Trivvy vs TheySaid: Employee Feedback and Engagement Tools Compared

Overview

Employee engagement remains a pressing challenge for organizations today. Globally, only about 21% of employees are actively engaged at work in 2024 according to Gallup – meaning the vast majority are not fully involved or enthusiastic about their jobs (see report). This disengagement has real business impacts: According to a study by Harvard Business Review, companies with highly engaged employees can outperform competitors by over 20%, while disengagement contributes to higher turnover and lost productivity. 

The challenge is especially acute for frontline and deskless workers, who make up 80% of the global workforce yet often feel “overlooked and unheard” by management. Traditional surveys and feedback tools often struggle to reach these employees, as many lack corporate email or computer access, and only 42% of frontline workers feel communication in their company is effective.

Modern employee feedback platforms like Trivvy and TheySaid have emerged to address these gaps. Both tools incorporate AI to help organizations gather employee input and improve engagement. Trivvy (by OurOffice) focuses on AI-generated, text-message-based surveys tailored for frontline teams, with an emphasis on quick feedback cycles and no-fuss participation. TheySaid (by TheySaid) offers a conversational AI survey platform that can simulate interviews and ask intelligent follow-up questions, aiming to dig deeper into the “why” behind responses. In this comparison, we’ll examine each tool’s ideal use cases, core features, pricing, ease of use, and real-world applications, before offering a final verdict for HR leaders or operations managers evaluating these solutions.

Who Each Tool Is Best For

Trivvy: Built for Frontline Engagement

Trivvy is best suited for organizations with a large frontline or deskless workforce – think industries like retail, hospitality, healthcare, manufacturing, logistics, shipyards and other environments where employees aren’t sitting at computers. These workers often have tight shifts, unpredictable schedules, and limited access to email or intranet. Trivvy is designed addresses this reality by delivering surveys via SMS text and keeping them extremely short (usually under a minute to complete). There are no logins, apps, or passwords required; employees simply reply to a text message. This makes Trivvy ideal for companies that have struggled to get feedback from hourly, distributed, or non-desk employees. 

HR leaders looking to improve engagement and retention on the frontline will appreciate that Trivvy removes technical barriers to participation and encourages honest input (with anonymous response options built-in for candid feedback). If your goal is to amplify the voice of shop-floor staff or field teams and do it quickly and frequently (e.g. pulse surveys after each shift or weekly check-ins), Trivvy is purpose-built for that scenario.

Beyond the frontline, Trivvy can also work for any organization that values speed and simplicity in feedback collection, analysis and reporting. HR teams that are stretched thin and are limited by their bandwidth will find Trivvy’s AI-driven survey generation and automated analysis attractive, since it reduces the manual effort of designing questionnaires and crunching data. After a survey, Trivvy also makes it super simple to analyze the results with automated findings and next steps at your finger tips to share with employees with one click. 

In short, Trivvy is for those who need a practical solution to get regular feedback and gauge employee sentiment in real-time – especially in environments where getting employees to log into a portal or sit through a 20-question survey has proven difficult.

TheySaid: Designed for Deep Insights

TheySaid is optimal for organizations that want to go beyond regular surveys and gather richer, qualitative insights from their employees. It’s a versatile platform that can be used by HR teams to understand the why behind the numbers. Companies that have more complex feedback needs – for example, wanting to conduct virtual interviews or open-ended conversations at scale with employees – would benefit from TheySaid’s conversational AI approach. The platform effectively replaces traditional surveys and one-on-one interviews with an AI that can chat with respondents, ask personalized follow-up questions, and probe deeper into responses.

TheySaid is well-suited for HR leaders who plan to run comprehensive engagement programs or research-driven initiatives. If you have the capacity to analyze themes and take action on in-depth feedback, TheySaid provides tools to do so – including AI analysis that identifies common themes and actionable items from responses in real time. Organizations aiming to improve areas like culture, retention, or employee experience on a deeper level (potentially guided by data) might prefer TheySaid. In summary, TheySaid is for those who value rich qualitative feedback and AI-driven conversational engagement, and who don’t mind a bit more setup to get highly insightful results.

