Admit it — you want an edge, something to set you apart from your competitors. And the secret is in the feedback from customers.
Unhappy customers who have a poor experience often look elsewhere for better service. This tendency is quite clear in consumer behavior. Dissatisfied with one company, many will turn to a competitor for their needs.
So, what can you do? How do you make sense of all the different things your customers say? How do you use their comments to make better business choices? Also, it’s not enough to just listen — you need to connect and make changes that count.
Fret not! In this article, we’ll talk about ten ways to get the most out of your customer feedback.
Integrate in-app feedback mechanisms for real-time insights
In-app feedback is a simple way for customers to tell you what they think right inside your app. It’s like having an open door where customers can pop in and share their thoughts anytime.
This immediate feedback is so helpful because you get to know right away what’s working in your app and what’s not.
With NPS measurement tools, there’s no guessing or waiting for reviews. The information comes to you directly. Meaning you can fix problems faster and keep your app updated in ways your customers will love.
Simply add a feedback form or a live chat option inside your app. A “Feedback” or “Tell us what you think” button is perfect. Customers can express their thoughts or rate their experience when they click on it. Make sure it’s easy to find and use so customers won’t have trouble telling you what they think.
Other tools like a digital adoption platform (DAP) enable customer success teams to create and launch in-app surveys with a no-code editor and in-app guidance like step-by-step walkthroughs, user task lists, pop-ups, tooltips, and more.
Zoho Mail, a business email service, has an in-app feedback option where users can report issues or suggest improvements.
Zoho uses this feature to gather insights into customer experience. The company then uses these insights to make informed improvements.
Tune in to social listening
On social media, people talk, share opinions, and express themselves. It’s a great place to get real-time feedback, ideas, complaints, and praise — all unfiltered and raw. You just can’t miss being on social media today.
Actively monitoring social media conversations about your brand provides multiple unique insights. These insights often go beyond what is possible through traditional feedback channels. It helps you know what customers think about your brand, competitors, and industry. It can guide everything from your marketing strategy to product development.
Adobe, for instance, tracks mentions of its #AdobeFirefly feature to gauge real-time user sentiment. This helps them identify common issues and understand the impact of their latest feature.
But passively listening on social media isn’t enough. Effective social listening requires action. You can use a social listening tool like Brandwatch or Mention.
With these tools, you can define keywords and phrases relevant to your brand. You can also monitor common, relevant words your customers use in reference to your product or service and industry jargon. This information can help you discover:
- What customers say about your product
- What are their pain points?
- Are there recurring themes in their discussions?
Next comes the most crucial part — analysis and action. You need to look for actionable insights. For example, if users frequently discuss a specific product feature, that’s a cue for your product development team. Similarly, if people feel bad, your customer service virtual assistant must be ready to help solve their problems.
Following this process, regularly refine your strategies. Adapt to feedback to stay aligned with customer needs. Doing this improves your offerings and builds customer loyalty and trust.
Analyze live chat transcripts with AI tools
While manually reading live chat transcripts is common, it’s a slow process. AI speeds this up significantly and does it more efficiently, too. Sentiment analysis tools also act as smart assistants, reading customer conversations and providing insights.
It reads through your customer conversations and tells you what you need to know. With the help of this assistant, you can delve deeper in less time, identifying key trends such as:
- Frequently asked questions,
- Common complaints,
- Specific praises, or
- Emerging patterns in customer behavior.
For instance, if many people ask about a specific feature or have the same problem, you can decide what changes to make to keep your customers happy.
This level of analysis can pinpoint what areas need attention. It improves your customer’s journey at every stage and can provide valuable insights for corporate meetings, ensuring that discussions are data-driven and focused on the most critical issues.
It also increases the chance that satisfied customers become brand ambassadors, recommending your business to others.
Conduct structured A/B tests for user experience feedback
A/B testing helps you compare two versions of your website or app to see what customers prefer. It could be testing a button’s color or a sign-up form’s placement.
Instead of relying on what users say they like, you get to see what they respond to. You can observe their preferences by presenting A and B versions to separate user groups. You can analyze how they use each version and the actions they take.
The results help you decide what works best for your customers and how to design future campaigns in the best way.
WorkZone, a US-based project management solution, did the same. They demonstrated a strategic approach to A/B testing. They have featured a customer review section on their lead generation page. However, they observed an issue: the colorful customer testimonial logos were distracting. This diversion was drawing attention away from the crucial demo request form.
To address this, WorkZone made a change. They created a page variation with black-and-white testimonial logos. This A/B test ran for 22 days, and the results were amazing. The black-and-white version of the customer logos had a significant impact. It led to a 34% increase in demo form submissions.
Before:
After:
This example showcases the effectiveness of A/B testing in making data-driven decisions. It also highlights the importance of subtle design elements. These nuances are important for user experience and conversion rates.
Send post-purchase email surveys
Post-purchase email surveys are a critical touchpoint in the customer journey map. Send these customer feedback surveys when the experience is at the top of the customers’ minds. Through these surveys, customers can tell you what they loved and what didn’t work for them. It helps you understand how you can make their next visit even better.
Post-purchase emails generally get more attention than other automated emails. Customers pay more attention immediately after buying something and might be more open to reading and responding to these emails.
