Types of Customer Feedback to Feature On Your Site
Digital Marketing
Mar 15
When promoting your brand and products, you might think it’s best to only feature positive customer feedback on your website. However, there are actually several ways to feature feedback on your ecommerce site, and some of them include at least some amount of constructive (albeit negative) commentary to help you build social proof. We’ll take a closer look at how to do this strategically while identifying other ways to incorporate customer feedback on your site.
Understanding the Types of Customer Feedback
There are many kinds of customer feedback, some of which you’ll ask for directly and others that will be provided freely. Four of the most common types include the following:
Complaints- These include any complaints made by customers tagging you on social media, writing to you directly via email or mail and those that come in through your chatbot or other automated services.
Feature requests- Customer feature requests include any form of feedback that provides insights as to what customers think your brand or services are lacking. For example, people might love the way a certain pair of pants fit but wish the item featured a more sizable zipper pocket that could easily hold their phone.
Survey results- One way to solicit feedback is by sending customer satisfaction surveys via email or including a pop-up page after a purchase is made on your site. Customers can select from a range of prewritten answers or provide comments in their own words.
Voluntary reviews on public platforms- Many people use other websites to leave their public reviews. Social media sites like TikTok or Facebook are commonly used for reviews, and your company may be tagged. Other possible public review sources include Reddit, Amazon, Google, Yelp, and other websites related to your products or services.
Where to Look for Customer Feedback
There are many ways for you to gather customer feedback, both at your request and not.
Direct feedback is the easiest way to learn what you want to know. Send a post-purchase email asking about their shopping experience, or include ways that customers can contact you on an order confirmation page. Note any patterns or trends your team can use to create a better customer experience going forward.
To gather feature requests, ask customers to explain what you can do better or what they would change about your product. This request could be included on your website with its own feature request form, or you can ask directly in a thread on a company-run forum.
For surveys, reach out within a day or two after purchase while allowing time for customers to respond; a month or so is appropriate. Surveys should include 15 and 20 simple questions at most. Collect survey data in monthly batches for more manageable insights.
For voluntary feedback on external sources, search public forums and social media sites. Track your business’s feedback through tags. For example, if your company is named “CompanyABC,” search for people tagging you with hashtags, like #CompanyABC or @CompanyABC. Record this feedback so you can formulate a response and use it to inform future strategies.
How You Can Harness the Power of Customer Feedback
Once you’ve collected the data, put it to good use to boost your social proof. Here’s how to use the four kinds of customer feedback on your website.
Complaints- Keeping customer complaints on your website adds much-needed social proof to your site. Leaving negative reviews allows site visitors to get a well-rounded look at what they can expect from your products. You’ll appear more trustworthy by not claiming to be a 100% perfect, 5-star business. Go a step further and respond to negative feedback when appropriate. Sometimes people simply need to be connected to customer support to address their complaints, and you can create a better customer experience by facilitating this conversation.
Feature requests- Leave feature requests in your forum or include a snapshot of the results in a blog that covers the updates you’ve made in response to those requests. Essentially, you can use those feature requests to start a conversation about your services and products while simultaneously making improvements.
Survey results- With monthly surveys and consistent question sets, potential customers have an opportunity to see what others say about your company and have a way to compare the data to past survey results. For instance, if you had a survey in January that gave your company three stars for response times and your survey in March gave you five, customers can tell that your company put in the time and effort to improve.
Voluntary reviews on public platforms- Voluntary reviews are a great way to boost the content on your website and to include outbound links, too. Apps and widgets tied to popular ecommerce websites like eBay and Amazon may be able to be linked to your products, letting you grab reviews and embed them where they’re needed most. Include them on product pages to help people with their purchasing decisions.
Customer feedback plays an essential role on your website. It can bolster your reputation and help demonstrate your business’s trustworthiness and focus on the customer. Consider including at least a few kinds of feedback on your site to improve the customer experience and gather valuable data for future marketing initiatives.
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