How to Ask For Feedback Without Annoying Your Customers

Americans receive over 7 billion survey requests per year. Only about 37% of those surveys actually get completed, at best.

You value survey feedback because you use it to help your customers. But if your customers feel inconvenienced with feedback requests, they see you as being pushy instead of helpful.

When feedback requests serve your customer’s interests, it’s not pushy. To get that precious feedback, here are five ideas to encourage customer feedback instead of pushing them away.

1. Time surveys so they don’t interfere with conversion

Imagine that you entered a store and a salesperson immediately bombarded you with questions before you even had a chance to shop. You’d feel uncomfortable and most likely leave.

If your surveys appear as soon as users enter your site, they’ll produce the same reaction. A survey that pops up immediately is friction, not feedback. One way to reduce this friction is by only delivering surveys to people who spend a certain amount of time on your site. This allows them more time to become interested in your site before you ask them for feedback.

For example, if a visitor lingers on the product page for more than 30 seconds, you can schedule a survey to appear asking about their product search. Here’s how you can time delay surveys with Qualaroo.

By delaying the popup, this will give your customer more time to form an opinion about your site before providing feedback.

2. Position surveys so they don’t interrupt customer engagement

You’ve spent a lot of effort optimizing your site. It’s a waste if a customer clicks and a feedback form totally blocks their screen. They’ll quickly try to exit instead of engaging.

A survey that blocks the screen is intrusive. Since your customer’s first instinct is to close the survey, you might also lose your opportunity to get feedback. Rather, a survey in the bottom right corner is something customers can engage with when they’re ready.

One way to make your surveys less intrusive is by customizing the position of the survey popup so that it doesn’t interfere with the content. You can use tools on the Design tab to customize the position of your popup with Qualaroo.

The popup will appear from the corner of the screen as your customers browse your site. It won’t block your content, and your customers can look at the popup when they want to.

3. Offer incentives to reward feedback

Several studies indicate that the average survey response rate is between 10% and 30%. By offering an incentive, you can increase your average response rates by up to 15%.

Regarding survey incentives, psychologist Dr. John Towler says: “Our experience has shown that offering a worthwhile incentive can entice up to 50% of the people who would not normally complete the survey, to finish it and send it in.”

Your customers need to feel rewarded for taking time to complete your survey. Consider offering free shipping or a coupon to your customer as a thank you gift for participating in your survey. When you offer them an incentive, they will feel more inclined to return the favor and provide feedback.

4. Ask less critical questions to invite feedback

The framing effect shows that the phrasing of a question can greatly influence a person’s answers. If your question is phrased in an accusatory tone, your customer will feel like they’re being cross-examined. You don’t want to make your customer feel uncomfortable and leave your survey.

A simple rephrasing of your question can impact your bottom line. A question like “Why did you leave without checking out?” almost sounds like you’re scolding your customer for not making a purchase. An overcritical question will push them away and cause you to lose a sale.

Instead, you can ask something like: “What would change your mind about completing your purchase with us today?” This question has a more neutral tone and invites the customer to share what’s on their mind. This valuable feedback can then help you improve conversions.

Groove found that, when they changed the tone of their question about cancellations, they almost doubled conversions and increased their response rate by 17.7%.

By making your questions less critical and more engaging, you’ll increase your survey response rate.

5. Use live chat to assist customers

You’ve installed live chat so you can virtually assist customers, but it’s popping up on every page and annoying your visitors like a pushy salesman. They leave, and you’ve just lost a potential sale.

You want to get live feedback from your customers so you can help them in real time. But you also don’t want to scare them away by automatically prompting, “Hello! How can I help you today?” on every page. It distracts rather than actually guides them to what they really need help with.

Instead, you can offer live chat to customers only if they need it. You can use a question like “Is there something you need help finding today?” If they answer “Yes”, then the survey will guide them to live chat. You can do this by integrating Qualaroo with a live chat service like Olark.

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When customers contact you first, you can use live chat as an opportunity to help them and gather feedback. If you push them away before addressing their needs, you’re not really helping them.

Make feedback a positive experience for your customers

All of these steps show your customers that you care about their feedback. You’re not simply focused on completing the sale, but you’re focused on serving them, both now and in the future. You want to make their feedback experience as smooth as possible.

If you’re more considerate about the methods you use to gather feedback, you’ll actually get to hear what your customers have to say. Instead of turning them into apathetic visitors, they’ll become your most valuable collaborators.