Smore vs SurveyMonkey: Design Customizability

Surveys are a space for two-way communication between brands and customers. It is not a tool that unilaterally approaches customers simply to collect data, but is another touchpoint that builds trust with customers by actively conveying the brand’s customer philosophy or values. Therefore, through well-designed surveys, you need to make customers feel that the brand is trying to have a sincere conversation with them ‘directly.’   


Why does a well-designed survey matter for your brand?

In essence, well-designed surveys not only yield quality data efficiently but also reinforce your brand's commitment to customer satisfaction and authenticity.

Enhances customer experience 

Incorporating your brand's identity and sincerity into surveys is crucial for delivering a positive customer experience. When customers feel heard and valued through personalized survey designs, it optimizes their perception of your business. By nurturing customer experience and loyalty in this way, you naturally boost conversion rates.

Boosts Response Rates

Insufficient responses hinder meaningful insights. A bland, impersonal survey design can deter respondents and lead to disengagement. Customizing surveys with options like font formats, theme colors, and transition effects creates an inviting atmosphere akin to a luxurious hotel, enticing respondents to participate and share genuine feedback.

Builds Reliability

Customers encounter numerous surveys, but those lacking brand identity can feel impersonal or even suspicious. Conversely, surveys that leverage design customization capture attention and instill trust. By aligning the survey experience with your brand, you create a safe space for customers to share their thoughts, enhancing reliability and deepening customer-brand connections.


💡What makes Smore stand out in survey design?

Customer surveys should be all about creating an experience that customers enjoy. That's why at Smore, we believe in providing not just a survey, but an engaging and visually appealing journey. Our customization options go beyond the basics, allowing you to add your personal touch to every aspect of your survey.

We believe in giving you complete control over your survey's look and feel. With Smore, you can customize everything from backgrounds to buttons, ensuring that each question stands out and keeps respondents interested. Want to highlight a particular question or set a different mood for each section? Customize the style for each page. And when it comes to colors, we don't believe in limitations. Say goodbye to preset color options – with Smore, you can fine-tune every detail by entering your brand’s color codes. 

But we don't stop there – we also offer dynamic design features to enhance the interactive experience. Customer surveys must create a space in which your customers have an enjoyable experience. Choose from a variety of screen transition effects to add some flair to your survey, or customize the loading screen text to make it uniquely yours. And for those extra special moments, why not add a fireworks animation to celebrate top scores? It's all about making survey-taking feel like a fun game, even in those short moments between questions. With Smore, your surveys will not only look fantastic but also be a joy to complete.


Smore VS SurveyMonkey

Let’s compare the design customization function of Smore and SurveyMonkey in detail.


Smore

SurveyMonkey

Theme updated automatically to match logo

O

Customize design for each question/page

O

X

Variety of question/component format

O

X

Customize loading/waiting screen

O

X

Transition Effect

O

X

Ending Page Editor

O


✔️Comparison Point 1: Theme automatically updates to match the logo design

Smore automatically extracts the key color of the uploaded image in the logo insert section, thus changing the background color and button color to the same theme color by itself. If you upload a logo with the background not deleted, the survey’s background color changes according to the image’s background color. Thanks to these automatic changes, the logo can naturally blend into your survey. With this natural white labeling of Smore, you can increase the survey participation rate and response completion rate.


 In SurveyMonkey, the background color or button color doesn’t automatically change when you upload an image to the logo insert section. So to make the logo color and cover design to be consistent, you have to manually adjust each color.

🤔
 Is ‘Logo Insert’ only available on paid plans?
In Smore, you can insert your logo even on a free plan! In SurveyMonkey, you have to pay $99 per month to insert your logo on your surveys. 

✔️Comparison Point 2: Customize design for each question/page

In Smore, you can click on the palette shaped button at the top right corner of each question card to customize the theme of each question differently. You can freely upload any background image or set background color, or even change the button color. Also, you can activate the ‘Blur’ or ‘Darken image’ button to set the border effect of the question in detail. If you create a unique design for a specific question using this theme customization function for each question, you can prevent respondents from dropping off by drawing their attention and effectively help respondents be immersed in the survey

In SurveyMonkey, you can change the text font, background, and text color in the Design tab of the edit screen. However, all these design features are paid features, meaning there is almost nothing you can do if you’re on a free plan. Also, once you set a theme, that theme is applied to the entire survey all at once, preventing you from customizing each question differently. In other words, you cannot emphasize certain questions and the survey’s design will be consistent from start to end, making the respondents bored due to lack of visual changes. And this boredom leads to an increase in drop-off rate.

✔️Comparison Point 3: Detailed Question Type Design

In Smore, you can freely change the emoji on the moving bar that the respondent interacts with in ‘Slider’ and ‘Scale’ question types. When the respondent moves the emoji to the right, the size of the emoji becomes bigger. Furthermore, you can set a firework animation to appear when a respondent chooses a full score for the question.

This detailed question design function can arouse the curiosity of respondents so that they want to answer. It can also lower the drop-off rate by providing fun as if playing a game. It also increases the likelihood that the respondent will be willing to answer the next question carefully.


SurveyMonkey doesn’t have the function to design ‘Slider’ question types in detail. You can only change the left/right numbers for the questions that are set by default.


✔️Comparison Point 4: Interaction Design

In Smore, you can choose how the screen is transitioned when moving on to the next question. You can also change the text and font color of the ‘Waiting Screen’ that appears just before moving to the ending page after answering the last question. Thanks to this, you can add details even in short moments, delivering fun and emotion to customers. This interactive design that comes alive at the respondent’s fingertips can provide respondents with an enjoyable survey experience and makes the respondents willing to answer other surveys in the future.

In SurveyMonkey, there is no function to set the transition effect when moving on to the next question. Nor is there a function to design the moment after submission is completed and before the ending page shows up. 

✔️Comparison Point 5: Ending Page Design

Based on a deep understanding of customer experience, Smore provides many functions that allow you to freely design the ending page that appears upon completion of response submission. If you end your survey by just showing a simple closing statement such as ‘Submission is completed’ or’ Thank you’, it may seem like there is not enough closure for those who took their precious time to respond.

To begin with, you can select the layout of the ending page. You can also embed various assets such as images, videos, or web pages within the ending page to deliver additional information related to the survey. Thanks to this, you can freely display content containing the message you want to convey to customers. Even after the respondents complete their surveys, you can naturally induce additional actions and convert the respondents into brand customers. And by conveying your attitude and sincerity that you genuinely sought to communicate with the customers, brand perception can also be positively improved.

In SurveyMonkey, setting an ending page is itself a paid feature. And even if you pay, you can only change the phrase for the thank you message. You cannot splendidly design the ending page or add content that delivers your brand’s value.


With Smore, you can build up layer upon layer of details using Smore’s extensive design customization features. Ultimately, you’ll be able to dramatically improve the experience of survey respondents.

Express your sincerity to your customers with a survey customized freely in various ways! You can fully implement this even with Smore’s free plan. 😀

Want to see a little more about the scope of Smore’s free plan?