Core Features

Both Trivvy and TheySaid leverage AI to modernize employee feedback, but they do so in distinct ways. Here’s a closer look at each tool’s core features and how they compare.

Trivvy: Key Features and Differentiators

AI-Generated Micro Surveys: Trivvy’s hallmark feature is its AI-powered survey creation. Managers or HR can simply indicate the topic or goal of a survey, and Trivvy’s built-in AI assistant will craft high-quality, relevant questions automatically. These questions are designed to be concise and context-appropriate. For example, if you want to gauge burnout on the warehouse floor, Trivvy might generate a short pulse survey asking employees to rate their stress level and provide a quick suggestion for relief. The emphasis is on brevity and high engagement – Trivvy surveys typically take less than a minute for an employee to complete between shifts or at a daily check-in. By keeping surveys short and targeted, Trivvy respects frontline workers’ time and encourages participation.

Multi-Channel Delivery (SMS First): Trivvy delivers surveys primarily via text message (SMS) directly to employees’ phones. This text-based approach is a game-changer for deskless staff. Employees receive simple texts with the questions and can respond instantly from their mobile device. No separate app is needed, and importantly no login or email is required at any point – lowering the barrier for participation to nearly zero. Imagine a cafeteria worker getting a text during a break: “On a scale of 1-5, how was your workload today?” and replying with a number in seconds. Trivvy also supports two-way messaging with analytics to get insights on the messages. While SMS is the key differentiator, Trivvy can integrate with other channels as well – for instance, managers can send the survey link via email or post a QR code in a break room – but the design assumption is that every worker has a phone, so SMS covers nearly all cases. This approach aligns with modern trends: 57% of companies now use text messaging to communicate with frontline employees, a sharp increase from just a year before. Trivvy capitalizes on the fact that text messages boast open rates around 98% (vastly higher than email) and are typically read within minutes by recipients.

Frictionless & Anonymous Feedback: A critical feature for engagement is the ability to give feedback safely. Trivvy allows anonymous responses, so employees can be honest without fear. You can also generate a knowledge check from training materials or guidebooks that employees are supposed to be familiar with. Because surveys arrive as regular texts, employees don’t have to navigate any complex system – “no links, no apps, no passwords” is a guiding principle. This frictionless experience means even tech-wary employees or those out in the field can easily voice their opinions. Trivvy effectively eliminates tech barriers that often plague survey participation (especially among frontline teams who might find logging into corporate systems cumbersome). Higher participation leads to more representative feedback; indeed, companies using text-based mobile surveys report significantly higher engagement rates in feedback cycles than those using traditional methods.

Real-Time Insights and Tailored Action Plans: Gathering feedback is only half the battle – acting on it is the other half. Trivvy addresses this with robust analytics and instant reporting. As responses come in, managers can view real-time survey results. The platform automatically performs sentiment analysis on open-ended comments and highlights common issues or trends. Trivvy’s AI doesn’t just stop at analysis; it also provides “Instant Actionable Plans” that are tailored to the information you have uploaded about your organization. In practice, this means if a survey finds that “employees feel understaffed on weekends”, Trivvy might suggest a few actions (e.g., scheduling adjustments or follow-up meetings) that the manager can take. It even allows one-click sharing of those action plans with the team. These features ensure that feedback quickly translates into visible responses from leadership, which in turn makes employees more likely to continue giving feedback (closing the loop is essential for engagement). Essentially, Trivvy serves as a feedback-to-action pipeline: from collecting input via text to analyzing it to nudging managers on what to do next – all in near real time.

Unique Extras: Trivvy’s platform includes features like scheduling recurring surveys (“auto schedule Trivvys”), sending automated reminders to those who haven’t responded (to boost completion rates), and even a built-in rewards system for incentivizing participation on higher plans. Trivvy supports multiple languages which makes it especially effective for companies with multi-national workforce and global presence. Trivvy supports white labeling and tailoring the branding to your company’s logo and colors for distribution via links or email, which enhances a sense of familiarity for employees, thereby increasing engagement. Overall, Trivvy’s feature set is laser-focused on making feedback easy and immediate for frontline environments, with AI doing a lot of the heavy lifting in survey creation and analysis of results.

