Feedback Surveys

Alice_Schofield

Hi all! I'm looking to send out some feedback surveys to the front-line users of our product to then share with the key stakeholders in our annual review so that they can better gauge how their teams are interacting with us.

Has anyone tried this in the past? If so, how did it go? What questions are more likely to get responses?

Thanks in advance!

Brian Aherne

Hi Alice,

We do this regularly. We normally use whatever system the customer uses as simplicity is key.

Try and remove any barriers for them to be be able to answer.

We keep it very short no more than 10 questions.

Multiple choice with an option to add text answers if they wish.

I hope this helps.

PiperWilson

Hello @Alice_Schofield,

Keep in mind that my background is community, not customer success - they're related but not the same.

My first suggestion is to define your goals for the survey before you start writing your questions - no more than three goals, and the fewer, the better.

Second, if you think that strategic changes may happen because of the answers you get, have one of your goals be to pre-qualify members for a follow-up call. No matter how high the response rate on your survey, you will miss depth if you don't have some follow-up calls.

PS - The above advice is not mine. It is a Cliff's Notes version from several sources by Carrie Melissa Jones, an online community consultant and thought leader.

shonafenner

We found success with explicitly stating the number of questions and approx time to complete. Previously, we were both over-ambitious and forgot that responding does take customer effort (especially for quality responses). Three questions has been a good spot for a maximum, but we also do more in-depth user interviews which can drill into insights or additional questions taken from those larger-scale surveys.

Evan Klein

Hi Alice - if I understand you correctly, you would send users a survey to solicit feedback from them on your product, then summarize the feedback by customer and share the summary with key stakeholders at that account so they can see how their users feel, correct? If that's your objective, it makes a lot of sense and it something we've helped a number of clients execute.

Some things to think about:

• It's best to get your key stakeholders' buy-in first. Tell them that this will provide meaningful visibility into how their employees feels about your product and that, armed with this information, you can work jointly to address any concerns and improve. This program should resonate and they can help by strongly encouraging the users at their company to participate.
• If the users have been instructed by a leader in their firm to participate, the survey length will be less of an issue. The users will be asked / required by their own people to share their feedback, so it will be viewed more as an obligation than an optional exercise.
• I recommend working with the key stakeholders at your customers to discuss what insights would be most valuable for them. Then you can craft your survey to accommodate what they would like to know in addition to what would be actionable for you.
• When we've done this exercise with our clients, we've found the key stakeholders usually want to understand from users whether the product makes them more efficient, what does adoption and usage look like, what might lead to higher usage/adoption, whether users feel they have been trained adequately, how would users feel if they lost access to the product, how the product changes/impacts their workflow, their experience with support, and what feature/functionality they'd like to see added.
• This exercise is likely to strengthen your company's relationship with your key stakeholders. They should appreciate your investment in the partnership and your willingness to be transparent. That said, this isn't without risk. If users share a lot of negative feedback, you will have your work cut out for you as the key stakeholders will expect your organization will take the appropriate action to address concerns. Therefore, it's important to recognize the new workstream this may create for your company and that you have the resources and ability to action the feedback shared by your users.
• From a purely tactical standpoint, there are a lot of considerations as to precisely how you'd approach the fielding of the survey and the associated communications. (probably too much to get into here).

I'm happy to chat if you'd like.

Evan

Alice_Schofield

Wow, thank you all! This is really helpful information and I'll absolutely be taking on board all of your advice!

Thanks again 😄