8 Tips to Gaining Valuable Customer Feedback
When e-commerce sites offer visitors the opportunity to provide feedback, two things happen: First, retailers get valuable insight into visitors’ experiences. Second, visitors identify themselves as people who feel a connection to that website/brand. That information provides the means for online retailers to generate new leads and retain current customers.
Think about it: If 65 percent of the visitors who left feedback also left their contact information, providing you additional paths for conversion, the two-way conversation can boost your traffic, average order per visitor and, even better, your brand.
8 Tips for Getting Actionable Feedback
According to Shop.org, the average online conversion rate is 3 percent. That means 97 percent of the visitors who come to your site in search of a product or service are clicking away without establishing any kind of contact or relationship. For marketers, that exit can be painful, particularly if a visitor came to the site via a costly campaign.
What’s needed is an alternative channel that lets visitors initiate dialogs with companies in a manner that feels less formal than typical sales channels. That’s where web-based feedback channels play a crucial role. Feedback systems should include the following attributes to best support lead generation and conversion:
- Offer feedback options on every important process on your site. Let visitors leave feedback throughout your site — e.g., landing pages, shopping cart, search and registration process — to capture user feedback where it matters.
- Categorize feedback easily. Present visitors with a quick-pick menu and submenus for the feedback topic they wish to leave.
- Give visitors easy-to-use ratings systems. Use a simple rating scale as well as an option for written feedback.
- Let visitors steer the conversation. Avoid survey-style questions with multiple-choice answers or voting mechanisms.
- Assign and alert employees and departments regarding feedback. Integrate feedback into current workflows. For example, forward feedback on low-end products to telesales and feedback on high-end products to enterprise-level sales teams.
- Offer a newsletter opt-in. Let visitors choose the option of receiving e-newsletters when they leave feedback.
- Integrate seamlessly with existing CRM systems. Use individual feedback to open new leads or cases.
- Integrate feedback with web analytics programs. Get the complete picture of your company’s initiatives to help it answer complex questions.
A Better Customer Experience Leads to More Sales
The critical factor in whether website investments result in new leads, conversions and customer retention has less to do with technology and more to do with responsiveness. An effective feedback tool lets organizations listen to consumers and demonstrate their eagerness to respond. It's this kind of two-way communication channel that results in better customer service online and better bottom-line results.
Ariel Finkelstein is co-founder and CEO of Kampyle, a feedback management platform provider for online retailers. Ariel can be reached at ariel.finkelstein@kampyle.com.
