Why Feedback & Survey Data is so Valuable

@timlb#superweek2014

Optimisation insight =

Let your visitors tell you what to fix

Why feedback surveys are so good

How to do it

• How to ask

• What to ask

• How to work with the data

What kind of insights you’ll get

Why feedback surveys are so good

Very fastNo need to wait for data to reach scale

Very direct insightsPeople tell you their intention and expectations

People tell you exactly what caused their problem (or what specifically what they liked)

Words are from real visitorsValuable understanding of visitor language and terminology

Everywhere

(before conversion)

For

• Widest range of insight

• Open to non-converters

Against

• Pop-up invitations can harm conversion

• Visitor-initiated systems have lower response rate

• Probably skew towards complaints

How to work with feedback surveys

Where and how to ask

How to work with feedback surveys

Where and how to ask

After conversion

For

• No risk to conversion

• Simple embedded form

• Can ask more questions

• Less skewed to complaints = learn what people like

• Surprise: will include comments about previous non-conversion visits

Against

• Skewed towards converters

How to work with feedback surveys

Where and how to ask

Response ratesActive invitation 2% - 5%

Visitor-initiated 0.1%[source iPerceptions]

Embedded post-conversion

15% - 35% start survey

5% - 10% include text comment

How to work with feedback surveys

What to ask

Pre-conversionAvinash’s questionsWhat is the purpose of your visit to our

website today?Were you able to complete your task today?If you were not able to complete your task

today, why not?http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/4q-the-best-

online-survey-for-a-website-yours-free/

And, maybe“Any other comments?”

Email address if a reply is needed

How to work with feedback surveys

What to ask

After conversion

Net Promoter Question

Were you able to do everything you wanted to do today?

Any other comments?

(If you’re not storing email address with survey: email address if a reply is needed)

Net Promoter or NPS®Net Promoter, Net Promoter Score, and NPS are trademarks of

Satmetrix Systems, Inc., Bain & Company, Inc., and Fred Reichheld

“How likely is it that you would recommend this site to a friend or colleague?”

Scale 0-10 where 0 is “very unlikely” and 10 is “very likely”

0-6 are ‘detractors’

7-8 are ‘passives’

9-10 are ‘promoters’

Score = % of ‘promoters’ - % of detractors

How to work with feedback surveys

Storing other data

• Browser details

• Email in case reply is needed

• Visitor id or order number(to use as key)

Warning:Think about privacy issues before storing

extra hidden information

How to work with feedback surveys

Integrating with GA

• Many systems have features for sending data to GAo Custom variableso Custom dimensionso Events (Values in standard reports)

• Warning: never send Personally Identifiable Information to GA

• Can be very useful for segmentation

• Likely to be even more valuable with latest ‘user’ segments

Could even store an anonymous survey-id for session-level analysis...

How to work with feedback surveys

Systems (just some of them)

Pre-conversionUsual suspects:

4Q - www.iperceptions.com/en/plans-and-pricing/free

qualaroo.com

www.kampyle.com

Some others:

fluidsurveys.com

webengage.com

Enterprise level

www.iperceptions.com

www.servicetick.com

Post-conversionUsual suspects:

www.surveygizmo.com

www.surveymonkey.com

Some others:

fluidsurveys.com

webengage.com

General form builders:

http://www.wufoo.com

http://www.formstack.com

Enterprise level

www.iperceptions.com

www.servicetick.com

How to work with feedback surveys

Process

Must be systematic business process

No good just browsing through data

Report on trends

Slice & dice with segments

Often best to work outside survey system reports

• Enforces business process

• Probably needed for NPS score

• Vital with free text comments

How to work with feedback surveys

The Key Process: free text comments

No good just browsing through data!

• ‘Tag’ according to theme

• Ideally tagging done by one person

• ‘Tagger’ writes a regular report

• Report on trends

• Include ‘verbatim’ sample comments for each point in report

No process = no insights

How to work with feedback surveys

Key Process: check with GA

Prioritise using GA data (if possible)

Quantify how many visits might have been exposed to the issue

Example

• Problem with checkout login page = lots

• Problem with email account ‘html or text’ option page = few

What kind of insights you’ll get

Top level - instant information• Problems

Often include visitor’s suggestions for fix!

• Understanding of visitor intent and expectationsInformation Architecture and Usability

• Understanding of visitor product languageInformation Architecture is often based on industry terminology

What kind of insights you’ll get

Deeper insights - develop over time

• Deeper Understanding visitor language & expectationsMatt Lacey from PRWD in an Econsultancy blog on a/b testing:“In one example we saw a lift of 4% in sales across the site for a large European retailer, simply by changing the messages in the USP bar. The key to this test was that the messages that won had come directly from the mouths of customers, from user research prior to developing the hypotheses for the test.” http://bit.ly/Superweek2014USB

• Product SuggestionsPeople will ask for new products they expected you to stock

• Competitor IntelligencePeople will compare you to your rivals

What kind of insights you’ll get

Unexpected bonus = praise!

What real people see as your main benefitsUse these ideas in your marketing on and off-site

Sanity check on what not to change on siteMorale-booster at busy times - share positive comments with colleagues

Summary

Feedback and survey systems are

• Quick

• DirectGreat source of specific insight for optimisation & marketing

• Cheap

And they don’t stop producing ideas

Resources

• Bundle of all my Superweek2014 Links:http://bitly.com/Superweek2014TLB

• Avinash’s original post with ‘THE” questions:http://bit.ly/Superweek2014Avinash

• Great post about Customer Experience & Conversion Optimisation from Conversion XL: http://bit.ly/Superweek2014UX

• Short article: “Is Anecdotal Evidence Worthless?” from Christopher Penn:http://bit.ly/Superweek2014Anecdotal

• Interesting point about how using visitor’s own language increased conversion by 4%http://bit.ly/Superweek2014USB

• My blog post about feedback surveys (with links to more resources):http://bit.ly/Superweek2014Surveys