Micro Feedback is the New Face of Customer Surveys

Anybody who has ever worked for a product or service knows how crucial customer feedback is. They also know how difficult it is. Usually, customers are reluctant to fill out lengthy feedback forms. So, because of this, businesses end up with limited responses. This leads to trouble while decision making.

That’s why increasing the number of responses to customer surveys is necessary. The main issue people have with feedback forms is that they are time-consuming. So, if consumers get a couple of questions only, they might answer them.

People lead busy lifestyles today. As a business, we need to find a way to make it easy for them to help us. We need quick and simple ways to ask for their reviews. That’s where micro feedback comes in.

Let’s find out how micro-feedback fits into the current situation and why it may be the best way to get customer feedback.

Feedback

Micro feedback is the method of collecting small pieces of information at specific points in the customer journey. The main aim of this type of feedback is

• Keep the question set to a minimum
• Ask the customers about a specific point of experience as soon as they have experienced it.

Micro feedbacks are a form of customer surveys to collect experiences based on something the consumer did right now. For any organization, customer loyalty, engagement, and experience are crucial. Micro feedback can boost all three. Furthermore, companies can quickly revert back to their customers with a response.is

It is tough to get consumers’ opinions, but essential for product growth. So, we can keep these processes short and interesting for the customers. Businesses can ask for feedback in small bursts so that customers don’t feel burdened. It also makes answering customer surveys less of a burden.

Businesses get actionable and insightful feedback for a specific point. This makes making changes easier and quicker.

What is the Need for Micro Feedback in Customer Surveys?

The traditional feedback ways dont quite fit in the current world. People choose to refrain from providing feedback if they are lengthy. They also abandon customer surveys if they find difficult questions.

Lack of Genuine Data through customer surveys

• Furthermore, traditional feedback is asked via email or other channels days after the interaction. So, it asks the following questions. Can we trust that data? Will people remember their interaction with an online site after a week? If they don’t remember the experience, can they provide honest reviews? For all questions, the answer is probably not.
• Suppose a company asks for feedback after a user completes their journey. So now, the feedback is for the entire experience and not a specific point. Now, there are two ways it can hurt the business.
• There may be areas for improvement, but the overall experience was good. So, now customers will convey that the overall experience is positive. But, the areas of concern will go unnoticed.
• Another way to look at it is there are some positives. Yet, the overall experience was unsatisfactory. So, the customers give a negative review.
• So, the company does not exactly understand which exact point was good or bad.

This is where the regular feedbacks fall short. Micro feedback provides real-time data. Data that is about actual actionable areas. One customer journey is made of small pieces connected together. So, micro feedback gives insights into the individual small pieces. It collectively improves the quality of the product or service.

Benefits of Micro Feedback in Customer Surveys

As the world keeps changing, businesses need to change along with them. Micro feedback is becoming the new way to collect feedback . But why?

Customer surveys dont feel like customer surveys

Businesses can use micro-feedback regularly because it is so simple. The fact that a customer is responding to a survey question would go completely unnoticed. Yet, you will receive priceless leads and insights to help you grow your company.

Micro feedback is gathered at the time of the encounter. Thus, there is no need for the consumers to concentrate or recall anything too. Their responses will be an accurate reflection of their true beliefs. All of this will happen without the customers feeling like they are giving feedback.

For example, consider you have completed a purchase online. The business asks you whether the billing process was simple. You can simply select yes or no. Now, you will not have to spend a lot of time answering multiple questions. Moreover, you will also not have to recall anything because it just happened. So you will not feel like you are answering a survey. But the business will benefit from it.

Get more reviews

What would you, as a customer, prefer? Would you rather answer a long survey a week or month later? Or would you answer a couple of questions at the most while you’re completing the interaction? For many, the answer will be the latter.

That means companies will get more responses. More responses mean more data. And more data means accurate decisions.

Trustworthy data

The method is quick and easy. Hence, the responses will be more in number. Also, the quality of the responses is also better. In micro feedback, the feedback is asked in context. It is also about a very recent customer experience. So, the customers are going to remember it vividly. Therefore, their opinion becomes much more value-rich.

If companies want to improve customer satisfaction and brand loyalty, micro-feedback is the way to go. It will give them a genuine idea about what the consumers think. This can help them make relevant changes.

Actionable Business Insights

It is much simpler to analyze and produce useful business insights when you receive high-quality data. Businesses won’t have to wait weeks or months to learn about their customers’ experiences because all the data is current. They can evaluate the remarks whenever they like.

Traditional surveys usually ask about the entire experience. They cover many aspects. So, working on these many aspects at once is impractical. Moreover, the turnaround time to understand whether they got it right is too long.

So, traditional surveys may provide good insights. But it becomes a bit impractical to incorporate it into the business. However, micro feedback solves that issue.

