But it's difficult to get customers to complete surveys, and it's time-consuming to approach them for research interviews.
So how should you collect feedback?
In this post, we dive into the options for creating a feedback portal that will help you organize customer feedback in one place.
What is a customer feedback portal?
A customer feedback portal is an application, player or website that customers can use to give feedback about the business at any time.
It is very different from a survey, market research session or focus group because c level contact list they all take place during a set time. On the other hand, a feedback portal should be easy for customers to find and use whenever they want.
Whenever you have an idea or feel frustrated about something, you can visit their portal and send a message.
Below is an example of a board where customers can not only submit ideas but also view other customers' ideas and comment on them.
flyer-idea-board-2
Source: Frill.co
What types of businesses need a customer feedback portal?
56% of customers say they stay loyal to brands that “Get Them.” If you aren’t actively collecting feedback, you may not be “getting” your customers as well as you think you are.
SaaS companies , eCommerce businesses , and event hosts can all benefit from using a dedicated portal to proactively collect customer feedback.
Below is an example from the popular accessory brand Fossil.
fossil
If you click on "Comments" on the right side of your website, you will be taken to your comment portal, which will ask you if you would like to share one of the following:
Idea
Room for improvement
Praise
fossil-2
The benefits of having a comment portal are:
A place to store comments
Get feedback regularly (not just when you send out a survey)
Ask customers clarifying questions and interact with them.
Easily and automatically classify incoming comments
While many businesses can and should collect feedback in some way, SaaS companies are best suited to do so with a portal. Why? Their customers are already accustomed to interacting with the brand using software. On the other hand, e-commerce customers are more likely to respond to an email or survey than to submit feedback through a website portal.
However, since creating a portal is free, you can always try it out and see if your clients use it. Below, we'll show you how to create one and how to ask clients to use it.
How to Create Your Own Portal to Collect Customer Feedback
Since 65% of a company's business comes from existing customers, it is very important to know what your customers want.
You can use a website commenting tool to create the portal, or you can customize something with code. Some popular free and affordable portals that don't require custom coding include Frill, Hellonext, and Nolt.
Custom coding is time-consuming and expensive, but it can allow you to set up your portal exactly how you want it. Below is an example of a portal created with Qualtrics on Mailchimp's website. When you click on "Feedback," a sidebar opens with questions.
MailChimp
Your customers shouldn't need to create an account to share an idea.
Here are some options for easily gathering ideas:
Anonymous – Customers can simply submit an idea or comment without having to leave their name or create an account.
Using your platform login – If you run a SaaS or eCommerce business (or another business that has user accounts), you can use single sign-on (SSO). Your customers can submit feedback using their login credentials for your SaaS product or eCommerce website, and they won’t need a separate login.
Make sure you choose feedback software that is set up using the method you want or allows for both options.
Next, it's time to start collecting feedback.
How to inform customers about the portal
Of course, creating and customizing your customer feedback portal is just the beginning. You also need to make sure your customers know about it.
You should use multiple communication channels to announce your new portal and make it easy for customers to access it at any time.
Here are some ideas:
Email Announcement – Send a broadcast email to your email subscribers. You can send to your entire list or segment only to customers who have been on your list for at least two months.
In-App Widget – With many commenting tools, you can use an in-app widget to notify people that they can submit comments as long as they’re logged in. This will be a small tab that people can click on to navigate to your idea board .
On-Site Popup – During the first week that you launch your customer feedback portal, use an on-site popup to inform your website visitors. Set it to only display after someone has been on the website for 90 seconds.
Website Banner Ad – You can place a small, narrow banner at the top of your website so that site visitors see a link to the portal. Keep it on your website for 1-2 weeks.
Email Newsletter Footer – In the footer of your email newsletter, include a link to your portal asking customers to provide feedback on your products.
Blog Post Announcement – Create a blog post announcing your new portal. You can link to it from the methods above and share it on social media.
Social Media Posts – Use your main social media channels to promote your new portal so that more of your audience and customers know they can give you feedback.
How to sort and manage incoming comments
Because you're collecting feedback in one dedicated portal, it'll be much easier to deal with it. If you receive feedback from somewhere else (a comment on social media, for example), you can manually add the idea to your board to have everything in one place.
For each idea that comes up, you'll want to consider whether it's worth pursuing.
You should schedule a weekly or biweekly team meeting with all stakeholders to discuss the feedback your customers have given you.
If you plan to address that suggestion, you should let the client know. If you can fix it in a few days, let them know once it's complete. If it will take weeks or months, discuss the idea they presented and let them know the approximate timeline.
If you do not plan to address an individual comment, you should also let the customer know. Provide a polite and straightforward response explaining why you cannot address it.
If you use a feedback portal that includes a feature for back-and-forth feedback with customers, here are some examples of what you might say if you don't plan to act on that feedback:
Thank you for taking the time to provide us with this feedback. Unfortunately, we don't have enough customers requesting this at the moment, but we will come back to this idea in 6 months.
Thank you for taking the time to provide us with this feedback. Unfortunately, after consideration, we realized that the use case is too small and there are not enough customers who also need this feature, so we will not be able to develop it at this time.
Thank you for taking the time to provide us with this feedback. Unfortunately, we don't have the resources to build this at the moment, but we do have a great solution. Check out this tutorial.
