In this article, we’re going to go through the ins and outs of feedback buttons, explaining how they work, why they’re beneficial to your business, and how to start using one in no time at all.
But first, let’s start with the basics!
What is website feedback?
Website feedback is exactly how it sounds - it’s feedback on your website! It’s opinions and experiences from individuals who have visited and used your website. Positive or negative, this will tell you a lot about how your website is perceived.
Generally, there are two kinds of feedback you’ll get on your website.
The first kind is more so a comment on your brand rather than your website. Maybe they aren’t interested in your service, couldn’t find a product they were looking for, or leave a question for your team when they should have left feedback.
Though helpful, this first kind is “website feedback” in a more technical sense. It’s feedback that you receive through your website, but it’s not feedback about your website.
That brings us to the second kind of feedback, which is direct website feedback. Someone couldn’t find the page they were looking for, they spotted an error, and they need more information.
How can you ask for website feedback?
Alright, so you can surely see the value in getting feedback on your website. But how do you get that feedback?
Fortunately, there are decades now of websites that have tried and tested various means of collecting feedback over the years. Below are the best ways to collect feedback in 2021.
Have multiple, clear feedback touchpoints on your site
First, you want to have several feedback touchpoints across your website. And they need to be clear!
This one is pretty intuitive. Don’t have a single feedback touchpoint hidden behind a form or an odd page of your website.
Instead, try to have touchpoints on each of the most-travelled pages of your websites. And make sure that each is easy to spot and has a clear message.
Keep things relevant
Of course, you don’t want to just scatter feedback touchpoints across your website with no rhyme or reason. Relevancy is key.
To keep each feedback touchpoint relevant to the page that it appears on, try to ask one question per page that you most want to know the answer to.
For example, on your home page you might want to ask something like, “Would you recommend this site to your friends?”, or “Did you find what you were looking for?” These will let you know if your home page is doing its job.
On a product page, though, you might ask “Is there something else you wanted to know about this product?”. Or, after someone has ordered your product, you can ask them what they thought of the shopping experience on your site.
If you’re a small business, ask like a small business!
A less intuitive piece of advice is to not only ask for feedback relevant to each of your web pages but to also use feedback touchpoints that are relevant to your business.
Namely, if you’re a small business, you should ask for feedback like one!
In other words, smaller businesses might get more engagement by asking for feedback on social media or through email channels. You can even say something as simple as, “We just updated our website - let us know what you think!”
This is a more personal approach that can ingratiate your users to be more eager to leave you feedback. It can generate additional traffic to your site, too, which is always a plus!
On the opposite end of things, larger companies are better off using on-site feedback collection. It’s not as personal, but your users likely don’t have (and don’t want) as personal of a connection to your brand. They might even find it frustrating to get emails and notifications on social media asking to review your website. So keep things professional and laidback.
Time your feedback requests so that they aren’t nagging
Speaking of frustrating your users, the last thing you want to do is pester your visitors with a feedback request when they least want it. Not only is this unlikely to result in feedback, but if handled badly enough, it could end up pushing visitors away.
To avoid this, you first want to avoid being pushy. Ask once, then move on! If someone is asked to leave feedback every time they visit your site (or even worse, on every page of your site) they’re going to feel nagged in a matter of moments.
Second, remember the relevancy rule! Time your feedback requests to match relevant moments. For instance, don’t ask someone how they like your homepage the instant that it loads for them. And don’t ask for a review of the shopping experience on your site before the visitor has made a purchase.
What is a website feedback button?
Now that we’ve covered what website feedback is as well as some of the do’s and don’ts, it’s time to go through one of the essential tools for collecting feedback: The website feedback button.
Outside of sending requests through email and social media, a website feedback button will be your primary tool for collecting feedback on your website.
If you aren’t familiar with feedback buttons, they’re a feature that you can implement on your site. While they come in different shapes and sizes, they’re generally a small popup on the corner or side of your webpage.
Whenever someone clicks that circle, a small chat window appears asking for a specific kind of feedback. Sometimes the feedback is open-ended, while other times there are pre-set options that the user can choose from.
The benefits of a feedback button
While there are other means of collecting feedback, buttons have unique benefits that can’t be matched by social media, email, or most other communication channels. Here are just a few of those benefits.
