How Questionnaire Can Help you Improve Your Product?

Customers are at the heart of brand success. Brands do their best to meet and exceed customer needs, ensure their satisfaction, and encourage people to come back. With evolving technological advances, companies not only encounter strong competition but also get more sophisticated ways of collecting customer data to tailor their services.

While it is true that there is a lot of useful information that can be collected without customer intervention, things like questionnaires are no less important. By letting people tell you more about their experience, asking them what it is they still lack, or encouraging them to share their thoughts, you establish meaningful connections and get extra information to satisfy their needs. And with convenient ways of importing and storing data (through Google Sheets integration, for example), running feedback analysis has become even faster.

Why is customer feedback important?

Consumer feedback includes all the information that people share about the brand, its products, and its services. Every issue they have, every insight they give, and every input they make is valuable. Such feedback encourages further improvements and empowers future business changes.

How does a questionnaire help a business?

The more you talk to your clients, the more valuable information you obtain, and the easier it is to address consumer needs. Moreover, your company will only benefit from questionnaires as there are tons of advantages you receive by implementing them.

1. Provide better UX

With so many web design trends entering the market, it is important to think not only about how the website looks but also about how functional it is in terms of user experience. While the sites are usually tested by a qualified team, users tend to notice more. If they happen to find something that doesn’t work or is inconvenient, it is not a bad thing. 

They can contribute and share their feedback. You should encourage site visitors to leave their comments and tell you more about their experience with the website. Such an approach helps you to build connections with potential clients and improve their user experience.

2. Establish social influence

Customers have become more conscious. No one is blindly buying a piece of cloth online unless there are at least several positive reviews stating the item is worth its money. Testimonial pages work great when it comes to giving new consumers the needed proof and persuading them to purchase from you. 

You can use those comments that people leave on social media, through contact forms, or directly on the site. All of the feedback helps to understand your target audience, and how they view your services and address their queries faster and more efficiently.

3. Evolve your products

Whenever you are ready to expand and add new and updated products, the first and foremost is to ask your clients what they want. Is there anything they lack? Are there products that they wish to buy from you but need to purchase from competitors because your brand doesn’t offer them yet? 

Meeting additional customer needs is no less important than satisfying the current ones. Create a separate questionnaire where people can share their ideas and suggestions or make a comparison chart with possible products to see which one is more important and awaited. In the end, you might be surprised by the results. Sometimes, the products you think will do great might come up to be an absolute waste of money as your current customers just don’t need them.

4. Develop better consumer service

Consumers report issues on a daily basis. They use contact forms, emails, telephone lines, and chatbots whenever they need a quick response. The truth is that not all brands are ready to provide solid support and leave many consumer comments and complaints unattended. 

Analyzing what people say will help you provide enhanced customer service. Looking at all of the submitted forms and complaints, you can find a certain pattern or an issue that happens more often than other ones. You can then use it to add more information on the case in a FAQ section or an automated live chat. Moreover, you can educate your 24/7 IT support team to ensure they know how to address such complaints.

Methods for collecting feedback

Obtaining feedback is not rocket science. There is a wide range of channels that are great when it comes to communicating with clients and asking their opinion. Is there a single one that works better than others? No, but there can be one that best fits the needs of a particular brand and its customers. 

One company can receive most of the clients’ feedback through Instagram while another company prefers email surveys or rely on Google Forms for Surveys. It depends on where your clients are and which channel they prefer when it comes to addressing their needs.

1. Consumer surveys

There exist short surveys and long questionnaires that both work on the right occasion. You can place a pop-up question on the web page for those who are browsing it, or you can go with more traditional, long surveys with multiple questions. The latter is usually placed after people purchase something from the site or sign up for a newsletter.

To ensure people participate in a questionnaire, questions should be thoughtful, open-ended, and easy to understand. They should help you meet your goals and better address clients’ needs and preferences. Rating scales should be consistent and clear.

2. Email surveys

With email still being one of the preferred means of communication, companies can use it to send more personalized surveys and create a one-on-one vibe. However, in order to encourage people to share their thoughts, you need to ensure they are heard and acknowledged. 

Phrases like “We’d love to hear your feedback”, “Tell us how we did today”, or “We appreciate our loyal customers and want to do even better. Tell us about your current experience” will persuade more people to participate in a questionnaire.

Once consumers complete the survey, make sure to send them an automated reply, acknowledging it and thanking them for their time and effort.

3. Usability tests

Checking usability is a way of gathering customer feedback and finding out what else there is to improve. You can get insights on different things, from a website to newly launched products and updated services.

If you have finished and released a new version of the website, inform your clients via email, asking them to share their thoughts afterward. Otherwise, you can insert a pop-up on the site with an encouraging note: “Welcome to our new and updated website. We are dying to hear what you think of it.”

4. Customer interviews

Some companies practice direct communication with their clients. Brand representatives reach out first, initiating a friendly conversation, asking simple questions, getting people’s thoughts, and trying to know their consumers. Who told you that the one and only reason for initiating a conversation lies in resolving complaints?

Such customer interviews can provide useful insights and help brands understand their consumers better. You can start a conversation with those consumers who have recently completed a purchase or updated their yearly subscription. They will appreciate such attention and feel welcomed and valued.

5. Social media interaction

As most people nowadays are extremely tech-savvy, social media has become a go-to place in terms of reviews, comments, and feedback. With so many people using Facebook and Instagram 24/7, there is no better place to grow your brand’s presence, establish your influence, and collect valuable data.

People can leave direct comments, use hashtags, or mention the brand when they write a new post. Social channels are adapting and there are now built-in polls, surveys, and automated questionnaires. However, social media interaction is also an essential part of digital marketing strategies. Many brands use Instagram stories to communicate with people, ask questions, and share their feedback. Such an approach allows them to reach more potential clients and gather more from a large number of people.

6. On-site analytics

Knowing how clients interact with a brand, and whether their website experience is pleasant enough is possible without asking direct questions. It is possible to see whether people visit certain pages, what is the average time on a page, and how good the bounce rate is with the help of analytics.

Leveraging analytics helps you improve user on-site experience, change your messaging, and understand what resonates with potential clients and what doesn’t.

7. Instant feedback

You can combine analytics and surveys and gain even more information. Clients’ feedback can be collected without asking any questions.

If you have some useful content (how-to guides, tips, tricks, industry statistics, etc.) that you consider helpful for site visitors, you can place it on the page and see whether people click to read more or just ignore it. You can also add a question to find out whether the information is useful or not. In case you get more negative answers and zero clicks, there is a need to reconsider the types of content you offer.

Conclusion

Questionnaires not only help to evolve your company but also to build meaningful connections with the clients. When you know enough about your consumers, the things they love, and the products they lack, you can further develop and improve, build social influence, and provide enhanced customer service.

You can create on-site surveys, share questionnaires via email, or leverage social media to interact with people and gather their insights. Website analytics is also a great way of collecting data and understanding what really works and what doesn’t.

Test different surveys, and create a list of diverse questions, aligning them with the company’s goals to help you meet and exceed consumer expectations.