How to Effectively Use Different Methods of Customer Feedback

Methods of Customer Feedback – The 4 Most Important

According to Harvard Business School professor Clay Christensen, over 30,000 new products are introduced each year, and only 5% succeed.

Furthermore, Gallup’s CEO and Chairman Jim Clifton says in his book The Coming Wars that:

“Innovation has no value until it creates something a customer wants.”

It is clear that without knowing what customers think and feel, it is very difficult to create a successful product or service. 

Thus, customer feedback is essential to the success of any business. 

It’s easy to get overwhelmed with the several ways to get customer feedback. That is why I have listed the four most important methods below. 

By the end of this section, you’ll know everything about:

1. Feedback surveys
2. E-mail contact forms
3. Website and in-app feedback widgets
4. Live chat 

Now that you know why is customer feedback important, let’s begin with feedback surveys. 

1. Feedback Surveys

The first method to gather customer feedback is surveys. Feedback surveys are an essential tool to improve customer service.

How? 

They help you understand customer sentiment, what they like and don’t like about your product, and how likely they are to recommend you to others. 

Furthermore, feedback surveys help you identify customer pain points so you can address them and improve the customer experience.

You can and should tailor them to your specific needs. 

The following are concrete examples of feedback surveys you can use.

You could create customer feedback surveys that tell you how happy your customers are with your product or service (CSAT). 

Or you could create a Net Promoter Score (NPS). This customer survey helps you know how likely your customers are to recommend you. 

You could also create a Customer Effort Score (CES) survey to know how easy it is for your customers to interact with your company.

There are many other types of surveys you can use for collecting feedback, but these are three of the most common.

Pros And Cons of Using Feedback Surveys

Pros

• Get detailed feedback: You can request feedback using a variety of questions to get detailed insights from your customers. 
• Segment your respondents: You can segment your respondents by age, gender, location, etc. 
• Get feedback from a large group: You can send surveys to a large number of people and get feedback from them. 

Cons

• Time-consuming: It can take a lot of time to create and send out surveys. Furthermore, poorly designed surveys eat up the respondents’ time as well.  
• Costly: You might have to pay for a survey tool or service. 

E-Mail Contact Forms

Another vital method to gather customer feedback is email contact forms. 

E-mail is a widely used channel for most companies. As a result, each contact can be used as an opportunity to get customer feedback. 

Imagine having a dedicated e-mail address (e.g., feedback@company.com) where customers can send their feedback. 

You would then be able to segment this feedback and route it to the right people. 

You can use e-mail contact forms for a variety of purposes, such as: 

• Customer support: You can use e-mail contact forms to provide customer support. 
• Get customer feedback: You can use e-mail contact forms to gather feedback from your customers. 
• Bugs/errors: You can use e-mail contact forms to report bugs or errors.

Pros And Cons of Using E-Mail Contact Forms

Pros

• Easy to set up: All you need is an e-mail account and a contact form. 
• It’s low cost: You don’t need to spend any money on this method. 

Cons

• Time-consuming: It can take a lot of time to create and send out engaging e-mail copies. 
• It’s easy to ignore: Customers might not see or read your e-mails.

Website And In-App Feedback Widgets

Your website represents the digital home of your company. It is also one of the best places for gathering customer feedback. 

Why? 

Because you can reach a large number of people with your website, and if you have a good website, the chances are that people will take the time to fill out a customer feedback form. 

There are two types of feedback widgets that you can use on your website: 

A pop-up widget: This type of widget appears when a user visits your website. 

An inline widget: This type of widget is embedded in your website’s design. 

Pop-up widgets are more intrusive than inline widgets. However, they’re also more effective in getting people to fill out the form. 

On the other hand, inline widgets are less intrusive but can be easily missed by website visitors. 

Regardless of the type of widget you use, they allow you to target specific pages on your website. 

For example, you can show a widget only to users who visit your pricing page. That way, you can collect customer feedback about your pricing from people who are actually interested in it. 

Furthermore, you can introduce triggers to show the widget at the right time. For example, you can set a trigger to show the widget when a user is about to leave your website. 

That way, you can gather feedback from people who are not happy with your website. 

Pros And Cons of Using Website and In-App Feedback Widgets

Pros

• Easy to set up: You can use a feedback widget on your website without any coding knowledge with the help of a tool like Trustmary. 
• It’s non-intrusive: Feedback widgets are less intrusive than other methods, such as pop-ups. 
• You can target specific pages: You can use feedback widgets to target specific pages on your website. 

Cons

• Limited respondents: To get people to fill out your feedback form, you need to have high traffic on your website. 
• It can be easily missed: Website visitors can easily miss feedback widgets. 

Live Chat

Finally, we come to our last method to collect customer feedback: live chat. 

Live chat helps get real-time feedback and analyze customer satisfaction. Furthermore, it’s also efficient at providing customer support. 

With live chat, you can interact with your customers in real-time and resolve their issues immediately. That way, you can reduce customer churn and increase customer loyalty. 

