How do I ask customers for feedback and online reviews?

Customer feedback is crucial to business growth but how can you ask for it in a way that gets the desired results?

To help you create effective surveys, this article will explain all the nitty-gritty details of asking the right questions, which communication channels to use, how to automate your software, and how to organise it all in one convenient location.

Don’t be afraid of feedback

Asking for feedback can be daunting, especially when you’re not sure what customers will say. To overcome this resistance, you need to ensure you have a clear strategy in place and follow these 5 steps: 

1. Use a communication channel that is suitable for your target audience.
2. Only ask for feedback at the critical stages of the customer journey.
3. Reward feedback so that customers are incentivised to contribute.  
4. Thank customers for their input. 
5. Make surveys quick, easy, and convenient. 

Negative feedback isn’t pleasant, but it’s better to hear it from customers directly rather than read it in a public review or simply lose their business altogether. In fact, customer complaints are good for business if you use them to make improvements, meet customers' needs sooner, and demonstrate how valuable they are to the brand. Altogether, this leads to increased customer retention, improved internal processes, and a better understanding of the voice of your customer.   

Methods for gathering customer feedback

We recommend using multiple channels to collect customer feedback because that way, you’ll have a wider range of responses. There is no right or wrong with which channels to choose because it’s different for each brand depending on the customer’s buying habits and preferred communication methods.  

Some common channels include: 

• Phone calls
• Online surveys
• Text surveys 
• In-person interviews
• QR codes

You’ll also need to consider which format the survey will be delivered in. For example, some brands opt for form-based surveys while others prefer popup widgets or in-app surveys. This will depend on the preferences of the people you’re targeting.  

It's best to try all the options until you find the one that works best for you. To start with, try to use the same channel as they’ve used to interact with your business up to that point. An online pop-up survey is a good choice for customers who have interacted mostly online. On the other hand, for someone who you’ve only dealt with in person, a face-to-face interview or paper questionnaire is better suited. 

It’s a good idea to try two or three different methods at the same time. A platform like Review Tui makes it easy by measuring and comparing the success of each source. 

Use survey templates

Another way to make customer feedback easier is to use templates and examples that are already proven to work. Most Customer Feedback Management platforms provide templates you can use including intuitive design and example questions. These templates save you time and energy because all you need to do is alter them to suit your particular requirements. 

Distributing surveys is easy, but creating them can be a significant time-drain. Devising effective questions, choosing the appropriate order, and designing it all in a user-friendly intuitive way is a time-consuming process. However, with templates, it’s all done for you.

Some Customer Feedback Management (CFM) tools even offer templates already set up for campaigns and traceability, meaning you can send surveys out sooner. 

Customer feedback questions

It can be challenging to create customer feedback questions but with these fundamentals, you can’t go wrong: 

• Use open-ended questions to encourage thoughtful responses.
• Keep the survey short with 1-3 questions.
• Implement different answer types like sliding scales, ranking options in order, and text boxes. 
• Use the same scale for all questions, e.g. 1-5.
• Avoid making assumptions; let the customers answer for themselves. 
• Be neutral and objective; don’t ask leading questions.

The key thing to remember is that customers are answering these questions for little or no reward, so you should make it easy for them. The more straightforward your survey, the more likely they are to give a response. 

Automated tools

A revolutionary step forward in customer feedback management was the introduction of automation. Responding to feedback, assigning workflows, and analysing responses is a huge drain on your employee's time, but with automation, it can all be done behind the scenes by your CFM tools. 

Every time a customer gives feedback, your CFM platform can trigger an automatic reply, notify employees to complete the relevant next step, and add the data to your existing database. This way, your team can focus on completing work faster, while customer feedback is consistently monitored behind the scenes.  

Some brands avoid using automation for customer communication because it can come across as impersonal. This is something to be careful about but with a platform that can integrate with your CRM, you can easily input personal details into messages and notify a team member to contact the customer for an in-person conversation too. Customers will appreciate the immediate confirmation and are more likely to contribute again because they know their input is acknowledged. 

Customer Feedback Management Software

Instead of trawling through endless emails or using complicated spreadsheets, a Customer Feedback Management platform makes it easy to organise everything onto one cohesive, integrated dashboard. Not only that, but it also makes sure that no customer is left behind. The software will ensure every piece of feedback is responded to, acted on, and assessed to close the customer feedback loop. 

A good customer feedback platform will give you seamless access to everything mentioned above, including survey templates, example questions, automation, compatibility with your CRM, and integration with multiple communication options. With Review Tui, you can combine all of these features to create an effortless customer feedback strategy and leverage customer feedback for growth.   

To see some real-world examples of brands asking for customer feedback, check out the conversion rates of two of our valued customers. 

Or sign up for updates and download our guide to implementing a customer feedback strategy. We'll show you how to make the most of customer feedback and transform your business.