Customers are more engaged with content following a recent purchase. And the feedback captured through customer feedback surveys is invaluable. It can guide your product enhancements, improve customer service, and shape your business’s overall strategy. Content marketing strategies play a pivotal role in fostering customer engagement and satisfaction post-purchase. By strategically crafting content tailored to meet the needs and interests of existing customers, businesses can nurture relationships and strengthen brand loyalty
Keep post-purchase surveys short and to the point. Focus on questions about the recent purchase and experience. Quick action on this feedback can boost customer satisfaction and repeat business.
Here’s a perfect example of a post-purchase email survey by Descript, an audio and video editing tool:
Descript often reaches out to its customers post-purchase. They send follow-up emails to those who buy or subscribe to their custom software services. They ask simple questions with multiple options to make it easy for customers to answer. It helps them get insights into their user satisfaction and product usability.
Take advantage of online communities
Online communities and forums serve as a continuous focus group for your brand. Customers often spend more after becoming part of a company’s online community. In these digital spaces, they discuss their experiences, exchange tips, and provide feedback that can be extremely valuable for a business.
As a business, you can note what people say about your product or similar products. Note their suggestions and positive and negative feedback. Also, when you see users discussing your brand, jump into the conversation. Thank them for their input and ask follow-up questions if necessary.
This feedback is crucial for guiding your product development. It helps you spot issues before they escalate into more significant problems.
For example, Dropbox has a dedicated community forum. Here, users can discuss features, report issues, and provide feedback to the company.
Dropbox employees actively monitor these community discussions. They engage with users and use the feedback gathered to improve their services.
Request feedback on cart abandonment
The average cart abandonment rate across all industries is 70.19%. This impressive number emphasizes the missed opportunity to collect feedback. By reaching out to nearly 70% of shoppers who leave their carts behind, you can gain invaluable insights into what might be going wrong.
Maybe they needed clarification, found the final cost too high, or had second thoughts about the product. Knowing these reasons helps you fix problems and smooth the buying process so more people stick around to buy your stuff.
You can set up an automated system to ask for feedback after abandonment. This could be as simple as an email sent shortly after a customer exits the checkout page, asking them to share why they didn’t complete their purchase.
Here’s an example of a cart abandonment email from Ugmonk. The company has sent customers a personalized email asking why they didn’t complete the purchase.
This friendly message provides Ugmonk with actionable data and opens a dialogue with customers, showing they take user experience seriously.
Utilize website on-page surveys at optimal times
On-page customer surveys are pop-up boxes that slide up from the bottom of the screen, much like a chatbot. They are an effective way to engage with your website visitors.
Timing is critical in these surveys. Users trigger these surveys when they’ve (probably) formed an opinion about your site, like –
- After completing a transaction,
- Reading an article, or
- Spending a certain amount of time on a page.
And just because they require minimal screen space, they don’t disrupt the user experience. But still capture valuable insights.
You can ask different kinds of questions in these surveys.
Some can be multiple-choice questions for quick response. Others might be open-ended questions that allow customers to give detailed answers.
In the example below featuring Mailchimp, you can observe how they use website surveys. These surveys have open-ended and multiple-choice questions designed to gather user feedback effectively. This approach helps them understand the users’ real-time experience on the platform.
This approach is particularly beneficial because it allows you to gather immediate and relevant responses from users interacting with your site. It provides customer insights into enhancing your customer experience, streamlining navigation, and potentially increasing conversion rates.
Create custom feedback triggers based on user behavior analytics
By understanding the specific context and timing of a user’s interaction with your product, you can ask for relevant and valuable feedback for product development. But for this, you need to monitor how users interact with your product. This includes tracking:
- Which features do they use the most,
- Where they seem to have trouble, or
- When they stop using the product.
You can use tools like Google Analytics, UserPilot, or Hotjar to get these user behavior analytics.
Based on this data, set up triggers for your feedback requests. For instance, ask for feedback right after a user tries a new feature or if a user utilizes the same feature several times a week.
When the user activates a trigger, a feedback form pops up. Collect and analyze these responses to understand common trends, issues, or user needs.
It’s also equally essential to regularly review the effectiveness of your triggers. Are they leading to meaningful feedback? If not, adjust the triggers and the feedback form as needed based on what you learn. With this, you can gather meaningful insights, improve user experience, and make data-driven decisions to enhance your products or services.
Use suggestion boards or feature request
Using suggestion boards or feature request platforms is like setting up a direct line of interaction between your customers and your product development team. This could be a dedicated section on your website or a platform like UserVoice or Canny. It lets your users tell you precisely what they want or need in your product.
Also, by giving your users a platform to voice their ideas, you can tap into a rich source of product development insights and build a community around your product. These specific insights ensure that the features you add are ones that your users genuinely want, leading to higher satisfaction and better market fit.
Ahrefs actively uses a feature request board where users can suggest and vote on new features.
This method has been instrumental in driving continuous improvement and customer engagement.
Key takeaways!
Customers’ needs and preferences are constantly evolving. And to keep up with this, you need to pay attention to your customer feedback. It’s the map that guides your business toward success. It’s the honest voice of those who matter most — your customers.
The strategies outlined in this article provide a roadmap for tapping into the wealth of insights your customers offer daily. All you need to do is take action and make the most out of this valuable resource.