Online scorecards

Why a scorecard gets honest answers

Because the respondent is answering for their own benefit, not yours — an inflated answer only corrupts the result they came for.

This is the structural difference from a form, and it is worth dwelling on. On a lead form, there is no cost to overstating a budget or a timeline; the only consequence lands on you. On a scorecard, the person is being measured against something, and a dishonest answer produces a reading they know is wrong.

It is not a lie detector. People still round up. But the incentive points the other way for the first time, and that shows up in the quality of what you collect.

What the result page has to show

A score, what that score means in words, and one clear next step — in that order, and specific enough that it could not have been written for someone else.

A result that reads as generic undoes the exchange retroactively: the respondent concludes the questions were a formality. Bands are what prevent this. Each score range gets its own written interpretation and its own recommendation, so a low scorer and a high scorer leave with genuinely different pages.

• The score, shown plainly rather than hidden behind an email gate
• A named band with its own interpretation, not one paragraph for everyone
• Where they lost points, so the number is explicable
• One next step that matches the band, including for people who do not qualify

Hosted, not rebuilt

A scorecard needs a URL of its own, because ads, email and social all need somewhere to send people that is not your homepage.

Rebuilding the experience inside your own site is the common instinct and it usually costs more than it returns — the scoring, the branching and the per-respondent result page all have to be reimplemented. A hosted link on your own domain gets the branding without the rebuild.

Common questions

What is an online scorecard?

An online scorecard is a hosted set of questions that scores a person against criteria you define and shows them where they stand, usually as a number with a written interpretation. Read more →

What should a scorecard result page show?

The score, what that score means in words specific to the band it falls in, where the points were lost, and one next step that matches the result rather than the sale you want. Read more →