How to Ask for Feedback From Customers

Customer feedback is the information and opinions your clients share about their experience with a product, service, or brand. It is one of the most powerful assets for businesses, no matter the size or industry. 

This data provides valuable insights into how satisfied your customers are, helps identify areas for improvement, and naturally strengthens customer relationships. But despite their importance, the truth is that gathering feedback isn’t always easy.

In the following sections, we show you how to ask for feedback from customers, focusing on some of the most effective ways.

Why Customer Feedback Matters

For new market entrants, feedback from your target audience helps uncover popular customer problems in your niche and reveals a lot about your market. This makes it a key part of your market research, equipping you with valuable, actionable data. 

As a result, you can make informed decisions and enter the niche with confidence and a product or service that truly solves problems and delivers value.

For established companies, collecting customer feedback is a fantastic way to understand more about the customer journey and the overall customer experience with your brand. Analysing feedback helps you generate ideas for product improvements or new launches. This not only increases customer satisfaction but also attracts new buyers.

But there’s another side to customer feedback that can directly impact brand reputation and trustworthiness. Making your customer feedback publicly visible in the form of reviews can strongly influence how your target audience perceives you. 

Naturally, users are more likely to purchase from businesses with positive reviews. 

Benefits of Customer Feedback

Companies can gain several clear benefits by collecting customer feedback:

• Ideates improvements to products and services –  understanding what others have to say about your products or services allows you to refine offerings based on real user needs.
  
• Enhances customer satisfaction – asking for feedback demonstrates commitment to listening and improving.
  
• Drives customer loyalty – engaging with feedback ultimately fosters trust and loyalty, positioning you as a reliable and trustworthy brand on the market.
  
• Supports decision-making – feedback provides all the information you need for informed business strategies.

However, the goal of gaining these benefits shouldn’t be the only reason to collect customer feedback. In today’s environment, information is a powerful asset. Failing to understand your customers can seriously harm your business.

Without feedback, businesses don’t have access to data for addressing issues. As a result, risks of losing customers increase and missed opportunities are a guarantee. 

6 Proven Methods to Ask for Customer Feedback

One important point about customer feedback is that most consumers aren’t naturally motivated to leave it. It takes extra time and often offers no clear benefit in return.

Another key aspect to consider is that not all customers respond to feedback requests the same way. This makes it crucial to diversify your approach and test different methods to gather customer feedback.

Below are a few working approaches you can try.

1. Surveys

One of the most popular ways to collect feedback is via customer surveys. 

We’ve all been asked to take a few moments to complete a brief survey at one point or another. 

When it comes to surveys, there are a few options to test:

• Online surveys –  these can be shorter or longer surveys that you send out to your customer base via online tools like Google Forms, Typeform, or SurveyMonkey.
  
• Net Promoter Score (NPS) – an NPS survey asks customers to rate their likelihood of recommending your business on a numbered scale. Via this survey, you can classify your customers into three categories – detractors (unhappy customers), passives (shoppers who like but don’t love your company), and promoters (customers who love your brand and would recommend it.
  
• Popup surveys – these are usually in the form of brief questions that appear on websites during or after customer interactions.

When working with surveys, it’s essential that you show them to the right audience and ask the right questions. Another key factor is timing. To get the most out of your survey, it’s highly recommended that your target user behaviour and actions. 

In addition, make sure that you’re not showing the same survey to the same user once they switch from one page to another. 

2. Feedback Forms

Another way to gather feedback is through forms on your website or by sending them to selected customers via email.

Some of the areas where you can incorporate feedback forms include:

• Help centre article feedback – if you have knowledge base articles on your website, you can add a message at the end asking whether the provided information was helpful. The only thing the user has to do is select “yes” or “no”, making the process extremely quick and simple. At the same time, you have valuable information on whether your help articles need improvement or serve their purpose well.
  
• Cart abandonment – when a shopper abandons their cart, it signals a potential problem in the purchase journey. To identify the reasons behind this decision, use a selected tool to trigger exit surveys or feedback prompts at the moment of abandonment. If you could ask just one question, a highly effective choice would be  “What could have persuaded you to complete your purchase today?”
  
• Live chat – you can also ask for feedback immediately after helping a customer via live chat. This timing is ideal since the interaction is still fresh in the user’s mind. 

When asking for feedback via feedback forms, it’s advisable to offer open-ended responses and always ask specific questions, especially when you’re trying to collect data on recent purchases. 

3. Email Requests

Another channel that you can use to encourage consumers to provide feedback is email. 

Send personalised emails asking for feedback after key interactions, like purchases or support tickets. 

To get maximum results, implement the following:

• Use engaging subject lines like, “We’d love to hear your thoughts!”.
• Personalise the email by including the user’s name.
• Keep it short and simple.
• Don’t forget to include a call to action.

