The importance of User Feedback
While booking a ride with Uber very recently, when I was prompted to provide feedback, I was quick to take a moment and give a rating for my last ride. It was later that I realized how Uber had made customer feedback optional, after it being a mandate for the longest time. I realized that I had become so used to providing feedback to the past rides, I was not opposed to it anymore.
Why is there a need to gather feedback?
Any system that communicates directly with the customer needs to have impeccable experience so that not only is the user able to perform the intended task conveniently, but they are also able to enjoy it enough to return back to it. This is the reason designers conduct extensive user research to understand exactly what the customer needs, and then build a product fit for their use.
Even once that is done, there are multiple rounds of user testing done with potential customers to understand what is not working for them, and fix it before the product is released into the market.
But even after all these processes have been performed and the application is launched, there are key insights that can ONLY be received from the real user. For this reason, gathering customer feedback from users is essential. Following are the two fundamental reasons why user feedback needs to be gathered –
1. To collect insights —
There are certain issues that can only be identified by the user once they have used the application. To address these issues as designers, the first step would be to gather all possible feedback points from the user.
Before creating a mechanism to gather feedback from the user, it is essential for the business and the designers to decide the kind of answers they need from the users to improve their product.
When asked the correct questions, useful data and insights can be gathered which can be used to create meaningful modifications to make the product delightful and easy to use for all customers.
2. To make the customer feel heard —
To complain about a product after using it is human nature, but the ability to be able to do something about it is what makes a user feel empowered.
By giving the customer an avenue to provide feedback directly for the product they are using, it helps them feel heard.
Furthermore, if users are able to see their feedback being incorporated and their experience being improved after every update, there is a certain level of trust that gets established between them and the business.
Incorporating a mechanism for the users to vent out their inconveniences not only creates a two-way communication channel, but also allows the business to procure invaluable data around improvement areas.
When to gather user feedback?
So now that the importance of feedback has been established, as designers we need to understand when would be an appropriate time to gather insights from the user.
When including a feedback mechanism into a system, designers need to be cautious about maintaining a balance between enticing users to provide feedback and annoying them with unnecessary additional steps. It is always a good practice to not interrupt the user during the middle of their task or flow for the gain of the business.
A user will feel more compelled to speak about how any aspect of their journey was once their journey is complete.
This is because their task at hand has been completed and they are more at ease to think about in detail about how they felt about performing it. If prompted to do the same in the midst of the journey, the experience is definitely bound to worsen.
Another advantage of asking for feedback from the user towards the end is that the feedback can cover a broad range of questions starting from overall experience, to pointed questions about specific aspects of the journey.
What to do with the feedback?
To ensure that the users continue to provide feedback, they need to see some improvement around it.
For users to continue providing feedback, they need to see some improvement around the concerns they raise. Just knowing that the feedback they provided has been recorded can never be enough for the user. Showing them tangible results around it is what would restore their faith in the system and encourage them to keep providing feedback.
Thus, it is very important to inform the user about why a certain update is being made to a system and how it would impact them directly.
Should feedback be mandatory?
Making feedback mandatory compels the user to provide an answer before they can proceed with their intended journey. If not incentivised well, the users might want to get over with the feedback process as soon as they can.
For this reason, they might decide to fill out garbage values to the questions they are being asked, thus corrupting the feedback data.
But let’s take a look at what Uber did. By making feedback mandatory when they launched, they created a habit out of the activity. Once the users realised that they had no choice in the matter, they very soon got accustom to providing the information asked for before booking their vehicles.
So even though the cons outweigh the pros, there are some products where making feedback mandatory could work wonders.
