WHAT DO YOUR VISITORS THINK?
It is widely acknowledged that for businesses to attain sustainable success, they must keep improving their performance. Customer feedback is key to judging current performance but also to identifying areas which can be improved. So how do you go about it? Below are some of the ways which can be used to gather your feedback. However be aware that before you start it is important to have a clear understanding of what you are trying to find out otherwise you may be blindly asking for feedback that will only corrupt your understanding of your customers.
Email/Contact Forms
Make sure you provide a fast response to email feedback.
Any email asking for feedback will work best if it is personal. Customers are more likely to be candid on a personal level.
Survey
Ensure the questions that you ask provide the answers that you need.
Don’t use bias or misleading language in your question set.
Use open ended questions for more detailed answers and therefore comprehensive feedback.
Decide whether to conduct a short or a long survey. The web has made this much easier as you can have the traditional long survey but also a shorter survey which can appear on the screen as the customer browses through your site. There are certain tools which are available to help with both versions. For a short survey Qualaroo is useful and highly thought of. If you wish to conduct a longer survey then Typeform is a highly useful tool which we have used in the past.
Usability Testing
Conducting usability testing can help to improve the UX of any product by obtaining customer feedback on the use of that product.
This method is popular across web development however the format is used across many different codes of business.
For help to set up a usability testing program try usertesting.com. This site is highly popular and recommended by many.
Interviews
An excellent method to gain direct feedback from customers
The focus of any interview should be targeted at a customer’s attitude. Ask questions which target how customers think about certain products and UX issues
Utilise a critical incident method. Obtain customers case studies of what they did when faced with a problem, to find what worked and what didn’t.
Understand the customer’s habit. Analyse how a user performs a task to see whether this process can be made more efficient.
Use Social Media
The ever growing social media space provides a great opportunity for acquiring feedback. A popular method is to conduct polls on sites such as Facebook to help gauge opinion and guide your decision making. The method is quick and simple to do while also having the added bonus of increased interaction with customers and benefits to any social media strategy.
Analytics
It’s prudent to use analytics especially for online businesses as it is possible to analyse the behaviour of your users to gain feedback on the UX of your site for example:
At what stage are people leaving your site?
What are the conversion rates?
How long did the user stay on your site?
How many different pages did they visit?
What are the most popular pages/products?
Google can be a good option for on-site analysis, but others such as KISSmetrics exist and have provided many positive case studies of site owners identifying weaknesses within their online business.
Comment Boxes on Site
This is a useful and non-intrusive feature which can generate impulsive feedback from customers.
Live Chat and Pop Ups can sometimes come across as pushy where as a comment box can feel to the customer like you are asking politely.