Use Your Customer's Time Wisely When You Ask For Feedback
The moments you ask your customers for feedback should be as thoughtfully integrated into the customer journey as anything else. I came across a nice example of how to use your customer’s time wisely for collecting feedback. While waiting for a download to complete, the company asked me for feedback. What a perfect timing, since I was eager to receive their document, I stayed on the page but had a couple of seconds to spend.
Source: Enhancv.com
Online surveys—especially those carried out in real-time—can tell you how your customers are feeling about every stage of a transaction on your site. Taking the Peak-End-Rule into account we know how important the end of a customer journey is, so you should not miss the opportunity for a post-purchase survey.
1) Timing is key
You need to present your customers with their survey while their shopping experience is at the front of their minds. This may mean via a popup on the Thank You page, or via an email a couple of days later. Bear in mind that showing customers an internal pop-up survey tends to lead to a higher response rate. Some schools of thought say you’re 2 to 4 times more likely to get a response when you take this approach.
Creating a survey in real-time means you’re catching people when they’re in the moment on the channel that they're using to engage with your brand. They’re actively happy or frustrated, and most likely to want to tell you about it. If you try to catch them further down the line via email or SMS, they’ll have turned their attention elsewhere. They might not have time to fill in your form or be otherwise disinclined.
Plus, by inputting feedback while they’re on the checkout page they don’t have to think back and input answers in retrospect. Therefore, your feedback will be more accurate.
2) Make it short and sweet
Keep the number of questions limited to 7 or below to maintain their attention and prevent dropping out. Start with multiple-choice questions, which are easy and quick to answer. Followed by open-ended questions that allow your customers to describe their feelings.
3) Ask “How could we improve?”
As simple as it sounds: ask them how you could improve. You may get unexpected answers which are always useful. They’re the responses that give you new insights into how people perceive your brand.
4) Create a consistent brand experience
Recent studies indicate that brand consistency across all touchpoints helps to boost revenue. Your post-purchase survey is part of that mix. Keep logos, colors, tone of voice, and visuals in line when creating landing pages and all other digital communication channels.
5) Customize
Consider targeting different segments of your customer base with different surveys. Repeat customers will get bored of receiving the identical post-purchase survey every time they buy from you. They’ll simply ignore it or find it irritating—maybe so irritating that they’ll start avoiding your site.
For repeat purchasers, be creative and ask questions relevant to their status. Address them by referring to this status and acknowledge how much you value their custom. For example, you could start a message with "As you’re one of our most valued customers," before reiterating that their continued feedback is invaluable to your business.
6) Automate, automate, automate
If you want to get things done as efficiently as possible, consider automating your feedback surveys with online survey software. This allows for real-time feedback collection while customers still feel engaged.