Remember the last time you ordered a new speaker online? How did you feel once the package arrived? How excited were you when you turned on the speaker for the first time and listened to your favorite song?
At that very moment, a sense of euphoria rushed through your body and you could not be happier with the purchase you made. This would be the perfect time for you to tell your friends about your newly purchased speaker. Unfortunately, many companies miss out on this golden opportunity for micro feedback. Instead, a large number of businesses will send an email a day or two later, asking how you liked your new item.
According to SurveyGizmo, most survey response rates are between 10-15%. Imagine that your business sells 100,000 products a year and 90,000 of those customers do not tell you about your product or their customer experience. You'd likely want to gain a higher amount of feedback. You want to ensure buyers received an experience that brought them back for more and had them telling all of their family and friends about your amazing products. Micro feedback may be the solution to that problem.
Micro feedback is a form of collecting data from customers at different trigger points along the user journey or customer experience. Uber does this well on a consistent basis. Whenever you get dropped off from your ride, one of the first things that come to mind might be "That was a cool driver" or "Well, that was awkward." Your immediate emotions and actions are exactly the type of micro feedback that is key to improving the user experience. The ride ends, you are asked if you want to tip your driver and then you can give a rating of 1-5 stars.
This is a simple form of data-driven research and feedback that is triggered by the user's actions. It is important for Uber to get micro feedback right after your ride is over and not a day later through email because the thought of your ride is still fresh in your mind. This is just one of a few ways that companies can maximize data and minimize headaches for product designers.
Trying to change the way a product handles data could be a risky move without the right implementation. Here are a few steps to take in order to ensure a boost in data-driven research:
Data is useless without intention. Sometimes you need to focus on what a problem is before you start assuming what the solution should be. Figure out why the user is frustrated and listen to their feedback.
This is a huge part of receiving successful feedback from the users. Do you want to know how to improve the app? Do you want to hear about new features that could be added? Do you want to know about the emotion that someone has while using the app? These are all important aspects that need to be considered while collecting data. Then, you can leverage every bit of data and analytics that can help you solve the problem.
Trigger points are important because once defined, you can grab the user's attention and obtain accurate feedback. For example, determining when a user would like to be rewarded for their actions would be a trigger point that would entice the user to offer details about their experience. Imagine a banking app that alerts you when reaching a savings milestones by offering a line of credit. This incentive would promote usage of the application and provide feedback on your experience to the bank.
Many users might not be interested in a line of credit. Some users might want more social rewards, such as rewarding another life to a user that recommends a friend to play HQ Trivia. Or, perhaps the user can receive a graphic or badge that can be shared on social media if they get to a certain score in their favorite game. Some companies even offer a range of rewards that allows the user to choose the option that best suits their needs. Once your business determines how the user wants to be engaged and how they spend their time, you will be able to keep them coming back for more.
Plenty of app users are more inclined to give feedback if they know how it is being used. For example, picture the last time you ordered a new pair of running shoes and received an email days later while laying on the couch. It was likely a survey that asked how you liked the shoes based on a 1-10 scale. Rather than sending that email at that specific time, they could have instead asked how comfortable their shoe was so that they could improve the feel of the shoes in the next iteration. When the user knows that you are working diligently to improve their experience, they are more likely to return when they are in need of your products again.
Implementing this system of micro feedback is the key to more accurate and responsive data-driven improvements. Above all else, the user should be encouraged to participate in your data gathering efforts by being rewarded for their response and informed of how their participation will improve their user experience in the future. This is how you maximize data to increase user engagement and overall happiness with the product. Taking these small steps can lead to a massive positive impact on both the product and the user.
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