How to work with web site visitor feedback systems to gain marketing and optimisation insights. Why they're valuable, how to ask, what to ask and the business process for working with the data.

1. #superweek2014
@timlb
Why Feedback & Survey
Data is so Valuable

2. Optimisation insight =
Let your visitors tell you what to fix

3. Why feedback surveys are so good
How to do it
How to ask
What to ask
How to work with the data
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What kind of insights you‟ll get

4. Why feedback surveys are so good
Very fast
No need to wait for data to reach scale
Very direct insights
People tell you their intention and expectations
People tell you exactly what caused their problem (or what specifically
what they liked)
Words are from real visitors
Valuable understanding of visitor language and terminology

5. How to work with feedback surveys
Where and how to ask
Everywhere
(before conversion)
For
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Widest range of insight
Open to non-converters
Against
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Pop-up invitations can harm
conversion
Visitor-initiated systems have
lower response rate
Probably skew towards
complaints

6. How to work with feedback surveys
Where and how to ask
After conversion
For
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No risk to conversion
Simple embedded form
Can ask more questions
Less skewed to complaints =
learn what people like
Surprise: will include comments
about previous non-conversion
visits
Against
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Skewed towards converters

7. How to work with feedback surveys
Where and how to ask
Response rates
Active invitation 2% - 5%
Visitor-initiated 0.1%
[source iPerceptions]
Embedded post-conversion
15% - 35% start survey
5% - 10% include text comment

8. How to work with feedback surveys
What to ask
Pre-conversion
Avinash‟s questions
What is the purpose of your visit to our
website today?
Were you able to complete your task today?
If you were not able to complete your task
today, why not?
http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/4q-the-bestonline-survey-for-a-website-yours-free/
And, maybe
“Any other comments?”
Email address if a reply is needed

9. How to work with feedback surveys
What to ask
After conversion
Net Promoter or NPS®
Net Promoter, Net Promoter Score, and NPS are trademarks of
Satmetrix Systems, Inc., Bain & Company, Inc., and Fred
Reichheld
Net Promoter Question
Were you able to do everything you
wanted to do today?
Any other comments?
(If you‟re not storing email address
with survey: email address if a
reply is needed)
“How likely is it that you would
recommend this site to a friend or
colleague?”
Scale 0-10 where 0 is “very unlikely” and 10 is
“very likely”
0-6 are „detractors‟
7-8 are „passives‟
9-10 are „promoters‟
Score = % of „promoters‟ - % of detractors

10. How to work with feedback surveys
Storing other data
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Browser details
Warning:
Email in case reply is needed
Think about privacy issues before storing
extra hidden information
Visitor id or order number
(to use as key)

11. How to work with feedback surveys
Integrating with GA
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Many systems have features for
sending data to GA
o Custom variables
o Custom dimensions
o Events (Values in standard reports)
Warning: never send Personally
Identifiable Information to GA
Can be very useful for
segmentation
Likely to be even more valuable
with latest „user‟ segments
Could even store an anonymous
survey-id for session-level
analysis...

12. How to work with feedback surveys
Systems
(just some of them)
Pre-conversion
Post-conversion
Usual suspects:
Usual suspects:
4Q - www.iperceptions.com/en/plans-and-
www.surveygizmo.com
pricing/free
www.surveymonkey.com
qualaroo.com
www.kampyle.com
Some others:
Some others:
fluidsurveys.com
webengage.com
Enterprise level
www.iperceptions.com
www.servicetick.com
fluidsurveys.com
webengage.com
General form builders:
http://www.wufoo.com
http://www.formstack.com
Enterprise level
www.iperceptions.com
www.servicetick.com

13. How to work with feedback surveys
Process
Must be systematic
business process
No good just browsing
through data
Report on trends
Slice & dice with
segments
Often best to work outside
survey system reports
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Enforces business process
Probably needed for NPS score
Vital with free text comments

14. How to work with feedback surveys
The Key Process: free text comments
No good just browsing
through data!
• „Tag‟ according to theme
• Ideally tagging done by one person
• „Tagger‟ writes a regular report
• Report on trends
• Include „verbatim‟ sample comments for
each point in report
No process = no
insights

15. How to work with feedback surveys
Key Process: check with GA
Prioritise using GA data (if possible)
Quantify how many visits might
have been exposed to the issue
Example
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Problem with checkout login page = lots
Problem with email account „html or text‟
option page = few

16. What kind of insights you’ll get
Top level - instant information
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Problems
Often include visitor‟s suggestions for fix!
Understanding of visitor intent and expectations
Information Architecture and Usability
Understanding of visitor product language
Information Architecture is often based on industry terminology

17. What kind of insights you’ll get
Deeper insights - develop over time
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Deeper Understanding visitor language & expectations
Matt Lacey from PRWD in an Econsultancy blog on a/b testing:
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“In one example we saw a lift of 4% in sales across the site for a large European retailer, simply
by changing the messages in the USP bar. The key to this test was that the messages that
won had come directly from the mouths of customers, from user research prior to
developing the hypotheses for the test.” http://bit.ly/Superweek2014USB
Product Suggestions
People will ask for new products they expected you to stock
Competitor Intelligence
People will compare you to your rivals

18. What kind of insights you’ll get
Unexpected bonus = praise!
What real people see as your main benefits
Use these ideas in your marketing on and off-site
Sanity check on what not to change on site
Morale-booster at busy times - share positive comments with colleagues

19. Summary
Feedback and survey systems are
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Quick
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Direct
Great source of specific insight for optimisation & marketing
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Cheap
And they don‟t stop producing ideas

20. Resources
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Bundle of all my Superweek2014
Links:http://bitly.com/Superweek2014TLB
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Avinash‟s original post with „THE” questions:http://bit.ly/Superweek2014Avinash
Great post about Customer Experience & Conversion Optimisation from Conversion XL:
http://bit.ly/Superweek2014UX
Short article: “Is Anecdotal Evidence Worthless?” from Christopher
Penn:http://bit.ly/Superweek2014Anecdotal
Interesting point about how using visitor‟s own language increased conversion by
4%http://bit.ly/Superweek2014USB
My blog post about feedback surveys (with links to more
resources):http://bit.ly/Superweek2014Surveys