Why Customer Feedback is Important, How to Collect it, and How to Convince Your Boss it’s Important

Customer Feedback:
Why it’s important, how to collect it, & how to convince your boss to pay attention to it.
Evan Hamilton
Community Manager, UserVoice

Customer feedback is important.

Customer feedback is important.
So why are there no formal processes for it?

What We’ll Cover:
Why is it important?
How can you convince your boss that it is?
What’s the best way to collect it?
Q&A

Why Collect Feedback?

It helps you know what your customers really want

Doing what people want makes them happy.

Happy customers mean more $.

Happy customers mean more $.
That guy who emails a lot is not representative.

It’s out there

It’s out there
People want to give it to you.

It’s out there
Letting it sit makes people angry. In public.

It’s out there
Letting it sit makes people angry. In public.
You listen and deal with customer issues – why not feedback?

It shows that you give a #@%!

You do, right?

You do, right?
Customers don’t expect companies to actually act on feedback. Stand out.

It’s a great way to keep people engaged

60% open rate, 25% clickthrough…vs 26% and 5% for regular mail.

60% open rate, 25% clickthrough…vs 26% and 5% for regular mail.
Brings people back who never would have looked at your product again.

Convincing Your Boss

Bosses aren’t evil.

Bosses aren’t evil.
They just have to worry about the bottom line.

But customers are the bottom line.

“There will be spies from other companies!”

You aren’t your features.

Fine, use a private forum.

Fine, use a private forum.
(This never happens.)

“We’ll be forced to build what they ask for!”

Your customers are with you for your vision.

Customers like “No, because”.

Customers like “No, because”.
It’s not direct democracy.

“It’ll be a time suck!”

Yup.

Yup.
So is filing for bankruptcy and selling your Aeron chairs.

“If Henry Ford had listened to his customers, he would have built a faster horse!”

That’s great feedback.

The goal is to find pain points, not solutions.

The goal is to find pain points, not solutions.
Customers experience the pain. They know.

How to collect feedback

This is a bad place to ask for feedback.

This is better.

Avoid the J-curve.

People (mostly) only vote when they like something.

If something sucks…

If something sucks…
…people just leave.

Just allow upvotes. (And read the comments!)

Low barrier toentry.

Don’t require Yet Another Account.

Make it look like home.

Avoid the vocal minority.

These aren’t your most valuable customers.

Voting allows the shy majority a voice.

Limited voting further controls the vocal minority.

(Plus, it gives you a great excuse for not listening to them.)

Have an escalation process.

Feedback is worth nothing if shoved in the closet.

Have a formal meeting where decisions are made.

Votes should probably be part of it.

Make sure you have the full context.

Come in with issues/pain points/wants…NOT solutions.

Accept that everything won’t be implemented.

Be prepared to go back and say “no, because…”

So, UserVoice?

There are plenty of competitors.

This is a UserVoice Feedback forum.

Here’s how you sign in.

Voting.

Posting an idea.

Status updates.

Evan
Hamilton
@evanhamilton
evan@uservoice.com
blog.uservoice.com

Why Customer Feedback is Important, How to Collect it, and How to Convince Your Boss it’s Important

by TechSoup Global on Sep 22, 2011

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Why Customer Feedback is Important, How to Collect it, and How to Convince Your Boss it’s Important — Presentation Transcript

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