TheySaid: Key Features and Differentiators

Conversational AI Surveys & Interviews: TheySaid’s standout feature is its ability to conduct feedback sessions in a conversational format. Instead of a static list of questions, TheySaid uses an AI engine that interacts with respondents almost like a human interviewer. Users (HR or managers) can simply tell the AI what they want to learn – for example, “find out why employees are leaving the company” – and TheySaid will create a survey or interview script automatically. This script isn’t just a fixed set of questions; it’s adaptive. When an employee starts the survey (usually via a web link or invited through email/SMS), the AI will ask a question and then, based on the employee’s answer, potentially ask a relevant follow-up: “You mentioned workload has been heavy – can you tell me more about that?”. This dynamic probing is a key differentiator. It yields qualitative insights (the “why”) alongside quantitative data. 

Contextual AI and Customization: TheySaid’s AI can be trained on your organization’s context and tone. During setup, you can feed it information like your company’s URL, policy documents or an employee handbook, and it will “learn” your company’s products, values, and preferred language. This means the questions it generates can feel tailored – using terminology familiar to your workforce, referencing relevant topics, etc. It can also support different feedback formats: standard surveys (with scores and scales), open-ended interviews, and user tests where it might show a concept and ask for feedback. For employee engagement, this flexibility lets TheySaid handle everything from a quick pulse survey (“How was your onboarding experience? Any suggestions?”) to an extensive annual engagement survey that automatically follows up on low scores with “why?” questions. The AI’s multilingual support is another plus – it can converse with employees in their preferred language and even recognize cultural nuances in responses, which is valuable for global companies.

Omnichannel Distribution: TheySaid allows surveys to be delivered through several channels: email, SMS, Slack, MS Teams, QR codes, although simple text is not available. This means you can meet employees where they are – send a link via email for desk workers, and via text for field workers, or deploy the survey link in a company chat or intranet. The flexibility here is useful if you have a mix of frontline and office staff. TheySaid doesn’t require an app download; participants typically click a link that opens the AI chat in a mobile browser or web page. While the participation might not be as instant as replying to a text (since a link is often involved), it still provides a mobile-friendly experience. Also, because the AI chat can handle branching logic on the fly, it’s able to keep surveys conversational yet efficient – e.g., if a respondent’s answers indicate they’re a new hire, the AI might skip directly to questions about onboarding. The combination of multi-channel reach and smart survey logic ensures broad participation without wasting anyone’s time on irrelevant questions.

AI-Powered Analysis and Reporting: After collecting responses, TheySaid employs AI to analyze the feedback in depth. The system can read through all the qualitative answers and automatically extract key themes and sentiments, which are then presented in dashboards or reports. For instance, if dozens of employees mention “communication” or “career growth” in their chats, TheySaid will surface those as common themes. It also provides a list of action items or recommendations based on the feedback patterns. This means HR doesn’t need to manually sift through hundreds of open-ended responses; the AI summarizes it into digestible insights for leadership.

Unique Extras: TheySaid’s approach yields some unique benefits that traditional surveys can’t easily match. One is rich qualitative data at scale – you might effectively conduct thousands of “interviews” via AI, something infeasible to do with live interviewers. This can be particularly useful for processes like stay interviews or exit interviews: TheySaid can converse with departing employees in an open format and gather candid feedback. Another advantage is consistency – the AI is unbiased and asks the same follow-up questions given the same prompts, ensuring everyone gets a fair chance to elaborate. TheySaid also supports branding customization, so you can make the interface look and feel like your company (logo, colors) which might increase trust and participation. 

Feature Comparison Table

To summarize the core features, here’s a side-by-side comparison of Trivvy and TheySaid:

Pricing

Both Trivvy and TheySaid offer free plans and tiered subscriptions, but their pricing structures have some differences in limits and emphasis. Here’s a breakdown:

• Trivvy Pricing: Trivvy has a free Basic plan which allows organizations to try it out (with limited usage). Paid plans include the Plus Plan at $60/month (billed annually at $720) and the Premium Plan at $150/month (annual $1,800), as well as an Enterprise tier for large organizations starting around $500/month with custom options. All plans support the core features (AI survey creation, SMS delivery, analytics) – the higher tiers mainly increase the volume limits and add advanced features. For example, the Plus Plan allows up to 5,000 responses and 500 SMS messages per month, Premium up to 10,000 responses and 1,000 SMS, and Enterprise can go beyond that. Premium and Enterprise Plans also unlock extras like auto-scheduling recurring surveys, the ability to auto-generate multiple surveys at once (e.g., a series of pulses for a quarter), and integration/customization options. In essence, Trivvy’s pricing scales with the size of your workforce and frequency of feedback. The availability of a meaningful free tier (with up to 1,000 responses and 100 SMS messages included) is a plus for trying it in a pilot before committing. Overall, Trivvy’s pricing is competitive for an HR tool – even the Premium plan at $150/mo is likely affordable for mid-sized companies considering the value of improved retention and engagement (remember, losing an employee can cost 90–200% of their salary to replace).
  
  
• TheySaid Pricing: TheySaid also offers a free plan and several paid tiers. The Free plan allows 1 active AI project (survey/interview) at a time with up to 50 responses per month – enough to test the waters or use for a small team’s NPS or quick pulse. The paid plans start with the Essential Plan at $49/month, which supports multi-question surveys (the free is somewhat limited to simple NPS-style) and up to 250 responses monthly. Next is the Pro Plan at $149/month, which increases to 2 active projects and 1,000 responses/month, plus up to 5 team member accounts. For larger organizations, the Team Plan starts at $499/month, offering more active projects and unlimited responses with multi-team management capabilities. TheySaid’s pricing focuses on the number of simultaneous projects and response volume. The Pro tier ($149) is roughly analogous to Trivvy’s Premium in cost, though the usage limits differ (Trivvy Premium allows more responses per month, while TheySaid Pro caps at 1,000). One thing to note is that TheySaid’s pricing counts “AI projects” – essentially how many surveys or interviews you have actively collecting data. So, an HR team might run one engagement survey at a time on Essential, whereas Pro would let you run, say, an engagement survey and a new hire survey concurrently. TheySaid also mentions discounts for non-profits and education, and it’s worth reaching out for enterprise quotes if you need more than what’s listed.
  
  

In summary, both tools offer a free trial option, which is great for evaluation. Trivvy’s paid plans might be slightly more expensive at the entry level (e.g. $60 vs $49), but they come with higher response allowances, reflecting its focus on large frontline populations. TheySaid’s plans align with its more expansive feature set and possibly a broader use . HR leaders should consider not just the sticker price, but how the limits align with their organization’s size and how many feedback initiatives they plan to run. For instance, a retailer with 800 frontline staff giving weekly feedback will want the plan that comfortably handles thousands of SMS responses, whereas a smaller tech firm might be fine with a lower response cap but benefit from deeper AI analytics.

Ease of Use

When evaluating engagement tools, usability is crucial – both for administrators (HR, managers setting up surveys) and for employees (end-users responding). A tool will only succeed if managers can easily deploy surveys and employees actually participate. Here’s how Trivvy and TheySaid compare on ease of use:

Trivvy: Quick and Effortless for All

Trivvy prides itself on being simple and effective, reflecting the realities of its frontline audience. For administrators, getting started is meant to be as easy as “Get Trivvy, enter a question or topic, and let the AI do the rest.” The interface for creating a survey (a “Trivvy”) is clean and guided – you might select a survey template or type a prompt like “Ask employees about yesterday’s safety training”, and the AI will build a survey with a set of concise questions. The admin can tweak or accept them, choose the recipients (e.g., all employees, or specific groups by role/location), and hit send. No need to labor over survey design or logic – the AI handles it. In user reviews, Trivvy has been called “hands-down one of the easiest tools we’ve used to actually hear from employees” (see producthunt.com). This speaks to the minimal setup required. The platform is cloud-based and doesn’t require any IT integration for basic use – an HR coordinator could spin up a survey on day one without training.