Apart from improving customer loyalty, live chat and chatbots are also a great way to upsell and cross-sell your products. 

Let’s suppose a customer is having trouble using one of your products; you can offer them an upgrade or a related product that will help them solve their problem. 

Pros And Cons of Using Live Chat

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Pros

• It’s real-time: You can get real-time feedback with live chat. 
• It’s personal: Live chat is a more personal way to communicate with your customers. 
• You can upsell and cross-sell: With live chat, you can offer your customers upgrades and related products or guide them to your knowledge base to increase customer satisfaction. 

Cons 

• It’s resource-intensive: You need to have someone available to answer customer queries in real-time. (Unless you create a chatbot ticketing system that works on autopilot.)
• It can be overwhelming: With live chat, you need to be available to answer customer queries immediately. Otherwise, it can lead to customer frustration.

The following table offers a good summary of the pros and cons of the four methods: 

Customer Feedback Method	Pros	Cons
Surveys	You can reach a large group of customers	Surveys can be time-consuming
E-mail contact forms	It’s a personal way to collect feedback	You need to have high traffic on your website
Website and in-app feedback widgets	It’s easy to set up and easy to change	It can be easily missed by website visitors
Live chat	It’s real-time and offers the opportunity for fast resolution time.	It’s resource-intensive

Knowing is half the battle. Now it’s time to implement the feedback methods we discussed in your business. 

But how do you do that? 

How to Implement Customer Feedback Methods

“If you don’t appreciate your customers, someone else will.” – Jason Langella, brand builder, Tampa SEO Agency. 

And if you don’t implement customer feedback methods in your business, you’ll never know what your customers think of you. 

So let’s go over some things to look out for when implementing the four methods I previously discussed. 

Implementing Feedback Surveys

There are various approaches when implementing feedback surveys in your business. 

You can use tools like Trustmary to create a tailored customer survey and send them out to your clientele via various channels, such as e-mail, SMS, or your website. 

This method can be very effective if done correctly. However, there are some vital pointers you need to keep in mind when using this method.

Survey Length

Surveys should be short. If they are too long, customers will not take the time to fill them out. 

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The table above shows that the longer the survey, the less time respondents spend on each question. So what shall you do? Make the survey as short as possible.

The ideal survey should take between five to ten minutes to complete. 

You can do this by keeping the number of questions to a minimum. Furthermore, you should only ask questions that are absolutely necessary. 

Asking the Right Questions

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Make sure to ask the right questions. The questions should be relevant to your business and what you want to know from your customers. 

Now there are various types of questions you can ask in a survey to collect customer feedback. They include:

• Open-ended questions: How do you feel about our product?
• Close-ended questions: Do you think we provide good customer service? (Yes/No)
• Likert scale questions: How likely are you to recommend our product to a friend or colleague? (Very Likely, Likely, Unlikely, Very Unlikely)
• Multiple-choice questions: Which of the following is the most important feature of our product?
• Likert scale questions: How likely are you to recommend our product to a friend or colleague? (Very Likely, Likely, Unlikely, Very Unlikely)
• Demographic questions: What is your age? (18-24, 25-34, 35-44, 45-54, 55+)
• Picture questions: These are multiple-choice questions where the answers are visual instead of text. 

The trick is to ask the right mix of questions. For example, you might want to start with a demographic question to segment your respondents. 

You can then follow up with a close-ended question to get a general idea of how they feel. After that, you can ask an open-ended question to get more detailed feedback. 

Finally, you can end with a multiple-choice question to get specific suggestions. 

Incentivize

You must realize that going through and answering questions on a survey takes away valuable time from your customers. 

Thus, you need to give them a good reason to do so. The best way to do this is by offering an incentive. 

The most commonly used incentive is a discount or coupon. For example, you can offer a 20% discount on the next purchase. 

Another popular incentive is a chance to win a prize. That could be something like a free product or a gift card. 

Creating an E-mail Contact Form

The next method I will discuss is e-mail contact forms. 

This is a very straightforward method to collect customer feedback. It’s as simple as creating a form and adding it to your website or blog. 

Here is a template you can use to create your form: 

Name: 

E-mail Address: 

Phone Number: 

Message: 

Once you have created the form, you need to add it to your website. One of the best places to do this is in the footer of your site. This way, it will be visible on every page. 

You can also add it to your contact page or create a separate landing page for it. That approach gives it a more prominent position on your website and can help increase conversions. 

The final step is to incorporate a submit button into the form. This will allow customers to send you their messages. 

It’ll help to remember that the whole point of gathering feedback using this method is to make it easy for customers to reach you. 

Therefore, you should consider adding an auto-responder to the form. 

An auto-responder is an automated message sent to the customer after they submit the form. 

It can be something as modest as thanking them for their message and telling them you will get back to them shortly. 

To achieve the maximum possible number of responses from a client, follow these three things.

Form Clear Expectations

Customers that feel their opinions matter are more likely to offer feedback.

