Feedback is critical to every business’s success. It’s what allows you to convert first-time customers into repeat business, to turn a negative experience into a positive one, and to improve your service in meaningful ways. And as the world of business becomes increasingly digitised, implementing a website feedback system is critical.
Website feedback refers to any kind of customer/client/user feedback that is collected over the internet. Most often, the means of collection is done via a channel on the website itself, such as a customer support form.
Individual, Triggered, and Representative feedback: Have a strategy for each
Website feedback can be broken down into three general categories: Individual, Triggered, and Representative. Each gets its name from the way that the feedback is collected.
In individual feedback, the customer offers feedback unprompted. This is a passive means of feedback collection. Because individual feedback relies on the customer deciding to leave feedback, it’s not unusual for this method to collect more frustrations than praises.
In triggered feedback, the business goes out of its way to ask the user for feedback. Triggered feedback is unique in that it doesn’t discriminate between customers and visitors. It’s also behavioural-based, meaning that it only asks for feedback when a user triggers the feedback prompt through an action.
In representative feedback, the business is looking to collect responses from customers. Usually, this is done after a product has been purchased, a service cancelled, and so on. It’s used to gauge a customer’s relationship to your product/brand rather than to uncover issues in your website/product.
Businesses need to incorporate strategies for each type of feedback on their website. This provides a well-rounded view of the perception of your brand and product.
A step-by-step guide to collecting website feedback
Step 1. Collecting individual website feedback: Buttons and contact centres
The foundation of website feedback consists of individual responses. These are users who go out of their way to share their experience with you. This is the portion of your customers who have the strongest feelings about your brand, making their insights critical.
To collect individual feedback, you need to implement a passive feedback feature into your website. A common strategy is to have a floating button on each of your webpages, as well as a contact page where feedback can easily be submitted.
Step 2. Collecting triggered website feedback: Surveys and ratings
Once you have a system in place for collecting individual feedback, you’re ready to incorporate triggered feedback into your website. This is a great way to touch base with your users at key points on your website.
The most common collection methods for triggered website feedback are surveys and ratings. Creating an automated response that asks a user to rate a page on your website, feature of your service, or impression of your customer support will provide you with real-time insights into your online presence.
Step 3. Collecting representative website feedback: Customer reviews
Lastly, you’ll want to have a representative feedback strategy. Most often, this takes the form of prompted customer reviews. These prompts can come immediately after a person has purchased a product or used your service, or they can be sent via email after a product has been delivered.
Representative data is generally the most quantifiable. You can apply KPI analytics to it, making it a great tool for decision-making.
Step 4. Ask the right questions
After you have the tools to start collecting feedback, your next priority will be asking the right questions. If the data your gathering from customers isn’t applicable, then you probably shouldn’t be collecting it.
To be specific about the questions you ask, you need to develop goals that website feedback can solve.
For instance, say you want to reduce the number of visitors leaving your website without making a purchase. Having a triggered feedback prompt before a visitor leaves that asks something like, “Were you able to find what you were looking for?” can help you pinpoint the reason for your users’ exits.
Step 5. Organise feedback with software and issue trackers
You’ll also need a way to store and organise the feedback customers are leaving, since it’s just as important as collecting that feedback in the first place. If you’re a small business, you might be able to get away with pasting responses in a Google Doc or saving them to an email folder. Otherwise, though, you’ll want a more proactive approach.
Fortunately, there are plenty of tools that not only organise and store your website feedback but help you collect it in the first place. Saber Feedback can do this for you, though you can also read our list of some of the best website feedback tools.
Step 6. Respond to feedback promptly and politely
While this post is outlining seven steps for collecting website feedback, there are really just three:
- Collect website feedback
- Respond to website feedback
- Act on website feedback
Most businesses that collect feedback only act on Steps 1 and 3. When you neglect to respond to your customers’ feedback, however, you can leave them feeling alienated and deterred. Having your customer support team (or even an automated response system) let users know that you’ve heard, stored, and are considering their feedback can ensure that the interaction is a positive one.
Step 7. Decide which website feedback to implement
Lastly, after you’ve collected and responded to your users’ feedback, you’ll want to decide which suggestions and complaints to act on. There are a few ways to make this decision:
- Aggregate your feedback and count up similar responses. If one complaint/suggestion keeps coming up, you should probably act on it.
- If a problem is discovered with your product/service/website, it should be considered a priority.
- If you can’t decide using the above tips, then look at factors like ROI, your current budget, and your available talent. Scoring suggestions on these three fronts can aid in your decision.
Make Saber Feedback your website feedback solution
Saber Feedback offers one of the simplest and most robust tools for collecting, storing, responding to, and implementing customer feedback. For more info on how your business can benefit from Saber Feedback, reach out to our team.