For employees, Trivvy’s SMS-based approach is about as easy as it gets. Receiving a text message and replying is second nature to most people today. There’s no separate app or login portal that might confuse less tech-savvy staff. Trivvy’s messages are short, friendly, and look like any regular text. The questions themselves are phrased simply, and since surveys typically have just a handful of items, employees can complete them in a minute or less during a break. If an employee misses the initial text, Trivvy can send an automated reminder a bit later, which further boosts response rates without the manager having to chase people. Another aspect of ease is trust and transparency – because responses can be anonymous and the purpose is clear (e.g., “Weekly Pulse Survey: How was your week?”), employees are likely to feel comfortable engaging. There’s no complex authentication or lengthy form to deter them. In environments where workers often share that “I don’t have time for surveys,” Trivvy effectively nullifies the excuse by making the process as convenient as texting a friend.

Managers on the receiving end of data also find Trivvy intuitive. The results dashboard updates in real time and uses simple visual indicators (like red/yellow/green sentiment flags or trend arrows). A store manager could quickly glance and see, for example, “Okay, shift satisfaction is 4.2/5 on average this week, slightly up from last week – and here are a couple of anonymous comments about scheduling issues.” The platform highlights those insights without requiring the manager to export data to Excel or interpret complex charts. This immediacy and clarity are critical for busy operational leaders who may not be data analysts by training.

TheySaid: Powerful Yet Manageable

TheySaid, with its adaptive capabilities, naturally has a bit more complexity – but it’s designed to guide users through the process, leveraging AI at each step to simplify things. Setting up a project in TheySaid usually starts with a wizard: for instance, you’d click “New Project” and choose Survey vs Interview vs User Test. If you choose an Employee Survey, the system might ask a few questions like “What do you want to learn from this survey?” or “Who will be taking it?”. Based on your inputs, the AI will propose a set of questions. Early users report that the AI might draft 10 questions that you can then edit or reorder, rather than starting from a blank slate. For more open-ended interviews, you could input a high-level prompt (e.g., “Find out how we can improve remote work policies”), and the AI generates a conversational script. There is some onboarding effort in the beginning – for example, uploading a document or providing your company URL so the AI can learn your context. The interface allows previewing the conversation flow as if you were the respondent, which helps non-technical users get comfortable with what will happen.

For employees taking a TheySaid survey, the experience is still user-friendly, especially considering the sophisticated tech behind it. Typically, an employee would click a link (whether from an email, text, or Slack message) which opens a chat-style window in their browser. They might see a welcome message like “Hi! I’m Ava, an AI assistant here to gather your feedback. Is now a good time to chat about your experience at Acme Corp?” The tone is usually approachable. Then questions appear one at a time, and the employee types answers as if texting or messaging. If they give a short or unclear answer, the AI might gently probe, or if they mention a particular issue, it might ask “Can you elaborate on that?”. Importantly, respondents can always decline to answer or skip if they’re uncomfortable – they remain in control. The interface often shows progress (e.g., “Question 3 of 8”) to let them know it won’t drag on forever. Given that this is a novel approach for many, completion rates will need to ramp up over time as employees get used to it. 

On the admin side, reviewing results in TheySaid might require a bit more exploration simply because there’s more data (quantitative scores plus lots of qualitative text summaries). However, the platform provides clear summaries: e.g., a dashboard might say “Top 3 Themes: 1) Work-Life Balance, 2) Communication, 3) Career Growth” with each theme clickable to see related comments and sentiment. It might also present a few key metrics like overall engagement score or eNPS. For those who want to dive deeper, all the raw conversation logs (anonymized if configured that way) are available to read or export. Because of its depth, new users might spend a little more time learning where everything is in the UI compared to Trivvy. TheySaid offers tutorials and a knowledge base, and given its tech-forward nature, those evaluating it should allocate some time to fully explore its capabilities. Once accustomed, however, it streamlines previously labor-intensive tasks (like reading long survey comments).

In summary, Trivvy is extremely plug-and-play for quick use, whereas TheySaid, while still  user-friendly for what it does, will shine the most when users take advantage of its advanced features – which comes with a bit of a learning curve. Neither tool requires coding or advanced technical skills, but TheySaid’s approach means you get out what you put in: the more you configure it to your needs, the more insightful the output. Trivvy is more “just turn it on and go”. Depending on your team’s capacity and needs, both can be considered easy, but tuned to different definitions of ease (speed vs. depth).

