Effective methods of getting user feedback

77% of users never use an app after 72 hours of installing it for the first time. How to track it? Feedback is the only weapon we have in our hand. Assume this situation after every test we write, we always wait eagerly for the result. And the same way, when we develop an app we eagerly wait for the feedback. In tests, if we don’t perform we fail, but here we can always get feedback, improve and eventually succeed.

Customer feedback for a mobile app can help you in many different ways. They will help you to understand, what feature does a customer likes and doesn’t.

But mobile app companies have a unique challenge. When it comes to communicating with customers, they’re in the hands of Apple and Google, because these two giants have privatized the information. It is impossible for other players to get to the customers in a conventional way. Unless your users create an account, you can’t email out a survey to a customer or email list, or search for your customers on social media. You have to be creative.

1. Ask for reviews:-

The simplest and easiest way to get feedback is to ask for reviews. On both iOS and Android, developers can program a request for a user to rate the app, and leave a review.

The key to find a perfect time to ask. Most to the time, apps ask review after the very first usage of the app, but this is not always working because, the customer might not have used all the features and he might not be familiar with the app. And this might annoy them. So getting reviews is first thing to do, but with care.

2. Surveys:-

Another way to get feedback from customers is to contact them through a survey. You plan survey in many ways. NPS – net promoter score, is again a survey, which will help in getting you know the general sentiment of the product in the market. Attach the survey with an optional feedback box, you would get some valuable feedback.

NPS includes a follow-up question, as well, which asks users to explain their score. In the follow-up question, you’ll be able to get rich, individualized feedback that you can act upon. The best part of NPS is that you can easily add it to your mobile app. The process is seamless for users– they don’t have to leave your app to give feedback.

3. Text Messages:-

Text messages are in use for a very long time to get feedback about a product and its quite effective too. Triggering an event based text message to obtain an opinion is always good. For example, if the customer completed a specific task in the app, may be a sale, or a particular function, that the app has promised, triggering a text message with the option to reply would really make sense. Most brands use this technique to get their C-Sat, a very important and effective tool to get feedback from customer and measure customer satisfaction.

4. Support forums and communities:-

Although we are mobile centric, it is also sensible to reach out to the internet and use it. A great way to collect customer feedback is to create off-app communities where users can voice their opinions, ask for help, and engage with your team.

The benefits:

1.No restriction on number of words, so both the problem and the solution can be discussed elaborately.

2.People who are not familiar with in-app feedback systems, can feel comfortable discussing their concerns online.

3.Some common issues can have solved by the members themselves and in turn reducing the number of complaints.

5. Reach out directly:-

This one is my favourite. And this the most under estimated. But the truth is if you want to understand somebody, the easiest way is to go directly and talk to them.

When using surveys, emails we may miss contextual information. You would not get the real , hones reply. We might not know the reason behind an un installation of an app, unless we know real passion from their voices.

If you don’t reach out and talk to your customers, you’ll never learn what’s really going on, and you’ll be trying to fix the symptom instead of the real problem. So dive into your customer list and see if anyone is local. Then invite them to lunch and tell them you’re looking to completely understand how your business helps solve their problem. You will get more value from this 1-hour lunch then you will from hundreds of customer surveys.

Originally Posted at 5 effective methods of getting user feedback