In most cases, email requests perform well because they can be more personal than other feedback collection methods. 

4. Social Media Channels

Today, social media presence is fundamental for businesses for many reasons, including collecting feedback. 

You can take advantage of the social channels where your target audience and customers spend the most time and encourage them to leave feedback about their experience with your products or services. 

Ideally, use polls and question boxes on stories for platforms like Instagram and Facebook. Track how well your audience reacts and engages, and monitor comments and direct messages. 

Alternatively, rely on user-generated content to receive honest opinions about your offering. 

5. In-Person Requests

While in-person requests may not work for every type of business, they’re incredibly powerful due to the face-to-face communication.

If you run a brick-and-mortar business, you can ask customers for feedback during checkout or after services are rendered. 

Although you can gather verbal feedback, it’s highly recommended to rely on physical or online forms to have the option to review and analyse responses later. Use tablets or printed forms for quick and easy submission.

In-person requests are especially successful if the employee or manager requesting the feedback is polite, friendly, and manages to connect with the consumer. 

6. Online Reviews

Last but not least, explore platforms like Google, Yelp, and Trustpilot for online reviews. The good thing about this method is that the reviews you collect will be publicly visible, helping you build your brand reputation.

At the same time, for companies testing new strategies or products, this may be a risky endeavour as you’re likely to receive negative comments, exposing gaps and areas for improvement. Although this will be valuable information for your business for internal changes, it can send the wrong signals to your audience. 

If you do pursue online reviews, simplify the process as much as possible by providing direct links or QR codes.

How To Create Effective Feedback Requests

To get the best response from feedback requests, you need clear, strategic messaging that appeals to your audience.

There are a few practical tips that will help you improve your feedback requests:

• Always be clear and specific – be honest with your customers and explain why you need their help, why their feedback is valuable, and how it will be used.
  
• Make it convenient – show your audience that you appreciate their time by keeping surveys short and easy to complete.
  
• Use timing strategically – send requests shortly after a purchase or interaction, and don’t let too much time pass by before you remember that your customers matter. For example, integrate feedback prompts into your tap to pay process to capture real-time insights on the checkout experience.
  
• Personalisation is key – if possible, address customers by name and reference their specific interactions. This shows that you appreciate your shoppers as human beings rather than simply money-generators for your business.

Also, be strategic about the type of questions that you ask. Having the right customer feedback questions on your forms, surveys, or emails can determine the success of your data collection process. 

Concentrate on curating open-ended questions, like “What did you like most about your experience with us?” or “How can we improve our product/service?”. 

Where applicable, you can also use rating questions, like “On a scale of 1-10, how satisfied were you with your recent purchase?” or “Rate the ease of using our website on a scale of 1-5.”.

For NPS surveys, ask something along the lines of “How likely are you to recommend us to a friend or colleague?”. 

Tips For Increasing Your Feedback Response Rates 

The more responses you receive, the better. So what can you do to encourage your customers to participate?

For starters, highlight the importance of feedback. Emphasise that your shoppers’ input directly impacts your business’s ability to make improvements and offer better products, services, customer service, or others.

In addition, use multiple channels to increase the likelihood of more users responding. Offer feedback options through email, social media, and in-store and don’t put all of your eggs in one basket.

Also, always follow up and send reminders to those who haven’t responded yet. 

Be prepared to receive different types of feedback and address customer concerns. Needless to say, it’s vital that you act on the collected feedback, especially on negative comments that can be used to make dramatic improvements to your business.

Conclusion

Customer feedback is the driving force behind successful companies. It can expose unexpected areas for improvement, opening the doors to new ideas and new opportunities. Feedback can also help you improve your business and strengthen customer relationships in the long run.

Use this guide on how to ask for feedback from customers strategically and use one of the most powerful assets a business can have – honest comments from shoppers who’ve already tried a product or service. 

Frequently Asked Questions

What are some tools that can be used to collect customer feedback?

Popular tools include Qualaroo, SurveyMonkey, Typeform, Hotjar, Intercom, and Google Forms. Many also offer in-app or website pop-ups to gather feedback in real-time.

How can I ask for feedback without annoying customers?

Keep requests short, relevant, and infrequent. Use context-sensitive triggers, like post-purchase emails or post-chat pop-ups, instead of random interruptions.

Should feedback requests be automated or personal?

A combination works best. Automated surveys are efficient for volume, while personal follow-ups can deepen relationships and show customers you genuinely care.

When is the best time to ask for feedback?

The ideal time depends on the interaction: after a purchase, following a support interaction, or after using a product or service for a while. Asking while the experience is fresh means that you’re likely to receive more accurate and useful responses.