How to Collect User Feedback for SaaS

To avoid building a product that misses the mark, actively seek input from your target customers during development. Don’t just assume your product is great; get feedback from users to see if it’s meeting their needs. This data shows which features are important, where users are struggling, and how to avoid major dissatisfaction. In this guide we will show you how to collect user feedback on your product, and provide examples that demonstrate these techniques in action.

Begin with outlining your goals and objectives to gain the most value when collecting feedback. You’ll need to fully understand exactly what you are trying to accomplish with this information.

Think about  these questions:

• What are you trying to improve when you consider the user’s experience with your product? Do any of the following come to mind? (onboarding, specific features, overall satisfaction)
• What are the metrics you would like to monitor? (e.g., NPS, CSAT, feature usage, churn rate)
• Do you want qualitative, quantitative, or both when you think about the feedback you are looking for?

By understanding your specific goals, you’ll be able to refine your collection strategies ensuring your actions are relevant to your process.

In order to be successful, make sure you consider the proper resources to collect user feedback. Without a well-defined strategy your efforts might not lead to the outcomes you envision. Think about the following: 

• What do you want to understand? Different practices will provide different types of info.
  – If you’re trying to improve certain features, ask for comments when people are using them by implementing in-app surveys or comment widgets. You’ll get their opinion while the experience is still fresh in their mind.
  – To see if users are content overall use NPS (Net Promoter Score) and CSAT (Customer Satisfaction Score) surveys. NPS indicates how likely your customers are to recommend you, and CSAT identifies their feelings on specific subjects.
  – When considering new functionality, chat with users as directly as possible in social media and see what is being said in comments there. You might discover some ideas you had not considered or thought of.

• Who is your audience? Assess your users habits and how they like to communicate.
  – If you find they are tech-savvy, in-app surveys, feedback buttons, or even emails are great options.
  – Early adopters love trying new stuff  and are perfect for chatting with in interviews and leaving their thoughts in social media.
  – For enterprise customers create special groups and include one-on-one chats to get to the heart of their specific needs.
  

• Different types of feedback: What kind of feedback are you looking for?
  
  – Quantitative feedback: This entails data with numbers – survey results, ratings, etc. It allows you to spot trends and track your progress.
  – Qualitative feedback: This explains the details. What makes users love or hate something? Interviews, social media comments, and open-ended questions in surveys give you those fine points.

Once you have a plan in place, figure out the most optimal way to collect feedback from your users.

To find the most effective feedback collection method think about:

• What exactly am I trying to achieve with user feedback?
• Who is my intended demographic, and how would they prefer to be contacted?
• Should I use quantitative data to identify trends or qualitative insights to determine user motivation? Do I need both?
• Which resources are available to analyze and gather feedback?

Answer each question to personalize your  feedback collection strategy so it aligns with your goals, makes sense to your audience, and gives actionable insights to enhance your SaaS product.

➣ In-App Surveys

In-app surveys are used as pop up questionnaires that are short, but appear inside your product. An example of this is in Canva, when they ask you to rate your experience after creating a design. It can be beneficial to solicit feedback from users while they’re actively experiencing the product.  

• Execute surveys once key tasks have been completed, after specific features are used, or during natural pauses in the user flow.
• Implement surveys directly into your app’s interface, as a slide-out, modal, or pop-up to gain user’s attention.
• Look for high response rates, specific feedback, and easy targeting of different user segments.
• Unfortunately this is sometimes disruptive to users if not well timed and is typically limited to un open-ended questions.
• This is ideal for receiving quick feedback on features, creating satisfaction with specific interactions, and for understanding overall sentiment after task completion.
• Tools to use:
  • Userpilot: Offers various survey types, targeting options, and analytics.
  • Qualaroo: Specializes in in-app surveys and provides user behavior insights.

➣ Feedback Widgets

Feedback widgets are buttons or forms  that are continuously visible allowing users to share their opinions in your app at any time. They are usually available in the navigation bar, a sidebar, or help center.

• Execute widgets constantly for ongoing collection of opinions.
• Implement widgets in your app’s interface but not in a way that chokes the user flow.
• Look to make things convenient for users, offer real-time data, and have an easy set up.
• Sadly, this might cause unstructured feedback that requires a lot of analysis.
• This is ideal for obtaining general feedback, bug reports, feature requests, or quick ratings.
• Resources:
  • Hotjar: Shows feedback widgets with heatmaps and session recordings for better insight.
  • UserVoice: Gathers and manages feature requests and opinions in one place.

➣ Email Surveys

For your customers who aren’t using the product regularly, try email surveys to check in. You can collect insights after any customer support interaction, at different milestones, such as one month of usage or to see what is happening with inactive users.