Easy to control when and where your feedback comes from
When you use a website feedback button, you have total control over when, where, and how feedback is collected. It’s not open-ended or general in any way. You can target exact scenarios and situations on your website as they’re unfolding.
This allows you to get the exact feedback you’re looking for. That doesn’t mean you can control what people say, but it does mean that you can specify what they give you feedback on to a very high degree.
Reduces friction for your visitors
Another benefit of a feedback button is that it reduces friction for your visitors. It’s far easier to click a button and answer a prompt while you’re already on a website than to go through your email, click a link, be taken to a webpage, fill out a form over a website that you may or may not remember all that well, and then spend a few minutes answering questions.
The easier it is for a visitor to leave feedback, the more likely it is that they’ll do it. Remember that for your visitors, leaving feedback is more or less a chore. So make it an easy one with a feedback button!
Prevent negative feedback from appearing on a public forum
Lastly, a feedback button is a great way to keep negative feedback private. If someone airs their grievances through a feedback button, it’s less likely that they’ll parrot those grievances on social media or to their friends.
The last thing you want is to make a Twitter post on your brand account asking for feedback, only to get a multitude of negative and critical responses. Negative criticism is important, to be sure, but it can harm your brand before you’ve had a chance to act on that feedback. A feedback button is a private and convenient deterrent to this!
How to add a website feedback button to your site
Alright! Now you not only know what website feedback is, but you know a little about the most important website feedback tool there is, the website feedback button. This means it’s time to discuss how you can add these things to your website.
Create a feedback button yourself or opt for a third-party solution
There are two different routes you can take when adding a feedback button to your website. You can either write the code for the button yourself or pay for an existing third-party option that you can integrate with your website.
The first method does have the benefit of being bespoke. Beyond that, though, it creates more pitfalls than not. It’ll take more time and resources to create, will offer fewer features, and require more long-term maintenance.
Third-party solutions, on the other hand, are easy, affordable, and packed with features. For the vast majority of website managers, these are going to be your best option.
Moving forward, we’re only going to discuss third-party options since knowing how to build your feedback button is the same as knowing the answer to the remaining questions!
Adding a third-party feedback button to your website
Once you’ve selected a third-party feedback button to add to your website, you’ll want to implement it into your website. There are a few ways that this will work depending on which button provider you’ve chosen.
Most of the time, you’ll be adding a feedback button to your website via pre-written HTML code. When you pay for the button, you’ll get a bit of code that you can copy and paste into your website’s code. The button should appear right after.
Another common route that you’ll run into is the plugin button. These are buttons that integrate with a CMS like WordPress or Squarespace. Just add it to your site on the backend and you’ll see it appear.
Most of these buttons will come with a dashboard that you can log into to receive, respond to, organise, and otherwise manage the feedback you’re receiving.
Deciding which types of feedback buttons to include on your website
Although all website feedback buttons are relatively similar, there are different types to be aware of:
- Screenshot feedback buttons let the user submit a screenshot of your website with their feedback.
- Feedback metadata supplies you with information on the user’s device.
- Preset feedback options have multiple choice answers that the user can choose from when submitting feedback.
- Open-ended feedback allows the user to type whatever they want in a chatbox, usually based on a presented prompt.
There are a few more types, but these are the most common. You might even see options that are a combination of the above.
In general, screenshot and meta feedback buttons are important for bug testing. If you know that your website has kinks in it, this is a good way to find them out.
Preset and open-ended options, on the other hand, are good for feedback on a site that already works. Rather than seeking out bugs, this is useful for checking the design and UI.
Establish a process for deciding if, when, and how to incorporate user feedback
After you start collecting and structuring your users’ feedback, you’ll want to create a standardized process for incorporating this feedback into your website.
You won’t be able to turn every piece of feedback into a design change, and you don’t want to, either. You want to first validate if a piece of feedback deserves attention, then come up with a method for logging that feedback and deciding on when to implement it.
A great way to do this is to start generalizing the feedback you get as it becomes repetitive (i.e., start counting the number of times users say that they don’t like your navigation menu). Then, come up with a number of times that feedback is left by different users before you decide to make the change on your site.
Start collecting feedback today with the Saber website feedback button
If you’re ready to start collecting feedback on your site, learn about Saber Feedback’s website feedback button.