Feedback evolution

For a long time, any entrepreneur was particularly keenly concerned with the question of receiving feedback from his clients. And this is not surprising, since it is customer reviews that form the optimal way for the company to develop and identify problems that periodically arise along this path.

And in order to understand and analyze an objective picture of the state of their affairs, companies use completely different ways and means of obtaining feedback. In this article, I decided to put together all the main ways, to identify their pros and cons, and eventually to carry out a certain evolutionary process “From” and “To” in this area.

Let's start with the most elementary and primitive ways.

1.1. Personal communication with the client

The easiest way to get valuable feedback is to directly ask the client what he thinks about you, your company and some of its aspects. Ask a question - get an answer, everything is simple.
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But here immediately a number of problems arise:
- The client may hesitate to tell you the unpleasant truth in the face and “get rid” of you with the wording like “All is well”, “Come down”, etc.
- It is difficult to keep in mind hundreds of different reviews, and even more difficult to bring them into a single objective picture. And one single review does not mean anything because of its subjectivity.

Thus, a slightly modified process arose:

1.2. Anonymous communication with the client

This is when the founder of a company or a manager pretends to be an ordinary employee or a client himself and talks on equal terms with his customers. There is no longer constraint, and the client says everything as it really is. As a result, the company receives the most valuable information.

For example, I myself, developing a taxi ordering service, called a car through it and communicated with the drivers working with us, as if I was a regular client. They themselves told me all the pros and cons of the service, working conditions and what customers come across. Golden information!

But here there are some problems:
- Personal time. It is very small, especially among managers, so collecting feedback in this way is the most expensive, because for any self-respecting leader, personal time is the most expensive asset. Yes, and business is mostly created not only for the sake of interest and high goals, but also in order to gain freedom in the end, and not to work even more than on hired work.
- Also, the question of how to structure a huge amount of information in your head, to identify some patterns and priorities does not disappear anywhere.

1.3. “Email us”

Free, simple and harsh method of interaction with the client. Is suitable except for completely beginner projects that do not have an extra pair of dollars for some kind of software or at least to create a neat and simple feedback form.

You can get some kind of feedback this way, but it’s obvious that not everyone wants to write a letter. And to structure all the sent wishes into something objective is almost as easy as sorting through leaflets with reviews written by hand.

And based on these problems, the feedback evolved slightly into something more objective and perfect:

2.1. Survey forms

Companies began to distribute various questionnaires to their customers, which are usually offered to fill out in their free time and bring on their next visit. For example, such a survey was given to me at a bank where a bank account of my company is being served. But, by the way, I threw out this questionnaire :)

This is just one of the problems of this method - people are just too lazy to fill out all these forms. They are already from afar scared by the presence of many fields and questions. An image arises in my head, sitting with a pen and painfully responding to all this. Yes, and personal time is very sorry.

In addition, another problem (but already the problem of the manager) is to collect all these leaves in one pile and try to structure everything into one picture. It is long and rather difficult, especially if the questions imply not the answer options, but the answer in a free form.

Faced with such problems, companies have come up with new forms of receiving feedback:

2.2.1. Quick polls

This is an option when the questionnaire is short and suggests a quick response right on the spot. In this case, it becomes much easier for the client to leave his opinion and the percentage of feedback left increases. However, you have to significantly sacrifice the fact that you will find out much less information on much smaller aspects of the company.

2.2.2. Telephone polls

Answering a question verbally is much easier than writing. Especially if this occurs in the context of a client contacting the company.
For example, a customer called those. support, he was helped to solve the problem, and at the end asked one or more questions.

With this option, you can get even more reviews to make an even more objective picture. But to really make it up, you will have to try: to assemble a meeting, listen to all operators, listen to the recording of conversations, if necessary, etc. It is extremely hard.

In addition, there are still serious costs - the remuneration of operators, software, and the necessary equipment for the whole process.

Since this is too heavy and costly a way to get a feedback (although already quite effective), the companies went further and came up with something better.

2.2.3. Electronic surveys

Responding to an electronic survey is much easier than writing to it. Knocked the mouse here and there and clicked "Done." You do not have to diligently write something and look for where and to whom to leave the results of your overwork.
This is a big plus for the client. And for the company too - after all, it is possible to make a survey so that its results in the database are themselves structured and issued in the form of a finished table with the results.

However, there are some problems.
- Few customers are eager to sincerely help the company, giving 15 minutes of their already busy life to the survey.
- To make the whole system of a convenient and pleasant survey with summing up and statistics is quite a long and costly business.

This is how another type of feedback appeared:

2.2.4. Paid Surveys

There are special sites where you can create your survey and pay everyone who answers it. Moreover, the survey is offered not to everyone, but only to a certain group of people according to certain criteria.

Examples: anketka.ru , avtoopros.ru , etc.

Obviously, for some companies this method will be preferred. After all, you will not have to create the whole polling system yourself; it is already available in ready-made form on the side of the intermediary - the polling service.
And people already have the motivation to go through this survey, exchanging a part of their lives for certain money.

But, unfortunately, not everything goes smoothly in this scheme:

- Not exactly the target audience of the survey. For the most part, these are people who just want to earn extra money and, specifically, for your company, they don’t give a damn. Therefore, it is possible to extract real benefits from these services by creating general social surveys rather than narrow and specific ones.

- It is very expensive to pay everyone for the answers. The amount spent cannot always justify itself. And well, if the results of this paid survey prompts a truly more correct path of development, and not vice versa, they will lead it away.

