users choose from multiple predefined options, offering a simple and interactive way to capture preferences, trigger actions, or segment users based on their responses. They’re great for everything from quick check-ins to tailored onboarding experiences.

Customization options

  • Select between two and five buttons

  • Assign specific Actions to each button click (e.g., launch a guide, start a Tour, or redirect to content)

Example use case:
The well-known Product-Market Fit survey asks:

“How would you feel if you could no longer use this product?”

If fewer than 40% of users answer “Very disappointed,” it can signal a need to revisit your product strategy. This question alone can offer powerful insight into your product’s value.

Other ways to use Multi-button Microsurveys:

  • Learning preferences: “Want to see how this feature works?” (Yes → Start Tour, No → Skip)

  • Content format: “How do you prefer to learn?” (Reading → Article, Watching → Video)

  • Early access: “Want to try a new feature before it launches?”

  • Satisfaction check-ins: “Did this solve your problem?” (No → Offer additional support)

  • Review prompts: “Enjoying the product? Leave a review?”

  • Platform choice: “Which app do you use?” (iOS, Android)

  • Role identification: “What best describes your role?”

  • User goals: “What are you looking to achieve today?” (Guide them based on their response)


Customizing Microsurveys

No matter which type you choose, you can tailor key elements to match your brand and goals:

  • Question text – Use your tone of voice to make it feel authentic and engaging

  • Button text – Go beyond “Submit” with clear, action-oriented labels

  • On-Page Trigger – Choose when and where the survey appears to reach users at the right moment

  • Dismiss option – Give users a way to skip or close the survey if they’re not ready to respond

💡 Pro tip:
Buttons aren’t just for collecting responses—they can also trigger actions like opening a new page, launching a Tour, starting a chat with support, and more. This functionality is available in the Thank You Step, Input, Dropdown, and Multi-button Microsurveys, giving you lots of flexibility to connect surveys with the next best step in the user journey.

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