How do you do that? By letting customers know that their feedback will be used to improve their experience. 

Moreover, you can also thank them in advance for taking the time to provide feedback.

Adding a line like, “We appreciate your feedback and use it to make our service better for you,” will show that you value customer input.

Don’t Forget the CTA

The most important thing you need to include in your e-mail is a call-to-action (CTA). 

Without a CTA, customers will likely not bother taking the time to fill out the form. Thus, make sure you include a CTA that is clear and concise. 

For example, you can say, “Click here to take our survey.”

Personalize the Message

Another way to increase the response rate is by personalizing the message. 

You can do this by addressing the customer by name or using other personal details. Remember, e-mail is a one-to-one interaction. 

Thus, you should take advantage of that and make the customer feel like you’re talking to them directly. That will help you get customer feedback which provides valuable insights.

Implementing a Website Feedback Widget

If you want to get customer feedback from potential customers as they browse your website, you need to add a feedback widget. 

A feedback widget is a small piece of code that you can add to your website. It allows you to collect customer feedback from visitors without interrupting their experience. 

You can either create your own feedback widget or use a third-party service. 

When implementing a widget, there are a few considerations you need to keep in mind. 

Placement

First, you need to finalize where to place the widget on your website. 

It’s generally best to place it in the lower right-hand corner of the screen. This way, it will be visible but not intrusive. 

Kind of Feedback

Decide what feedback you want to collect. 

Do you want to know what visitors think of your website? Or do you want to know if they’re having any problems? 

By having a clear idea of what you want to ask, you’ll be able to use the limited space more effectively.

Design of Widget

Furthermore, also think about the design of the widget. 

You want it to be noticeable but not too obtrusive. And you want it to match the overall design of your website. 

When you’ve considered all of those factors, you’re ready to implement a feedback widget on your website. 

Remember, collecting valuable feedback at the right time can make a big difference for your business. 

If you’re not sure what kind of feedback to collect, start with a general question. You can always ask more specific questions later. 

Implementing Live Chat on Your Website

Collecting customer feedback helps you understand what your clientele wants, but sometimes they need help right away. 

For those cases, live chat can be a valuable tool. However, if you don’t pay attention to some key factors, it can also be a hindrance. 

When deciding whether or not to add live chat to your website, here are a few things to keep in mind. 

Ensure You Have the Workforce

First, make sure you have the workforce to support it. It will quickly become a burden if you don’t have enough people to man the chat. 

To counter that, you can try and automate the process. However, in doing so, you also run the risk of providing a poor experience. 

It’s crucial to strike a balance between automation and personalization. You need to make sure that the people you do have are properly trained. 

They need to be able to handle customer service issues as well as technical support while avoiding technical support scams. Furthermore, they also need to be able to upsell and cross-sell. 

Integrate With CRM

Second, you need to ensure that the live chat software you’re using integrates with your CRM. 

With Trustmary you can expect seamless integration with most CRM systems like Pipedrive and Hubspot.

The integration allows you to keep track of all the conversations and make sure that nothing falls through the cracks. 

Set Up Protocols

Third, you need to set up proper protocols and procedures. This includes having a plan for when and how to escalate issues. That will help them stay on the same page. 

Furthermore, they need to know how to handle different types of customer service issues and manage customer expectations. 

Moreover, you need to make sure that the live chat software you’re using has proper security measures in place. 

That is especially important if you’re collecting sensitive information like credit card numbers. 

To summarize the implementation of the four methods, we can say that:

• To implement feedback surveys; send them at the right time and to the right people. Use automation! 
• To get customer feedback using e-mail contact forms, make sure to keep the form short, sweet, and to the point. 
• When setting up a feedback widget, consider where you want to place it and what kind of feedback you want to collect. 
• And finally, when adding live chat to your website, make sure you have the workforce to support it and that you’ve set up proper protocols. 

Continuous Monitoring Is Key 

There are countless examples where the company set up its systems, collected customer feedback, and then let it sit there without taking any action. 

That’s not how you’ll get the most out of customer feedback. 

In order to effectively use the feedback, you need to monitor it continuously. This means taking action on the positive and the negative feedback.

Your support team should be doing this on a daily basis. They should be looking for any patterns or areas where they can improve. 

Continuously monitoring allows you to make small tweaks when you receive negative feedback. Furthermore, it allows you to replicate the things that are working well. 

Collecting customer feedback has become essential for businesses that value their clientele. The four methods of collecting customer feedback that we’ve discussed are all beneficial in their own way. 

To use them efficiently, it’s important to understand their pros and cons. Furthermore, you need to know when and how to implement them. 

But, most importantly, you need to monitor the feedback you’re receiving continuously. Only then you’ll be able to make the right decisions and improve your business. 

So go out there and start collecting some feedback!

Further Reading

The Ultimate Guide To Customer Feedback

From Customer Feedback to Customer Driven Growth

Manage Customer Experience and Grow like a Unicorn

Basics of Marketing Automation

FAQs