To keep an ecommerce store running at peak-performance, merchants need to pay attention not only to analytics, but also to customer feedback.
While analytics are a good starting point for figuring out which site elements need to be revamped or tested, customer feedback gets straight to the point by telling merchants exactly what a site visitor liked or disliked about their shopping experience. This type of insight can be used to quickly implement adjustments to a Web store in order to optimize the user experience.
There are many ways that merchants can obtain feedback from their customers, from social media to surveys and forums, which is why Website Magazine has compiled a list of platforms that merchants can leverage to gain insights into their customers' shopping experiences.
Get Satisfaction
Merchants can use the Get Satisfaction platform to implement a more social shopping experience into their Web stores. This is because the platform can be used to obtain and respond to customer feedback regarding questions, problems, ideas and praise. Get Satisfaction can also be integrated directly into product pages with the Ecommerce Communities solution, which can help answer common customer questions and reduce shopping cart abandonment rates.
SuggestionBox
SuggestionBox enables merchants to put a virtual suggestion box on their website. Merchants simply need to add a few lines of code to their site in order to start capturing feedback in real-time. The platform offers the ability to organize feedback as well as group similar suggestions together so that one response can reach multiple customers. It is also important to note that merchants have the ability to choose which suggestions stay private or become public.
OpinionLab
This popular Voice of the Customer (VoC) platform is leveraged by more than half of the Fortune 50. It allows merchants to gain real-time feedback for a variety of channels, including websites, mobile sites, products and even brick-and-mortar stores. The platform's opt-in, page-specific model helps capture feedback from consumers who are already engaged with a brand, which can help organizations pinpoint issues in real-time and take action quickly.
Kampyle
Merchants can use the Kampyle platform to learn which areas of their website customers are likely to run into trouble. This is because site visitors can submit feedback on a variety of issues - from broken links to reporting competitive prices seen on other websites. Additionally, the platform's feedback forms automatically prompt visitors to include their contact details and also provide a newsletter opt-in area, which enables visitors to easily subscribe to a merchant's email campaign.
UserVoice
Merchants can leverage the UserVoice Feedback solution to collect and manage their customers' input. The solution provides merchants with a forum where customer can both submit and vote on feedback and allows people to submit feedback without signing up for an account. Moreover, UserVoice's search-as-you type functionality ensures that customers are able to find similar feedback to vote on instead of creating a duplicate entry on the same topic. The solution moderates content so that forums aren't littered with spam or profanity, however, merchants also have the ability to turn on manual moderation in order to have complete control of content.
Zoho Discussions
Merchants can create their own customer support community with the Zoho Discussions platform, which offers rebranding tools so that users can customize their support community to stay consistent with a brand's look and feel. Additionally, the platform enables merchants to set moderation guidelines, export data, use widgets to capture feedback from across the Web and organize discussions.
Usabilla
The Usabilla platform is unique because it not only provides merchants with consumer feedback, but also measures customer emotions. Merchants simply need to add a snippet of code to their site so that the feedback button is visible to visitors. The platform enables consumers to select and rate any item of a Web page by choosing one out of five emotions. Site visitors can also add comments to provide additional feedback if desired. Moreover, the platform provides merchants with a dashboard that includes a visual trendline in order to keep track of collected feedback over time.
Google Moderator
Google has a tool for everything, including obtaining feedback. The Google Moderator tool is free and allows users to create a forum about anything (e.g. site usability) and open it up for people to submit questions, votes, ideas or suggestions. For the best results, merchants should embed their Moderator page to their website.
iPerceptions
Merchants can leverage this platform to gain insights from customers through surveys and comment cards. Users can design their own surveys and control who receives the surveys. iPerceptions collects data such as location, IP address, operating system and browser type for each respondent, which makes it easy for merchants to analyze specific customer segments. Furthermore, the platform has the ability to collect feedback in more than 32 languages.
IdeaScale
IdeaScale enables merchants to foster a community by allowing customers to submit feedback, discuss and vote on ideas. The platform also offers a Facebook App so that the IdeaScale community can be integrated directly onto a merchant's Facebook Page. Moreover, the platform comes with a profanity filter, a polling tool and a plethora of customizable features, including custom development, CSS and URL, as well as the ability to customize status tabs.
These are just a few of the 'Net's many available platforms for obtaining customer feedback. Let us know what platform or strategies your enterprise leverages in the comment section below.
