October 29th, 2009
Posted by David Priemer, Product & Community
Whitney Hess is a talented and passionate user experience designer based in New York City. Just over a year ago Whitney decided to go out on her own and become an independent consultant, and in doing so, became the focal point of her client’s experience.
Wanting to do everything she could to continuously exceed her clients expectations, she crafted a customer feedback survey using SurveyMonkey. When the effort yielded fewer responses than she expected, she turned to Rypple. She and I had a lovely chat were I was able to share some customer-engagement insights based on our experience with others looking to do the same.
For the benefit of the Rypple nation, here they are:
Tip #1: Ask early and often
Finding out that the client didn’t understand your services proposal, fee structure, or found your hourly status updates annoying AFTER the project is over doesn’t help anyone! On the other hand, asking focused questions at key points during the customer engagement cycle (ie. kickoff, working sessions, go-live, etc.) will help you continuously assess and refine the value of your services!
Examples:
Proposal: “What’s one thing I could have done to enhance the clarity of my proposal?”
Kickoff: “What’s the most important thing I need to know about communicating with you?”
Build: “What’s one thing you feel I could have done to better prep for the design session?”
Go-Live: “How did the work I did for you add the most value in terms of business outcomes?”
Tip #2: Keep ‘em focused
Whenever you request feedback, short, focused questions on a single topic are your best bet. Keep in mind:
- Regardless of how well crafted they are, people don’t like filling out surveys! Most people, however, are more than happy to answer one quick, 30 second question (remember the power of the one thing!), and high response rates are what you’re after!
- When questions are super-focused, the responses will be as well. Since focused responses = actionable feedback, keeping your questions focused will allow you to incorporate fast incremental changes over time!
Tip #3: ACT, ACT, ACT!
Who cares if you got the most helpful feedback ever if you don’t DO something about it! The good news is that little bits of actionable feedback makes it super-easy to take small actions. Small actions are easy to take, and guess what? Small things get noticed!
Want an example? Check THIS out. A quick piece of Twitter feedback from Adam Goldstein, an awesome UI Architect at Orbitz, allowed the Rypple team to make an easy change on our site and reap some micro-kudos 
The point is, the impact of a client perceiving your real-time improvement can be huge! What’s more, when they see how quickly you take action and improve, the more likely they’ll be to keep the actionable feedback coming.
Tip #4: Cast a wide feedback net
Asking questions directly to your customers is a great way to engage them and improve the value of your the services you provide. BUT, there are tons more people out there who know things about you! Things that can help you succeed.
These people read your blog, they follow you on Twitter, and they sit quietly in your audience when you present at client meetings or events! Why not then use some cool Rypple tools to ensure you never miss an opportunity capture that feedback! For example:
- Feedback URLs: every time you create a question using Rypple, you can create a custom URL where others can find your question. Why not add that URL to the last slide in your deck so people can provide feedback from their smartphone right after the presentation! Or how about syndicate your request from your Twitter feed like this!
- Feedback Widgets: turn your website into a 24/7 feedback machine that feeds right into Rypple! Find out how HERE.
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If you’re looking for a great story of an organization using Rypple to engage their clients (and getting MONSTER response rates while doing it!) then check out this video from Don Duval, Vice President of Business Services, at MaRS Discovery District.
Tags: customers, Feedback, Rypple
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