How to Collect Customer Feedback Online

Telling consumers the company cares about them or the experience they had is one thing, it’s something else entirely to show customers they matter.

Creating a customer experience (CX) that promotes a customer-centric ideology requires attention to detail. That detail being the customers, of course.

When we think about creating a positive customer experience or a customer-centric culture, it’s important to consider how to collect customer feedback. Simply saying the customers matter is not enough.

Taking a step back allows business owners, brand managers, and marketers to look at the bigger picture. This picture then allows collected feedback to become valuable insights, which in turn can take the business down the path of development and growth.

As we can see, it’s more than just hearing from customers and learning if they are happy or not.

6 Ways to Solicit Customer Feedback

How to go about getting feedback from customers doesn’t have to be difficult or time-consuming. Depending on the audience base, one option might be better than another.

A business with a lot of social media activity may find great success utilizing platforms like Facebook or Instagram, whereas another business may have more success gathering feedback through the company website.

But keep in mind, the way that the company collects customer feedback is as important as any other form of communication.

1. Website Survey

A website is a great way to showcase services, products, service areas, and why a brand should be trusted as a leader in the respective industry. It can also serve as a way to collect feedback by using a website-hosted survey.

Platforms like SurveyMonkey can be used to incorporate surveys in multiple ways, including:

• Embedded: This option allows the survey to live on the website and collect feedback without disrupting the user experience.
• Popup Window: Much as it sounds, this option will display as a popup window for the user, encouraging them to complete the survey. It is not advisable to have multiple popup windows, however, as it can become quite cumbersome for the audience.

2. Instagram or Facebook Story Poll

Facebook and Instagram stories are a quick and fun way to engage with the brand’s audience. It can also be an easy way for a business to collect feedback without it feeling tedious for the audience.

Since Facebook has an average of 2.93 billion monthly active users and roughly one billion monthly active users on Instagram, it can be a great way to engage the audience. It’s also possible to reach new audiences with the right strategy in place.

3. Survey Forms

There is a plethora of services available for business owners to utilize in order to collect customer feedback while also ensuring a pleasant experience.

Ditch the long, tedious feedback forms and instead embrace an intuitive survey form.

Options like Google Forms or JotForm automatically organize the responses and allow for customizations like adding the brand logo. It can also be integrated into platforms like Mailchimp or Dropbox — services often utilized by businesses.

4. Chatbots

Chatbots are one of the most flexible tools that can be programmed to achieve an array of objectives to meet the goals of the company.

You might be aware that the tool can be used as a way to answer frequently asked questions of website visitors and qualifying leads. But an intuitive chatbot can also collect feedback from the individual visiting the website.

5. Social Media Listening

If you’ve made it this far, you’ve learned how many active monthly users are on Facebook and Instagram. So, it should come as no surprise that consumers turn to these platforms and many others, like TikTok and Twitter, to voice their opinions. Good, bad, or indifferent.

A social media listening tool is a piece of software that is used to monitor and analyze online conversations surrounding your brand, competitors, or a specific topic that can be relevant to the company.

Using specified keywords, the tool pulls in mentions that can be used to analyze a multitude of business aspects — including customer experience.

Tools like Sprout Social can be used to actively monitor activity that may be important to the brand.

6. Survey Inside Facebook Messenger

Since there are more than two billion active monthly users on Facebook, incorporating surveys into Facebook messenger is a logical step for brands.

Collecting feedback through Facebook Messenger can be quick and simple as the platform allows for polls to be made within a chat. And brands like MobileMonkey allow for surveys to be built into Messenger.

These options can be a quick and simple way to collect useful thoughts and feedback from current and potential customers.

Put the Feedback to Work

Once the responses have been collected, it’s essential to review and analyze the data. Then, once it has been combed through and analyzed, it’s important to take the feedback into consideration going forward.

Was there an overarching theme to the feedback? Lack on in-store products? Do response times need improvement? Or perhaps something needs to be celebrated.

Whichever the case may be for your company, be sure to take the feedback received seriously and show the audience you — the business owner or brand manager, are in fact listening.

In the event that you need help implementing any number of these procedures, analyzing feedback, or implementing growth processes for the brand, it might be necessary to enlist the help of a professional.

By doing so, it can take the stress of determining the how and when off of your plate while ensuring a job well-done.

Discover how the team at Elevation Ten Thousand can make receiving customer feedback a breeze and then receive a tailored strategy for the brand to help make any necessary changes.