Founder of online quiz maker Fyrebox, Cyril Gaillard has been at the forefront of online quiz generation for years. His awareness of the pressing need for online tools, for the purpose of both education and business, has helped him to develop a platform that is changing lives. With innovative strategies for generating engagement and a focus on improving the way in which quizzes are implemented, Fyrebox has quickly become one of the most unique and effective online quiz platforms.
Hi Cyril, tell us a bit about yourself!
I studied engineering at the National Institute of Applied Sciences (INSA) in Rennes, France. In 2001, I spent the last year of my degree at the Rochester Institute of Technology as part of an exchange program between the two schools. I then spent a year backpacking around Australia and decided to call it home in 2009. I have always wanted to start my own company, and Australia offers an excellent environment for start-ups. Since then, I have begun three ventures, the latest one being Fyrebox.
What led you to start Fyrebox Quizzes?
In 2011, I created my first educational game on the iPad to help my niece learn French in a fun and engaging way. Soon after, schools worldwide started using these games as they were available in French, English, and Spanish. After a few months, quite a few users asked me if they could use their questions, and at the same time, Buzzfeed started using quizzes in their marketing strategy. I then had the idea of creating a quiz maker that would cater to schools and businesses.
What exactly is Fyrebox?
Fyrebox is an online quiz maker. It allows individuals, small businesses, and educational institutions to create one in a few minutes. Our users use a quiz as a survey, a competition, a product recommendation tool, and of course, as a teaching tool. The quizzes can be as simple as asking a few maths questions. But it is also possible to create multi-languages quizzes delivering a certificate of completion and sending the participants’ contact information to a CRM or an email marketing software.
How can people benefit from this service? What are some of the ways quizzes can be used as a teacher or as a business?
The main benefit of using Fyrebox is a significant increase in engagement.
For Teachers, it will translate into an improvement in learning retention. Businesses will notice a higher conversation rate and, ultimately, an increase in sales.
Educational institutions are using Fyrebox for three main reasons (one of which we didn’t expect):
- Recruit new students by creating a simple quiz on their website (which overlaps with businesses).
- Use quizzes in their Learning Management System to test their existing students.
- Making their students create a free account on Fyrebox and turning them into quiz makers. Quizzes seem to be the new essays!
On the other hand, businesses use them to grow their mailing list, create a product recommendation tool, or create an interactive competition. It is usually the first stage of their marketing automation strategy. They advertise their quizzes on Facebook or Google ads, send the participants’ email and name to their marketing software such as Mailchimp, and eventually convert them to customers.
What makes Fyrebox different from other online quiz sites? Can you tell us about the chatbot feature?
Fyrebox is different from others as we focus on engagement. The number of characters for questions and answers is limited as we know that the attention span online is short. By having more concise content, the participants stay engaged and they are more likely to finish the quiz, which is our goal. The chatbot/conversation format doubles down on this. By mimicking a human typing the questions, the participants are less likely to drop out. Also, it is the perfect format for mobile phones. The vast majority of people are using a messaging application, so delivering a quiz in the same structure means that they are more likely to engage with it.
How important do you think it is for people to embrace the online platform for gathering data?
As more and more businesses move online during the pandemic and become more educated on digital marketing, entrepreneurs always need to find an edge to stay ahead of their competitors. As quizzes are very engaging, business owners can quickly gather data on their online audience. They can either convert them to customers or better understand their needs and adapt their business accordingly. On our side, our job at Fyrebox is to find new ways to increase the engagement rate of our quizzes so our users can always keep that edge.
How do you see online learning continuing to evolve in the future?
Before the Covid-19 era, there was already a move towards online teaching. It started with a few universities offering online courses. Then came the Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC), followed by private online teaching platforms (Udemy, LinkedIn Learning…). Simultaneously, schools worldwide started using a learning management system (such as Google Classroom). The pandemic accelerated that move. More schools had to close to limit the spread of the virus and therefore had to adapt and offer remote learning. Home schooling is also at an all-time high. I believe this trend is here to stay as more students and teachers get familiar with technological tools.
Thank you Cyril for your time!
You can follow up with Cyril Gaillard at www.fyrebox.com