Shortcomings of Micro Feedback in Customer Surveys

Everything has a downside, even micro feedback. Yes, there are many benefits of micro feedback. Yet, there are some limitations too.

Quantitative answers dont give the actual reason

Suppose you ask your customers to rate the customer service out of 5. They answer something from 0 to 2. So, that expresses their discontent. But the question remains why? How will you understand exactly what ticked them off? That is where only having one simple question may fail.

But there are ways to overcome this challenge. Businesses can ask a mixture of quantitative and qualitative questions. They can ask two questions. One asks whether the experience was satisfactory or not. Let’s suppose they say it was unsatisfactory.

So, now the second question can be the list of things that were unsatisfactory. Now, it would be more beneficial if the second question also provided for them to write their remarks.

This way, you can benefit from both qualitative and quantitative feedback styles. And yet, the feedback will be about a particular instant in real-time. Micro feedback doesn’t necessarily have to be simply about quantitative answers. The entire point is to keep it simple and quick.

It can interrupt the thinking process

Suppose the customer is browsing for some clothes in an e-commerce store. While they are thinking about whether to buy something or not, a question pops up. Now, their thought cycle is interrupted. It annoys them, and they decide against buying it. The micro feedback system is supposed to increase company profit. But instead, it will end up costing. Similarly, if there are similar questions throughout the journey, they might abandon it.

It is essential to limit the number of times companies ask for micro feedback in a journey. It is important to plan where and what to ask. Businesses can prioritize a couple of segments and ask for feedback for them. Once they have worked on these points, they can change the strategy again.

How to Incorporate Micro Feedback?

There are many website feedback tools that can help businesses integrate micro feedback within their website. Here are some ways in which companies can decide how they can incorporate micro feedback with their services and products on the website.

Ask at the right time.

Once you identify what to ask, it is necessary to figure out when to ask. Now micro feedback is about real-time data. However, that doesn’t mean you can instantaneously ask for reviews everywhere.

For example, in an e-commerce store, asking customers to review the billing process or experience right after makes sense. But consider a different scenario. Suppose a customer has ordered food. Now asking them whether they are satisfied with the quality right after they receive the food is not helpful. How will they tell you whether they like it if they haven’t even tasted it yet? So, asking for feedback an hour later or so makes sense here.

Therefore, finding out the perfect time is quite necessary.

Keep it as short and quick as possible

The essence of micro feedback is to keep it short. Therefore, businesses need to keep both questions and answers short. Asking simple yes/no questions or ratings can quickly complete the process.

Also, asking easy-to-understand questions is also necessary. Because if the questions are tough to understand, the process will take longer. And even if it is a yes/no question will take time.

Find the best method of delivery for customer surveys

You are not required to send your survey via email. In fact, it would be good to pursue other channels as well. Why? We all receive too many emails, and it’s likely that they may go unnoticed or in the spam folder.

A one- or two-question survey that follows a customer care contact, which is often much better than a follow-up email. Now you can pursue other channels like text messages and WhatsApp too. Try and find out the one that best suits your customers.

How to Ask Questions for Micro Feedback?

For micro feedback, the questions are essential. The answers will not amount to much if the questions are wrong. Therefore, the effectiveness of customer surveys depends on the questions.

So, let’s see how we can frame better questions.

Set goals and prioritize

Always be sure to determine the precise parameters of the measurement. Next, pose a thoughtful yet straightforward question that is easy to respond to. Depending on the first response, you may add an optional follow-up question. However, this should be done in a very direct manner, such as by offering the customers a few choices for the “WHY” behind their answers.

Having clarity on why to ask questions before asking feedback is necessary. Moreover, setting 10 different goals is counterproductive. We do not want to annoy our consumers by bombarding questions. So, we need to set down our goals and then select up to two to work on.

Make it fun

More people will be interested in replying when the question is straightforward and entertaining. Making it interesting or conversational will make the process more humane. Businesses can ask questions as normally as people ask each other’s opinions.

This will keep the customers engaged, and they won’t feel like they are filling out customer surveys. Adding emoticons or even ABC choice questions can make it interesting.

Double-check the questions

Sometimes, while looking after the bigger things, we may forget things like spelling errors. However, grammatical or spelling mistakes can irk the customers. Especially while using micro feedback.

Consumers might wonder whether the company would take the survey seriously if they didnt proofread a couple of questions. Also, sometimes there is a gap between the question and the answers. So, businesses need to ensure that they have avoided such mistakes.

It may not be noticeable when you get it right. But customers will surely notice if you get it wrong.

In conclusion, long surveys are not the best fit for everyone in the current scenario. Using a micro feedback system makes it easier for customers and businesses alike.

Feedspace is one of the best tools for product managers to collect and analyze feedback. Businesses can integrate feedback at any point in the customer journey easily. It also has an easy onboarding process to make the process of feedback management hassle-free.