Collect feedback that drives powerful results – Interview with Christian Lelo de Larrea Gaudiano

Here’s an ideal scenario, an online user interacts with a live chat and inquires about something. Then you or a chatbot answers that inquiry. Finally, you ask in return if the user was satisfied with the service you provided, and the user happily takes the time to chat more and explain their feedback.

Here’s the reality, gathering online feedback is not as easy as it may seem. In a perfect world maybe, but chances are, that user has already left the chat, closed the tab, or deleted the SMS sent asking for feedback that the user may receive. It is relatively easy to create a survey but convincing your audience to take more time to click through that feedback form can be tedious. Let alone knowing where it will drive value and engage your audience till the end.

So how do you do it? What can you do to trigger a response from your target audience without making them feel that they are forced to answer and still get valuable and actionable results?

To analyze and bring answers to how to collect feedback that drives powerful results, we interviewed Christian Lelo de Larrea Gaudiano, Customer Engagement Manager of giosg, to tell us about their practices. A partner of Lumoa, Giosg is a software solutions company that combines data and Artificial Intelligence (AI) with feature-rich technology, delivering intuitive, automated solutions that help organizations to become more effective.

Where should feedback be collected on the website in a non-intrusive way?

Not all website users are there for the same reason and because of this, it is important to define the goals to help you understand which customer journey to target. This way, certain feedback requests will be shown to the right user at the right time in a non-intrusive way.

For example, if the goal is to improve the service (or the chat service), then a good place to add the feedback request is in your chat and not during the checkout process as this is a different part of the customer’s journey. In many instances, getting feedback might imply that the user should go through the whole customer journey to be able to give valuable feedback, but this isn’t always the case. If the goal is to improve or identify bottlenecks, then these can be found anywhere in the customer journey. Knowing what kind of form will show at the right time and the right place will not only make the trigger more effective but will also save time in categorizing the data that is being collected.

What is the best way to do it?

Links to surveys can work in feedback collection but based on our experience, we found out that the best way to do it is to show a pop-up to the right user at the right time. Pop-up surveys have become the tool of choice nowadays for getting user feedback and these widgets we see on a website page are a special form of feedback surveys. It can “pop up” depending on which customer journey you want it to show.

From the previous example, with the same goal of wanting to improve service or the overall experience with the chat, a pop-up trigger will be activated at the end of the chat. Additionally, a good option is when operators add a “feedback process” where they ask the user to provide feedback at the end of the chat.

Meanwhile, using a link to a survey is a reactive method for users to provide feedback. We also noticed that triggering the feedback form automatically as part of the customer journey is left unanswered more often. With our service improvement example, the pop-up will trigger after the user closes the chat window.

While both methods can be used accordingly, the only way to know what will work is through testing. A/B test, try a link, or use a different method to show the feedback form aligned with your goals and which part of the customer journey you want to focus on. Furthermore, be open to changes that will give signs of whether your method is working. Make tweaks along the way and do another test to be sure. In the end, all this data will show you the most optimal place, time, and method that works best.

What type of questions should be asked?

Before we dive into this, take note of the following questions:

1. What is the goal?
2. What are we trying to improve?
3. Are we ready to take action based on the results of the data?

Once these are taken into consideration, we can now move forward with the feedback questions. There are 3 things we can measure within the different areas of a customer journey, and these are:

• Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) – This tells us how satisfied or unsatisfied customers are with the product, service, etc.
• Customer Effort Score (CES) – This is about the ease of their experience
• Net Promoter Score (NPS) – One kind of a Likert scale where we ask how likely you would recommend this to a friend or colleague.

Going back to our live chat improvement example, we can therefore ask:

1. Was the agent helpful?
2. Was the inquiry solved?
3. Did we exceed their expectations?
4. Any additional comments about the chat?

Note that keeping the feedback form short and straightforward will keep your audience’s interest in answering it. Furthermore, the data will yield more logical and powerful results that will help your company consider the actions needed to be taken later on.

What is the difference between feedback about the website and feedback about the product/service?

Remember that the main idea with the feedback is to align the goals/s with the customer’s journey. So, it is important to ask for feedback at the correct phase of a particular journey. Having a defined goal will help in understanding the purpose of the feedback.

Two key points that will help in analyzing which feedback is for:

1. If it’s about the website, it’s about the user experience (UX); the ease of their experience, was the user able to find what they’re looking for? How smooth was the overall process? Etc.
2. If it’s about the tangible or intangible product, questions such as their satisfaction level of the product, and in-depth questions like, was it what they needed? Was the service helpful? etc. that focuses more on the major topic of question or interest by the user.

How is the feedback used to drive powerful results?

During your planning stage where goals are defined, you need to take into consideration the benefits it will provide the other departments. It is wise to include them in the project to not only deliver powerful results but also to empower everyone’s opinion. This way, you can combine what is specifically needed to collect, and ensure actions are delivered for the improvement in different departments whenever necessary.

The purpose of getting the opinion of the users on your website is to better understand, connect, and communicate with them more humanly. By doing so, you’re giving the user the power to be involved in change management and feel that they are an important part of the company’s growth.

Keep in mind that before anything else, specific goals should be defined during the planning stage to keep track of what you need to do. There is no one-size-fits-all formula to get powerful results, so testing the feedback, trying different methods, and placing it at the right time and place while making necessary changes along the way will enhance the effectiveness and the results of the collected data.

Finally, it is important to keep the feedback short and simple while also considering the other departments in defining the right goals for feedback collection. Once the goals are defined, it is easier to trigger the feedback pop-up at the right time of the customer’s journey, so that it will engage users to answer and drive a powerful result that is measurable and actionable.