Creative Ways to Collect Feedback

QR code links to a survey

From QR codes made available on different digital platforms, to printed QR code links on materials ranging from product packaging and signage to posters and company noticeboards.

Given their versality for use digitally or in print, QR code links to a survey are a great way of reaching out to lots of people for feedback.

Quick Response Codes (QR) are 2D barcodes that can be used to distribute a link via the web or print. To read or scan the code users require a smartphone or tablet to take them to your survey.

Monitoring social media

Social media networks also offer a lot of scope for capturing feedback, both proactively and more observationally.

Proactively you can post surveys and polls to your followers and wider audiences to see what feedback you get back. You can also respond to customer comments directly.

Alternatively, you can be more observational, by examining the behaviours of your customers. Discover what they are liking and commenting on, or the types of content that engages them the most.

Using website exit surveys

If you want to capture feedback about the products or services you deliver through your website, or just want to know how easy users find your website to use, a website exit survey can be hugely valuable.

When executed as pop up surveys on websites, exit surveys can be even more powerful. They encourage greater participation from site visitors, by popping up and inviting them to leave feedback whenever they leave a website.

Using digital kiosks

Digital kiosks are also a great way of capturing survey feedback at the point of experience.

From tourist sites and public service establishments, to shops, events and more. When placed in busy locations, digital kiosks are great for examining customer satisfaction with different venue services and facilities.

Alternatively, if you find yourself in areas with poor or no internet connectivity, there are still options for gathering feedback.  Offline surveys are a good example.

It’s a capability we can offer our customers with our survey software. If they know they’re going to be in an area with no internet connectivity, they can simply load an offline survey to a smartphone or tablet. This enables them to capture relevant data in the field and then download responses automatically on re-establishing a connection.

Picking up the phone

Another valuable way of obtaining feedback, is to ask questions directly to people over the phone. This is particularly effective when a large part of your job involves talking to customers over the phone. Whether you’re in a sales or customer service facing role, if you were building a good rapport with a customer, it could provide a perfect opportunity to invite them to participate in a satisfaction survey.

However, to maximise the benefits of using a telephone survey, it’s prudent to use assistive technologies such as CATI (Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing) and online survey tools. The latter is especially important, because when staff are able to input respondent replies directly into their survey software, that feedback can be immediately analysed, reported and acted on.

Using live chat

Closely related to telephone communications is the growing use of live chat among customer service teams.

This medium is a great way for customers to get quick answers to their questions. But it also offers teams the opportunity to send customers a link to a satisfaction survey via live chat. This can be particularly effective if they’re having a constructive chat with an individual and feel there are real benefits to be gained in getting more detailed feedback from them.

Running polls

Live polls are another great way of gathering survey feedback.

Fun and engaging, they’re an ideal tool for quickly identifying consumer priorities and trends, which can change in an instant. And because they tend to focus on a sole subject, they’re quick to analyse and draw conclusions from.

Employing user testing

Surveys can be hugely valuable when you’re trying to capture independent feedback during user testing too. This can include anything from seeking feedback about your website, to your products including existing designs, redesigns and post designs.

Surveys are great for user testing, as they enable you to identify your most valuable users, what they like or don’t like, what they would like to see more of and even ideas about how things could be improved. All this information is great in enabling you to better meet their needs moving forward.

Feedback buttons

Capturing feedback can also be simplified further with the use of feedback buttons.

Think of the many times you may have received a quick survey on your phone, asking you to rate something by selecting an option from a row of smiley face emojis. You may have even seen this played out with physical buttons, such as the outside of airport washrooms to obtain visitor feedback on their cleanliness.

The popularity of their methods continues to grow, given their ability to provide a quick snapshot of people’s satisfaction levels.