Final Verdict

Choosing between Trivvy and TheySaid ultimately comes down to your organization’s priorities and the profile of your workforce. Both are innovative employee feedback tools that leverage AI to improve engagement, but they serve slightly different purposes:

• Trivvy is the clear winner for simplicity and frontline engagement. If your biggest challenge is reaching deskless workers or increasing participation rates in surveys, Trivvy’s SMS-based, minute-long pulses are a game-changer. It breaks through the communication gap that so often plagues frontline teams (remember, only 42% of frontline workers feel communication is effective – a gap Trivvy aims to fill). Trivvy’s strengths lie in speed, ease, and focus. It’s quick to implement, and your employees will actually use it because it meets them where they are – on their phones, with no hoops to jump through. The AI helps busy HR or ops managers by automating question design and analysis, so you get actionable insights continuously without a heavy workload. For organizations with high-turnover hourly roles, or those spread across multiple locations, Trivvy can function like an ongoing “heartbeat monitor” for the company’s morale and issues. The ROI can be seen in retention and responsiveness: engaged frontline employees tend to provide better customer service and contribute to a healthier bottom line (engagement has been linked to 10% higher customer ratings and 23% greater profitability on average). Trivvy provides a practical, affordable way to drive those engagement gains by capturing the frontline voice regularly. It’s purpose-built to remove the barriers for feedback, and it succeeds in that. HR leaders who have felt “blind” to what their field employees think will find Trivvy a refreshing solution.
  
  
• TheySaid is the choice if you seek depth of insight and a versatile AI listening platform. For organizations that have a feedback culture in place and want to elevate it, TheySaid offers an ability to have meaningful conversations at scale. It’s almost like hiring an army of virtual interviewers who are available anytime to talk with your employees. This can transform how you approach engagement surveys, pulse checks, and beyond. TheySaid’s conversational analytics give you not just data but context – the “why” behind the scores – which is valuable for making strategic HR decisions. The trade-off is that you need to be ready to act on that depth: you’ll get rich, sometimes complex feedback that might span topics from culture to management to compensation. But if you’re an HR or operations leader who wants to pinpoint exactly what drives disengagement or what your people need in order to thrive, TheySaid provides the tools. It’s a great fit for mid-to-large organizations, especially those operating in knowledge industries or with distributed offices, where understanding nuance in employee sentiment can set you apart. Also, if you’re keen on integrating employee listening into a broader analytics strategy (e.g., correlating engagement with performance or turnover data), TheySaid’s detailed output will support that. In short, choose TheySaid if you value comprehensive, conversational feedback and have the appetite to dig into data for continuous improvement. It aligns well with a strategic HR mindset that treats employees almost like customers – deserving of segmented, qualitative understanding – which is an emerging best practice according to research from SHRM and HBR.

For many organizations, it’s not even an either/or. Some may start with Trivvy to quickly boost engagement basics and then introduce TheySaid for deeper annual insights. However, if we must conclude with a head-to-head verdict:

• Trivvy has an edge for companies that need a fast, frictionless feedback mechanism, especially in industries with many frontline employees. It delivers instant wins in participation and is very manager-friendly in translating feedback to action.
  
  
• TheySaid has an edge for companies that are looking to elevate their employee listening to the next level, gathering rich qualitative data and fostering a culture of open dialogue. It’s like an upgrade to the traditional survey – more interactive and insightful.
  
  

Ultimately, HR leaders or operations managers should consider their workforce. If getting any feedback at all from a busy, offline workforce is the hurdle, Trivvy is a fantastic solution to start actually hearing your employees’ voices. If you already have feedback coming in but want to deeply understand and predict employee needs, TheySaid offers a powerful AI partner to do so. Both tools underscore a common theme in engagement today: leveraging technology (especially AI) to give employees a voice and turn their feedback into real improvements. Whether through a quick text or a thoughtful AI chat, the end goal is the same – to make employees feel heard, valued, and engaged. And achieving that is a win-win for employees and the business alike.

For more discussion on this topic see our Linkedin post.

For related News, Tips and Tricks, see here.

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Trivvy is a text-based survey and communications tool (no links or logins required). Trivvy goes beyond results; it provides instant follow-up recommendations tailored to your organization. To find out more and try Trivvy for free, click here. 

You can also check out this one-minute Trivvy video.

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