But despite the emergence of new problems and the failure to solve the old initial problems, the evolutionary path did not reach a dead end, but began its new phase 3.0! And that's what it is.

3.1. Online consultants

Not so long ago, special services appeared that provide software for communication between site visitors and a real live consultant.

Examples: pr-me.ru , consultsystems.ru , talkdriver.ru , onlinesaler.ru , etc.

A good plus here is that the software is able to do a lot - to record and structure both questions and answers, to collect the so-called “database of questions”, where the client can find an already ready answer, etc.
In addition, this form of interaction with visitors kills two birds with one stone - it allows you to collect feedback and answer questions. And this is very, very good!

Many problems here are really eliminated. Online consultants can communicate with several clients at once, and very effectively thanks to the various “tricks” of the software itself. Therefore, one does not have to pay as much as telephone operators, as well as for the telephone connection itself.
But nevertheless, you still have to pay. And this amount can only be achieved by already established medium and large companies, especially if the goal is to provide round-the-clock support and become a leader among a huge number of competitors.

In addition to this drawback with costs, the obvious disadvantage is the delay in responses. An online consultant is not a robot, but a living person, so he cannot give an instant answer, especially if he has departed, I apologize, to pee.
Nobody loves to wait, and many wait and are very annoying, which is the disadvantage of this method. And the reviews here are not particularly structured, because they are mixed with questions, and they themselves have to sort, analyze, structure all the same. Those. time is not saved.

Another problem of some (but not all) solutions in this area is the explicit imposition of a question with a client. She literally jumps out of the corner and rushes straight into the face, blinking intrusively with her animation. Very annoying.

However, the inventive spark of man moved on and reached ...

3.2. Consultants robots

The idea of ​​such a consultant is that a certain base of answers is drawn up and the robot gives the user a response from this base.
The advantage is an instant response and huge savings on the salaries of living people.
But these advantages, unfortunately, fade and dissolve in one big minus: a robot, there is a robot. Stupid soulless creature that can answer complete nonsense. And in the matter of communicating with customers, this is a rather poor decision that can scare away customers.
Of course, a lot depends on how thoroughly the answer base is compiled, but nevertheless, it is too difficult to simulate live communication and such “savings” can only hurt - you will lose customers.

3.3. Feedback forms

Recently, you can notice on many sites somewhere on the side the button “Feedback” or “Leave your feedback”, etc.
When you press it, a form opens where you can report a problem, ask a question, offer an idea or express your sincere sincere gratitude to the company for its work and products of this work.
The supplier of such a solution are several dozen companies at once and offer, in fact, the same thing, with some differences in price and functionality.



Examples: userecho.ru , reformal.ru , copiny.com

This solution allows the company to save money, and customers their time - because using this form is easier than looking for where and to whom to write an email or call. Yes, and this pleasure is very modest - from complete freebies to several tens of dollars, depending on the necessary features, such as integration with social networks and personalization of the form.

A distinctive feature is also the fact that you can support other people's problems and suggestions with your voice, thus prompting the company what you should pay attention to in the first place. Those. partially solved the problem of setting priorities in the wishes of users.

But solving some problems, such a service creates others. For example, it is very dangerous to keep in sight of competitors valuable ideas of their customers (and even prioritized), their problems and comments. In fact, it reveals and makes predictable your future path. So, there is a risk that someone from competitors will overtake you, and also find your weak points.

In addition, in order for the client to express his opinion, it is necessary to log in, that many, of course, are lazy. To delve into the huge database of answers, ideas, questions and wishes - all the more. Perhaps, only ardent fans of the company are capable of this.

Still, I, as the owner of my company, would like to somehow share the flow of feedback on various aspects of the company, since This greatly facilitates the analysis. But these tools do not know how.

However, the evolutionary process continued further.

4. Slider-vote

This method allows you to create a slider of any color, size and with any question.
You can create different sliders with different questions for each aspect of the company and hang them on different parts of the site. On the main page, you can ask about how interested service, and somewhere in the client's personal office to ask to evaluate the functionality.
As a result, reviews will be collected separately - for various aspects of the company and stored in private, under a password, away from competitors.

The client does not have to go through authorization and open a lot of links. Just saw the slider and for a few seconds expressed his opinion. Easier and you can not imagine.
A quantitative assessment is also assigned to the recall, and the graphs of the average opinion are formed and its dynamics - rising or falling. Thus it becomes very convenient to analyze all the reviews and looking at the schedule to look for the cause of the ups and downs of your company.

Example: uppza.com

True, this method is not without drawbacks:
- Sometimes there are inadequate reviews, because No authorization required. Although they can be removed, so that they do not callous eyes and do not affect the statistics.
- You cannot respond to a review by continuing the dialogue, as in software with online operators, so the solution fits exclusively with a narrow task - to collect, structure and analyze reviews, and nothing more.

However, at this stage of evolution, a significant step forward has already been taken: the client can easily and quickly leave his opinion, and the company will no longer suffer from the difficulties of analyzing reviews and prioritizing, because software does it himself. In addition, it is no longer necessary to incur large costs to collect feedback, which is also a very good evolutionary achievement.

If to sum up, in each method there are pros and cons. And yet, today, each of the ways continues to be in demand. And perhaps the best solution lies in their clever and economical combination. And which one depends on the specifics of the company. Knowing all the ways and their pros / cons, each manager can choose for himself the best option and strategy.