• Execute surveys during regular check-ins or after key interactions such as support or different milestones.
• Implement surveys by delivering directly to your customers inbox. 
• Reach users outside the app flow if you are looking for more detailed specific surveys.
• Unfortunately, these usually show response rates lower than in-app methods and don’t capture feedback in the moment, allowing for real time opinions.
• Ideal when looking for comprehensive insights on overall satisfaction, specific experiences, or why customers who are inactive have churned.
• Tool Example:
  • Typeform: Has visually appealing interactive surveys that are simple to create and complete.
  • SurveyMonkey: A well known platform that offers customizable templates and advanced analytics.

➣ User Interviews

One-on-one conversations are interviews with users where you are able to ask open-ended questions for deeper insights, motivations, and pain points.

• Use Interviews for a more in depth conversation on feedback, if testing new product ideas or to validate a specific hypothesis. 
• Implement user interviews remotely using video chat platforms.
• Use this strategy for deeper insights, to follow up on user questions and to build relationships with customers. 
• Unfortunately, these interviews only reach a smaller audience and are not easily scheduled and take time to execute.
• On the plus side, you’ll understand your user behavior better, discover requests for features and identify any need for improvements.
• Use tools like Zoom or Google Meet to conduct remote interviews.

➣ Social Media Listening

This entails observing various social media channels for any mention of your product, brand, or relevant keywords. By doing so, you’ll be able to locate unfiltered conversations being had by users discussing your SaaS.

• Use social media to measure brand reception and determine any issues early in the process.
• Implement in popular social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and check out industry-specific forums and review sites.
• These platforms contain honest feedback that help you determine both trends and issues and facilitates direct communication with your users. 
• Sadly, it will be time consuming to monitor and respond, and opinions may not be objective or shared by your entire user base.
• Ideal for addressing issues quickly, discovering trends and keeping an eye on your brand. 
• Tools to check out:
  • Mention: Finds any mention in several social media and news sites, with sentiment analysis.
  • Hootsuite: A management platform that schedules posts and keeps track of mentions.

➣ NPS (Net Promoter Score) Surveys

NPS surveys are designed to measure customer loyalty and satisfaction. One of their typical questions asks  “How likely are you to recommend our product to a friend or colleague?” Responses are on a scale of 0-10.

• Schedule these for customers who have been with you for some time to accurately measure those who have experienced your products and services. 
• Implement the questionnaire by way of  In-app, email, or usually as part of a large customer satisfaction survey.
• Easy to administer and appreciated by users, you’ll establish a clear benchmark for customer loyalty that you can build on.
• You may not understand detailed reasons behind the score, and will need to follow up.
• NPS Surveys show overall customer sentiment, benchmarks for future use, and determine where improvements are needed.
• Tools to consider: Retently, Delighted.

➣ CSAT (Customer Satisfaction Score) Surveys

These surveys are intended to gauge customer satisfaction on specific experiences, such as a support ticket or the use of a particular feature.

• Use this survey right after a customer interaction or experience.
• Implement In-app, email, or through a post-interaction pop-up.
• Great for giving targeted feedback on a specific area of your product or service.
• Unfortunately, CSAT doesn’t offer a holistic view of user loyalty such as NPS.
• Good for determining customer satisfaction with onboarding, support, features or new releases.
• Tools to consider: Userpilot, AskNicely.

When it comes to managing and leveraging user feedback, implement dedicated tools. They should include features such as survey builders, feedback boards, and analytics dashboards. 

Here are some examples of such products: 

• Userpilot: A platform loaded with in-app surveys, feedback widgets, NPS, and analytics.
• Productboard: A management tool designed to prioritize feedback from various sources.
• Canny: A platform used for feedback mgt, that organizes feature requests and user feedback.
• Delighted: A tool designed to use survey options that measure customer experience.  

Prioritize data based on impact and alignment with your goals. ⁤⁤It’s a good idea to check feedbacks regularly to see if there are any patterns or areas that need fixing. ⁤⁤Use tools like heatmaps and charts to visualize the data and understand how people are actually using your product and what they do and don’t like about it. ⁤⁤You can also dig deeper into open-ended feedback using techniques like thematic coding or sentiment analysis software:  ⁤

• Theme analysis: You can organize your feedback by theme in order to highlight common issues.
• Sentiment analysis: Use tools to show the overall attitude of the feedback whether it be positive, negative or neutral.
• Customer journey mapping: Outline your feedback in stages of the user journey to capture areas for improvement.

When you implement changes based on feedback, make sure to communicate that to your users. Show them you’re paying attention to what they’re saying. Also if you receive negative feedback respond promptly and in a respectful manner, address the issues and offer solutions where possible.

• Release notes should be published with highlights on any new features and improvements that originated from user feedback.
• Personalized emails should be sent to users that gave their opinions, thanking them for their input and details on any changes made per their feedback.
• In-app notifications is a great way to announce updates and new features.
• Publicly acknowledge and thank users by sharing their positive feedback on social media. Consider a “customer spotlight” section on your website.
• Invite users to beta test any new features and then show them how their feedback impacted the development process.
• Host webinars or Q&A sessions and be sure to highlight feedback-driven changes.