5 types of online audience surveying tools to help create a more customer-centred website and brand. So, this is our recommendation on the different types of online customer feedback tools and web services:
1. Voice of Customer Website Feedback Tools and Software
These provide a permanent facility for customers to feedback by prompts on every page.
They are run continuously to enable continuous feedback including ratings on page content, products and services:
- Kampyle A tool popular with bloggers and smaller sites for which it's free (single form and 50 comments). Paid service for higher volumes. Integrates with Google Analytics well for Feedback Analytics.
- UserSnap - a simple feedback tool for visual feedback - thanks for the comment Noah
- OpinionLab Higher-level tool which tends to be used on large-scale, corporate sites.
- CS Site Manager CS stands for customer satisfaction and this is one of the main benefits of this tool - the capability to continuously research customer satisfaction and benchmark against others using the ACSI methodology.
- PollDaddy Enables surveys to be added as widgets, so good for blogs and custom surveys - includes API
- Bugmuncher - a feedback tab for websites that allows users to easily send highlighted screenshots of webpages along with their feedback. Useful immediately post launch or for testing, but can be deployed continuously
- Qualaroo (originally KissInsights from Kissmetrics) Asks specific questions about a site or individual page types - e.g. product pages or checkout - this is an interesting case study of how it's used to set pricing in a software service product.
2. Crowdsourcing feedback tools and Software
These services give ideas on improving a service based on shared opinions of visitors - they are similar to the Dell Ideastorm approach used to gain ideas on improving Dell's products and services.
- Hotjar. We use Hotjar in our members area to get feedback on new features like our benchmarking and toolkits. We use the free version which can be tailored like Qualaroo.
- Uservoice. A different form of feedback tool from the others since it focuses on innovation, for example product and site suggestions. It positions itself as a crowdsourcing tool. The free version allows for simple votes on ideas and sharing ideas within a forum.
- IdeaScale. Offers structured feedback within customer communities also.
- Google Moderator. Google Moderator can be used for a similar purpose and can be embedded within a site or intranet. Here is a simple crowdsourcing example for practical tips.
Some customers will also feedback on the website experience or customer experience offsite in a forum of which GetSatisfaction is the best known. So feedback on relevant third-party sites should also be monitored. Thanks for your suggestions in the comments - have added UseResponse - which seems to be a lower cost version of GetSatisfaction.
3. Simple page or concept feedback tools
Getting direct feedback on the user experience of a site is one of the most effective ways to get insight about the perceptions of site visitors that just isn't available from analytics. These services arrange for a panel of representative people to give direct feedback on a site by recording a voice over of their experiences and views based on their completing a task such as finding a particular type of product on a retail site. Their views are recorded and then can be played back on video.
- WhatUsersDo - Recruit a small panel of testers to complete a task and they feedback through video (UK-based). UserTesting.com is a widely used US-based version.
- Userlytics Target a particular profile of customer to get mystery shopper / focus group type feedback on a web site or prototype
- Five second test a simpler tool where you can Email or Tweet link to get instant feedback on a page
4. Site Exit Survey Tools - Visit Intent vs Satisfaction Tools
These services rate intent (reasons for visiting a site) and against satisfaction. Not everyone is interested in buying a service immediately or ever, so these Voice of the Customer (VoC) surveys give invaluable insight on the gap between desired and actual experiences on a website or in a mobile app.
- 4Q Survey survey from iPerceptions - Free exit survey tool rating intent (reason to visit site) and satisfaction - now part of the paid iPerceptions toolset - but still free to trial. Some companies use this for redesign, others as permanent tracking
- Foreseeresults - A similar service to iPerceptions. Again a US business but used often in UK too.
- eDigitalResearch - A UK-based business with a range of customer benchmarking and research services - these are not off the shelf, but provide a service using other tools and mystery shopping
5. General Online Survey Tools
Of course many companies use generic low-cost or free survey tools to research audience opinions.
The four most popular services we recommend to compare are:
- Survey Monkey - probably the best known online audience survey tool - with a free option
- Polldaddy - less well-known but we like the style of the questions that we use for our online polls and longer surveys on Smart Insights - we pay to subscribe to this.
- Zoomerang - another well known freemium survey tool option
- Survey Gizmo - our final recommendation - another well-established survey service with free and enterprise options