The developers confirmed your website’s mobile responsiveness, speed, and functionality. You’ve diligently published optimized content and consistently posted on social media.
You checked and tested the quality of your products and offered multiple payment options. Your team set up an extensive warehousing and logistics system.
- Why isn’t your website attracting traffic?
- Why isn’t it generating leads?
- How come hardly anyone buys from your e-commerce portal?
- Why is the cart abandonment rate high?
- Why is the engagement level on your content low?
Analytics is the first place to look for clues. It summarizes your website’s performance numbers and gives you insights into user demographics and behaviors.
However, analytics might not provide clues in areas that require more human insights, such as product mix, cart abandonment, and engagement level.
You’ll have to reach out to your website users and solicit their feedback.
What Is Website Feedback And Why Is It Important?
Website feedback refers to input received from users regarding their experiences on your website.
In your hotel room, you will find a feedback card on the dresser. After you finish your meal at a restaurant, the waiter may ask you to complete a survey.
After your car service, expect a follow-up call the next day. They will inquire about your experience and check if you’re still facing any issues with your vehicle.
Feedback helps the company understand its performance and identify areas for improvement.
Combining website feedback with analytics provides a clearer understanding of its performance. You gain insights from users’ perspectives that help validate your assessment of website analytics.
How Website Feedback Adds Depth And Substance To Your Analytics
Google Analytics helps you track down the user’s journey through your sales funnel.
You’ll know which products they placed in their shopping carts, the length of time they spent on a page, the most popular types of content, and the percentage of users who abandoned their shopping carts.
But you don’t know why the other products aren’t moving, why aren’t more users buying, and why carts are abandoned.
Website analytics shows you the “What,” the “How,” and the “When,” but not the “Why.”
Website feedback will.
The table below shows the relationship between analytics and feedback:
|
Website Analytics: “The What” |
Website Feedback: “The Why” |
|
The fastest-moving products. |
Why aren’t products moving fast enough? |
|
The length of time spent on a page. |
Why are users leaving immediately? |
|
The most popular types of content. |
Why is the engagement level low? |
|
The number of unique visitors monthly. |
Why isn’t the website generating traffic consistently? |
|
The percentage of users who abandon the journey from purchasing to shipping to payment. |
Why are users abandoning their carts at the checkout counter? |
Website feedback allows you to do a deep dive into the reasons behind the numbers. It initiates a starting point for the investigation and the questions you want answered by your users.
You might get the following responses from your website users:
- Users aren’t buying your products because the product descriptions lack information, the images aren’t high-quality, and the prices are high.
- Users aren’t convinced your products are of high quality because there aren’t customer testimonials or positive reviews on the website.
- Users find your content long, winding, wordy, and packed with technical jargon. If that’s how you write, they won’t find value in signing up for your newsletter.
- Users feel your Calls-to-Action are weak and not compelling enough.
- Users view your pages as confusing and hard to navigate.
- Users are disappointed because you don’t have a Cash-on-Delivery (COD) option in your e-portal. Thus, they abandon their cart at the checkout counter.
Don’t view customer responses as an “Oh, no!” 😬 moment. Flip the script, and regard them as an “Aha!” 😉 moment. Now you have detailed information directly from the users on why your website isn’t delivering the desired results.
Remember, you might be the expert in your business, but the website isn’t for you. It’s for your customers. You’re selling to them. Their feedback matters. They might not return to your website if the experience isn’t memorable.
7 Ways To Get Website Feedback
Surveys, interviews, and distributing questionnaire forms are effective ways of getting customer feedback.
The great thing about soliciting website feedback is that you don’t have to do leg work. You can have the survey forms and questionnaires available on the website.
Likewise, you can use popular digital marketing channels such as social media and email to distribute the surveys and get feedback from your customers.
In this section, we’ll discuss six ways you can get website feedback from your customers and site users.
1. Pop-Up Surveys
You could be scrolling down a web page and when you reach a particular section, a survey appears in a pop-up window. The pop-up might also appear when you’re about to click out of the page.
Use pop-up surveys sparingly because users can find them annoying. If you intend to add a pop-up survey, we suggest having it appear when the user is about to leave your page. This way, the user won’t be distracted from reading your content.
Keep the pop-up’s design simple and limit the number of survey questions. A good example is the pop-up that appears after you complete a call on Viber.
The pop-up would ask you to rate the call by clicking on options that range from one star (Poor) to five stars (Excellent).
2. On-Page Surveys
On-page surveys are similar to pop-up surveys. The difference is that the survey is visible and can be accessed on the web page. Thus, it’s up to the user if he wants to answer your survey.
Like a pop-up, keep the design of the on-page survey simple, easy to use and understand.
This is a survey, not a mid-term exam! You can follow the same format as a pop-up survey.
Add a bit of entertainment. Instead of a star-rating system, use emojis ranging from crying 😭 to happy 😀.
