Getting feedback from customers via your web site17 May 2005
There are many ways in which you can use your web site to encourage your customers to communicate and interact with you.
How to encourage general feedback
- Make it easy for web site visitors or customers to find your contact details - don't bury them deep on your site, but instead make sure they are available in the same place on every page, such as at the bottom.
- Make it easy for people to contact you - for example, hyperlink your email address so users don't have to type it out themselves. You could also consider having a feedback form on your site to simplify the process (most web editing programs have a built-in template for a basic form).
- Create an online community via a discussion forum or a message board - or even an old-fashioned "guestbook" where customers can leave messages. A discussion board can be a useful source of opinions and feedback, and can also act as a customer support mechanism. See Developer Shed's tips for starting and maintaining a successful online forum
- Include a blog on your site. This will encourage visitors to return often, as blogs tend to be updated regularly. You can include information about your product or service, in addition to relevant news, in your blog to engage visitors in discussion.
Finding out specific information
If you are seeking detailed information from your customers or web site visitors about a particular topic, you could consider using a questionnaire or survey, or offering them the chance to win a prize by completing a puzzle or quiz. This could be emailed to your users (if they have agreed to receive marketing materials from you) or could be placed on your web site.
- Offer your customers an incentive to complete the survey - give them a prize, a discount on a future purchase, or something for free if they reply.
- Keep your questions short, snappy and targeted, ideally with yes/no/don't know answers. Try and make them as unambiguous as possible.
- An online survey with boxes to tick is much easier for people to fill in than asking them to write in sentences. See Creative Research Solutions' tips for designing surveys.
- Keep the survey short so that people don't lose interest - a maximum of 10 or 12 questions is ideal.
- Allowing anonymous feedback may make customers more likely to give you an honest opinion of your products and services.
Once you have feedback from your customers, you may be able to use some of their comments as testimonials, which can be a valuable marketing tool.
- Make sure you get permission from your customers to use their comments on your web site - ask if you can use their name, the town they come from or, if they are a business, the name of the firm. Details like this help ensure that any quotes you use don't look fake.
- Don't just have a dedicated testimonials page on your web site - put relevant comments next to particular products or services. Highlight the comments so they stand out - use italics, or a different colour of text.
