What is a customer feedback loop?

A customer feedback loop is a customer experience strategy in which you update your product's features or services based on data from customer reviews, comments, feedback (the so-called voice of customer, VOC), or from other techniques that you can apply to gather useful information about interactions between your products and users – for example, research, assessments, statistics or tools that follow their behavior.

As the ones who use a product or service regularly, your customers and users are goldmines of information on what you should add to existing products or services and, more commonly, in which directions to develop or modify existing features.

With a customer feedback loop strategy, you can gather data and then turn it into useful features for your customers.

Customer feedback loop stages

Step 1: Collect customer feedback

The first step in finding out what your customers or users expect from you is to gather their opinions about the product or service. There are dozens of ways in which you can do this, just to name a few examples:

• Online surveys
• Reviews
• Post-purchase ratings
• Social media analytics or listening tools (for example, heatmap tools like Hotjar)
• Focus groups

You can also conduct usability tests combined with user interviews. Give the product to a chosen group (usually during an online or offline assessment) and ask them to complete simple tasks in order to discover their likes, difficulties, and any features they think are missing. All of that while enhancing their experience.

Step 2: Consolidate and organize the data

When user feedback arrives in diverse formats and originates from multiple sources, determining which aspects to prioritize can be challenging. To address this, the next step involves gathering and consolidating the feedback.

The choice of where to store this information is up to you but, no matter what you choose, you need to ensure that the data is well-organized and easily understandable by everyone involved. This process simplifies the analysis and allows your team to efficiently identify and address key areas of improvement.

Our pro tip: organizing the information you obtained via feedback can make the next stage much smoother for you. Generally, we categorize by genre or domain. The former which is especially necessary for bigger projects.

Step 3: Analyze the data for insights

Now, finally, you can start looking closer into the data to understand what parts of your product/service you should focus on and which tasks should be at the top of your list.

It's likely you'll also start to notice some patterns as you examine the data:

• Consistent complaints about specific features (e.g., "The search function doesn't provide accurate results.")
• Repeated requests for certain additions or enhancements (e.g., "A dark mode option would be a great addition to the app.")
• Recurring praise for particular elements (e.g., "The user interface is clean and intuitive.")
• Shared concerns regarding customer support (e.g., "The response time from the support team needs improvement.")
• Similar issues arise after updates or changes (e.g., "The latest update has caused issues with notifications.")

Those issues should be added to your backlog, so they can be resolved as soon as possible.

Step 4: Compare the vision with users’ suggestions and make decisions

Simple – look at your product vision. Comparing what’s written there with your users' requirements or suggestions helps you to decide which features could both make your customers happier and match your vision/business objectives. Sometimes the vision needs to be adjusted in order not to go against the tide and possibly result in the loss of users. You also have to remember about your identity, although it has the right to slowly evolve.

Balancing User Needs and Business Objectives

Should you implement every new, trendy feature that your users ask you for?

Of course not. Moreover, some of the “insights” you gain might be contradictory – one user wants you to implement ten new features while another prefers that the app be simple and easy to use.

To evaluate which of the user requests and suggestions you should implement, you can ask yourself the following questions:

• Is this a feature that can make your product better or would it be just an extra nice-to-have?
• How will the functionality affect how the entire product works?
• Will this feature solve a problem or need that more users might have?
• How (and how quickly) could you implement this feature into the product?
• What would your business gain from implementing this feature?

Answering these questions allows you to identify new features that provide real value to your product. But, more importantly, you'll be able to see if your customers' suggestions and ideas fit with the main purpose of your product or if they are far from it. Finally, it is advisable to regularly clean the bottom of the backlog (the place in which the ideas we are not approaching are stored). This ensures less distraction for the product owner and the team as a whole.

Step 5: Add changes to the product or service based on the insights

With a clear understanding of user priorities, your team can now plan and implement meaningful updates to your product or service. Focus on addressing the most frequently mentioned concerns or feature requests in order to develop a strategic approach that takes urgency, benefits, and resources into account.

Maintain open communication with users who provided valuable insights (remember about legal terms – collecting consent which has to be freely given, specific, and unambiguous), involving them in the development process, and ensuring their voices are heard. Not only can this make them feel valued, but it can also encourage them to simply do more of the same (give you feedback). If they sent their feedback into the void, chances are they won’t do it ever again.

Step 6: Be in touch with your customers and thank them for sharing their opinions

The final step in the customer feedback loop is to release the update and thank the users who shared their opinions with you. Mentioning how valuable their insights were for updating the product or service will make them feel heard and boost their trust in the product. Plus, they are more likely to leave a review or comment in the future if they know you will listen to them.

And that brings us back to step one of the feedback loop :)

Constantly encouraging customers to provide feedback will help you grow your business

Even if the majority of updates are introduced, always seek feedback from users – especially those who have been active contributors – in order to evaluate their satisfaction with the changes and gather any additional input. As long as the product has the possibility of development, it won’t enter the declining phase of the product cycle (assuming good decisions regarding prioritization and favorable macroeconomic conditions).

Embracing a cycle of growth is vital for the ongoing success of your product or service. For that, use the 3Vs (vision, value, validation) – one of the methods used to implement the idea of customer feedback loop to continually refine and adapt, strengthening a process of improvement that keeps your offering in tune with user needs.

Remember: You can only find out whether your product is working as your users expect or if there is anything you can do to make them enjoy using it more if you ask them about their experiences.

Conclusion

If your customers feel like their voices are being heard and their opinions are valuable for the business, they will keep reaching out to you with any suggestions or issues they might have.

And that’s what you want, since this is how they are showing that they trust your business or your product/service. What’s more important in today’s business world than trust?

Of course you can’t forget about your main business objectives either, but striking the balance should be much easier with our guide. So go and ask your customers how you can make your product even better and incorporate them into your business – they will be happy to share ideas you wouldn’t hear elsewhere.

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Do you want to know (and do) even more about your user feedback?

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