3. Feedback Widget
You might have seen a red colored button or graphic tucked away on the left side of a web page with the word “Feedback.”
That’s a Feedback Widget.
When you click on it, a questionnaire or a survey will appear. Usually, the feedback widget will ask about your website experience.
A widget can be more extensive than a pop-up survey because users who click on it have intent. They want to tell you something important or share an experience that bothered them.
For example, a user filled out his customer information, but whenever he clicked “submit,” the fields would zero out again. This is one reason why your cart abandonment rate is high.
In addition to multiple-choice, you can add a section where the user can type in comments.
4. Dedicated Feedback Page
To get more input from your user, you can create a dedicated feedback page that’s accessible as a contact form on the Customer Support page or as a CTA button.
You can have a contact form with three to five pages.
- Page 1: Introduction to the survey.
- Page 2: User information (name, age, gender, occupation, address…).
- Page 3: Rate overall user experience (Use the star or emoji-rating system).
- Page 4: User suggestions and comments.
- Page 5: Thank you note.
To encourage users, offer something of value.
For example, offer discounts, a free e-book, a free trial, or limited access to select services.
5. Social Media Feedback Survey
Social media isn’t just for posting food shots and workout videos. For businesses, the “social” part of social media enables you to reach out and communicate with your followers.
There are various ways to get website feedback from your social media pages.
- Share your URL, invite your followers to visit the website, and encourage them to post their comments.
- Publish a post that leads them to a specific page on your website and ask them to comment.
- Post a link to a Google Docs survey on your social media page. Ask your followers to spend a few seconds to answer the survey. Incentivizing followers with freebies or discounts would get them going!
- Identify the followers who engage with your page the most. Send them a private message with a link to a survey form. Include an incentive for completing the survey.
- Just ask. For your daily status update, ask your followers for their opinions on your website.
Something like…
“Guys, if you’ve been to our website, please comment below on what we need to do to ensure a better user experience. Your opinions matter to us! Thank you! 🙂”
Then, post a link to your website in the comments section.
💡Note: When you invite the community to post their opinions, you risk exposing your website to negative comments.
And that’s okay! You can’t please everyone.
Stay professional and respectfully engage the commenter. Express your appreciation for the comment and give an assurance you will look into it.
Negative comments are feedback and present opportunities to build trust with your website users.
6. Email Feedback Survey
If your website has generated an impressive leads list, email a feedback survey to your subscribers.
Email is an effective distribution channel for surveys because the user has opted-in to your newsletter service. Your survey will land in the inbox, not the spam folder.
There are two types of email feedback survey formats you can use.
- Embedded or Inline Survey: The survey is embedded in the email and can be answered directly by its recipient.
- Email Redirect Survey: The email includes a link. When the recipient clicks the link, he’ll land on the survey web page.
Here are a few tips on how to create a compelling email survey:
- Keep the subject line short but concise.
- The opening line should state the objectives of the survey.
- Mention the time it takes to complete the survey.
- Use an email survey tool such as Mailchimp. Email survey tools can automate distribution and collect data about your surveys.
- Offer incentives to the recipients like product discounts, free e-books, or limited-time-only access to premium services to encourage them to participate.
Lastly, always express your appreciation to the recipient for taking the time to answer the survey.
7. Active Product Reviews and Ratings
Search the Internet for reviews on your website, products, and services. Type the name of your website or a specific product and add “reviews.”
For example, “mountaintop web design reviews.”
Google will retrieve all web pages with reviews on your website or products. You might not get reviews about your website specifically, but the feedback on your products and services.
How consumers view your products and services can be used as a basis for assessing their views about your business.
You might come across reviews such as:
- “Delivery was slow.”
- “The package arrived in damaged condition.”
- “The product didn’t look like the item on the website.”
- “It wasn’t the item I ordered. The chatbot on the website is an AI. It only gave default answers and I couldn’t give details.”
- “The cart abandonment email was too much of a hard sell.”
You can use the information to improve the performance of your website or add new features.
For example, to improve delivery, you can include an order tracking feature that can be accessed by mobile phones. You can outsource after-office hours customer support service to a remote team to improve engagement and turnaround time.
Conclusion
The main drawback of asking users for website feedback is that their responses may not always be honest.
- A pop-up survey could annoy the user who might get back at you with an unfavorable and insincere response.
- Some users might respond only to avail of the freebies and discounts.
- Your survey might reach competitors who’ll respond with misleading or disingenuous answers.
When analyzing survey responses, check for inconsistencies in the answers. Categorize the responses according to type. Prioritize the most commonly addressed issue.
Send a follow-up email to your subscribers thanking them for their responses and informing them you’ve addressed their issues. You can also post an update on social media. Remember to include a link back to your website.
If you want a website that will get positive feedback, contact us. Let’s get started!
