What’s the difference between a quiz vs a survey vs a scorecard? 

What do you think of when you hear the word ‘quiz’? The beloved British pub quiz perhaps? The social media clickbait quiz, ‘Which White Lotus character are you?’ perhaps?  

How about the word ‘survey’? Do school kids standing around on high streets with clipboards spring to mind? And, what of the scorecard? A relatively newer term that might not conjure up such familiar images. 

So, what is it exactly that separates these three types of assessment? Let’s start by asking some seemingly simple questions:  

• What is a quiz?  
• What is a survey?  
• What is a scorecard?  

At this point you might be rolling your eyes and muttering a ‘Duh!’ to yourself. But stick with us as the definitions and differences between the three are surprisingly complex. Read on to discover how these assessment methods differ and what goals each one is best suited to. 

What is a quiz? 

The main aim of a quiz is to test the knowledge of the person taking it. Unlike a survey, it’s not a means of collecting feedback or opinion. Quizzes can be used in formal education and training or as entertainment, take the aforementioned pub quiz for example, although it’s well known that some participants can take these a bit too seriously! 

There are many different types of quiz, the most common being: 

• The personality quiz – This type of quiz reveals certain things about the quiz-taker. A typical personality test question might be:  

People such as HR managers might use a personality quiz as part of their recruitment process. It’s a way for them to understand if a potential candidate would be a good fit for the team and organisation 

• The Yes/No and True/False quiz is a concise and efficient way of testing the quiz taker’s knowledge and understanding of a topic, product, or service. It’s a great way for businesses to quickly identify common misconceptions their audience might have 
• The knowledge test and multiple-choice quizzes are more formal and indicate what level of understanding the quiz takers are at. These types of quizzes can be used in tests and exams or as part of a certification course 
• The trivia quiz is fun and informal, while also adding value to the quiz taker’s experience. It can be used lead a prospect to the best product or service for them and can be an engaging and shareable piece of content 

What is a survey? 

Chances are you’re familiar with surveys, millions are sent out digitally every year by businesses wanting to get fast insights from a wider audience.  

Surveys are used for gathering opinions, information, and feedback with the aim of understanding an audience as a whole.  They can be used for market research, to improve engagement or to conduct evaluations. They can help identify trends, buyer preferences and behaviours, and to measure the impact of a product, service or training intervention.  

Usually, a survey question is open-ended and will have no right or wrong answer. An example question might be ‘what is your favourite colour?’  

A good survey, however, should aim to gather both quantitative (the numbers) and qualitative (the why behind the numbers) data. This is the best way for a business to be able to analyse the results better and understand their customers better. 

What is a scorecard? 

A Scorecard is like a quiz, but with rocket fuel. Rather than simply collecting answers and giving nothing back except maybe an automated thank you, a scorecard uses the information the quiz taker has volunteered and instantly provides them with personalised, valuable feedback.  

This makes it a simple yet powerful lead magnet. Businesses can use the scorecard to gain the trust of their prospects by providing them with meaningful, expert advice tailored specifically to them. Simultaneously the business collects valuable data to help them learn about their customers and improve their sales strategy. 

You might be wondering how the scorecard works? Well, I’ll tell you: A scorecard allocates points to multiple answer options for each question. Based on the answers the quiz taker gives, a score is calculated, and a result and relevant feedback is generated.  

A scorecard can be used for a variety of purposes including lead qualification, archetype testing, and allowing prospects to self-identify the gaps that they need help filling.

 

How do I choose between a quiz, a survey and scorecard? 

When is it best to use a quiz or a survey or a scorecard? It mainly depends on what you want to achieve, but time and cost should be factored in too. 

If you’re looking for ways to improve your products or services, already have a large customer base and don’t want to invest too much time or cost, a simple survey could be the way to go. There is a mountain of survey tools available such as SurveyMonkey and Google Forms, many of which are free or affordable. Another option is your CRM, which is likely to have feedback features. However, these platforms can be limited with set templates and basic options. They are also largely self-service, meaning you must craft the survey questions yourself, something that is crucial to get right, otherwise you’re wasting your time. 

If your goal is to boost engagement, increase revenue, get more leads, or drive more traffic to your website, a quiz or a scorecard can help you reach your goal quickly and easily. They’re the perfect solution for business owners who want to engage and communicate with their audience, build trust, gain authority and fine tune their sales funnel. There are many self-service or DIY quiz builders available such as ScoreApp and Typeform, but again these can be limiting and you need to be prepared to craft the quiz content yourself, something that requires the help of specialists to be most effective. 

Does SMA Digital provide quizzes, surveys or scorecards? 

Our Specialised Marketing Assessment can take the form of a quiz, a survey, or a scorecard, it can be as simple or as complex as you like. We can even take the best bits of all three methods and apply them to create your own bespoke solution. 

So, to answer the question, yes, we do all three! Using our advanced software, specialist knowledge and vast experience we can create the perfect solution for your needs.