Listening to Your Customers: How to Collect Feedback?

Within the core of each successful enterprise lies customer feedback. Insights from the audience are the important thing to uncovering unmet needs and fresh perspectives. 

But how are you going to truly understand what customers want? Join us to explore which forms of feedback can enhance a brand’s social media fame, what will be automated, and which methods don’t require a team of experts. As a bonus, at the top of the article, you’ll discover a guide to boost conversions and increase customer loyalty.

Qualitative and Quantitative Feedback: How to Measure It?

What is Quantitative Feedback?

When it comes to collecting feedback, the query is whether or not to go for quantitative or qualitative methods. 

Quantitative feedback is collected through general and spot surveys. It offers a numerical perspective on customer feedback, enabling the quantification of satisfaction levels, preferences, and trends. For example, one notable metric is the Net Promoter Score (NPS). This indicator categorizes customers as promoters, passives, or detractors based on their likelihood to recommend the business.

What is Qualitative Feedback?

Qualitative feedback, however, is gathered through methods like focus groups, in-depth interviews, or client shadowing. These approaches provide businesses with a lens to understand their customers at a deeper level. Evaluating qualitative insights involves expert evaluation, and the outcomes often reveal hidden pain points, motivations, and unmet needs. Qualitative feedback is especially priceless for uncovering the “why” behind customer behavior and preferences.

Collecting qualitative feedback is actually qualitative research. The principal idea of qualitative research is to collect detailed responses from users, reasonably than rating a particular service or product on a scale. When examining qualitative research findings, it’s important to give attention to descriptions, explanations, and meanings. There is a framework often called FISH for this purpose.

FISH is a simplified approach to analyzing qualitative data with the goal of generating product ideas and forming hypotheses. The abbreviation comprises 4 phases of study:

• Fragments—divide the text into fragments.
• Ideas—record your ideas.
• Search—search for anomalies and be open to surprises.
• Hypothesis—formulate hypotheses and assumptions.

Now, let’s consider an example of a matter and its corresponding feedback:

Next, let’s analyze the primary a part of feedback regarding the FISH framework:

and so forth.

After analyzing the statements, you’ll generate quite a few hypotheses, questions, and latest ideas. Prioritize crucial ideas and hypotheses. Test your ideas further by utilizing other frameworks. Hypotheses will be validated through surveys or A/B tests.

How to Collect Feedback?

From email surveys to website feedback forms, these methods function tools for understanding customer needs and can be useful in collecting each quantitative and qualitative feedback. By choosing essentially the most appropriate of them, you possibly can harness the ability of customer feedback to drive improvements and enhance your services or products.

1. Email surveys

Involve sending structured questionnaires directly to customers via email. This method is convenient for each businesses and customers, because it allows for simple distribution and collection of feedback.

Benefits:

• Cost-effective and efficient for reaching a large audience.
• Can be automated and scheduled.
• Provides a cushty environment for purchasers to respond.

Limitations:

• Requires a solid understanding of email marketing principles.
• Potential for survey fatigue if overused.
• May not capture the complete spectrum of customer feedback.

Consider email surveys if you happen to’re a well-established business aiming to gather comprehensive feedback and refine your offerings, as they excel in post-interaction scenarios. For instance, an e-commerce giant can use email surveys to collect insights on customer satisfaction after a purchase order.

2. In-App and website forms

Integrated directly into digital platforms, making it convenient for users to provide feedback without leaving the applying or website.

Benefits:

• Captures feedback at the purpose of interaction, ensuring relevance.
• User-friendly and simply accessible.
• Real-time insights for immediate improvements.

Limitations:

• Requires IT expertise for implementation and maintenance.
• Users may find feedback requests distracting during their online experience.
• May not be suitable for non-tech-savvy customer segments.

Companies with a robust online presence can profit significantly from In-App and website feedback forms. This is particularly suitable for startups with technology products whose audience is tech-savvy. For example, a cryptocurrency platform can specify the hours for server maintenance to make it more convenient for users.

3. Calls from an operator or a robot

Whether it’s a customer support representative looking for input or an automatic survey call, this approach will be effective in collecting information.

Benefits:

• Allows for real-time interaction.
• Can gather feedback while customers are engaged.
• Provides immediate issue resolution.

Limitations:

• Customers may find automated calls intrusive.
• Response rates can vary, and a few customers may hang up.
• Limited to specific timeframes for engagement.

This method is especially useful for firms in industries like telecommunications or utility services, where direct communication with customers is routine.

4. Questionnaires

Questionnaires are a flexible tool for gathering feedback, as they will be administered through various channels, including online forms, printed surveys, and even mobile apps. They allow businesses to collect structured information from customers.

Benefits:

• Provides structured data for evaluation.
• Can be distributed through multiple channels.
• Allows for personalization based on specific objectives.

Limitations:

• May require a robust understanding of survey design.
• Response rates can decline if questionnaires are lengthy.
• Potential for survey fatigue.

Questionnaires are priceless in industries where structured data is crucial for decision-making, reminiscent of healthcare organizations conducting patient satisfaction surveys, educational institutions looking for student feedback, and every other service organizations.

5. SMS messaging

SMS marketing entails sending text messages to a particular audience to engage with customers, promote services or products, convey information, and achieve various marketing goals.

Benefits:

• High open and response rates, as most individuals check their texts promptly.
• Ideal for capturing quick, on-the-go feedback.
• Less intrusive than phone calls.

Limitations:

• Limited space for detailed responses.
• May not be suitable for lengthy or complex surveys.
• Need to obtain customer consent for sending text messages.

SMS messaging proves highly effective for businesses during promotional or sales periods. These will be restaurants, event organizers, or e-commerce firms with their very own delivery looking for immediate feedback.

How to Increase the Number of Feedback?

When inviting customers to take part in surveys, several practical suggestions hold true, whatever the chosen communication channel. A well-crafted invitation enhances the survey process and has the potential to significantly increase feedback participation.

• It’s essential to keep the invitation concise and clear by proofreading and editing the text to convey the message effectively.
• Personalizing the survey invitation can significantly enhance its impact: including details like the client’s name, date, location, or worker’s name could make the message more engaging and relevant.
• Presenting the principal message as a matter, reasonably than an announcement, tends to feel more natural and may boost response rates.
• It’s crucial to manage expectations by indicating if the survey won’t take much time or if the feedback can be acted upon.
• Teamwide testing is crucial to confirm functional links and compatibility across an array of platforms and email services, ensuring the survey process stays seamless.

Bonus: Guide “SMS Marketing for Business”

You could be contemplating which method is suitable for your enterprise at this moment. Perhaps you’re already calculating the time and financial costs of hiring email marketers and IT specialists.

However, recent research has shown that companies are increasingly turning to SMS messaging as an efficient method for collecting feedback. In fact, a report by SimpleTexting revealed that 86% of companies used SMS marketing to text their customers within the 12 months 2022 – a 56% increase in SMS adoption from the previous 12 months. This is due to the high response rates and immediate nature of messaging. On a mean day, consumers check their text messages greater than every other app on their phones, even greater than social media.

Let’s stop your doubts. We have already got a plan to get you began with SMS messaging for feedback collecting and more. Download Messagio’s guide to explore five mass SMS campaigns designed to collect feedback and drive sales.

Download Guide about SMS Marketing