Continuous customer feedback is the next big trend to adopt this year and it tops the list of metrics that most companies are missing out on. Are you tired of filling in 20-minute surveys which claim to ‘only take a minute of your time’? After half a year of silence how are you supposed to remember your experience? If this sounds like the experience you are giving your customers, you are missing a huge opportunity. It’s time to reinvent how you gather customer feedback by implementing new best practices. In order to get improved response rates and more relevant feedback, implement the following five tips into your company’s customer survey strategy:
1. Gather insights at an interaction level
In order to set up effective customer feedback loops, you need to rethink your line of questioning. Today I still see too many ‘Net Promoter Score’ surveys being forced onto customers with little to no touch of User Experience in mind. This has to change.
Net Promoter Score is still a relevant metric today, however, unfortunately, it only provides insights on the relationship level between your customer and your organization. Also, consider monitoring your Customer Experience on an interaction level. Forrester’s Customer Experience Index asks for scoring on questions like ‘Was it effective?’, ‘Was it easy?’, and ‘Did you enjoy it?’. Already you will see improved customer insights because you’re asking questions at the interaction level.
2. Choose one insight and stick to it
Limit your questions. A survey shouldn’t require more than 30 seconds to give feedback. However, always leave an option for open feedback if your customer feels like providing more insights and opinions.
3. Event-driven feedback
By switching towards event-driven feedback instead of periodic surveys, you can improve your feedback loop. Stop sending out sporadic survey mail bombs and transition to event-driven feedback.
Decide what the most important ‘Business Experience Moment’ is inside your organization. Maybe it is immediately after an online purchase, a meeting with a sales representative, submitting an email support ticket, or leaving a live chat. Once you identify these experiential moments try to set up event-driven surveys instead – as close as possible to that business moment.
4. Choose the right channel
Make sure that you can respect the chosen channel by your customer as much as possible. If you get an email, send one. Embed feedback inside the live-chat, put physical buttons at the cashier station, or have a popup on your online store after they make a purchase. Having a built-in tool to help develop an overarching intelligence across all customer touch points will make this process more streamlined and prevent the feeling that you’re spamming your customer. All these features are available today inside the Onsophic platform.
5. Focus on the impact
The final tip is to focus on giving sufficient context towards your customer about why you want this feedback. If someone doesn’t know or understand what you will be doing with her feedback, the urge to give it will be very low. But if you are able to tell your customer that, instead of simply logging it into the BI-dashboard, a real co-worker inside the organization will be doing a personal follow-up, the trigger becomes tangible. The key is to visualize the real impact that the customer can have. For instance, after giving feedback, keep him updated on the improvement programs you are running inside the organization. This way your customer’s experience should become increasingly positive and she might even become an ambassador for your organization.