Feedback is one of the most powerful tools for growth in any industry. When you collect feedback regularly, you can quickly identify areas of growth. You can craft a successful plan for the future with effective feedback management. For these reasons, feedback is one of the best growth hacks for 2024. Let’s dive deeper into this.
Collecting feedback
So why is feedback important? By taking the time to actively solicit feedback, you can create a comprehensive approach to growth. That feedback will be unique to only your product.
Collecting feedback is important. It can provide:
- Excellent overview of customer trends and industry development
- Better understanding of your customers
- A deeper dive into their needs
- Valuable insight into your products and services (and how they’re meeting customer needs)
- Areas for improvement
- Better problem-solving skills
- Culture of continuous improvement
- Edge against your competition
- User buy-in
“Users who provide feedback feel like they have more of a stake in your product and are more likely to stick around.”
Jacques Reulet, customer support at Canny
Here are different types of feedback that your team can look at:
- NPS surveys
- Customer support tickets
- Live chat logs
- Marketing channels
- Feature request boards
- Google Analytics
- Business intelligence tools
Diverse feedback is the key here. It’s important to get feedback from many places. This includes:
- From customers: like reviews and social media comments.
- From your team: your team sees things from the front lines.
Are you not getting enough feedback? Try the following ideas:
- Rewards: give something back to users who share their thoughts
- Keep it simple: make giving feedback easy and quick
- Regular surveys: ask for feedback often, but keep it short
All of that can help you find new opportunities and make better decisions.
“Giving customers a way to give feedback increases engagement. We’ve run our own analysis and noticed a pattern. Clients who leave feedback are 24% more likely to stick around.”
Dan Murray, engineer at Canny
Analyzing feedback
After collecting feedback, the next step is understanding it. This helps make your product better.
Sorting feedback
First, sort out the feedback. Here’s how:
- By type: is it about a bug, new feature, or service? Put similar feedback together.
- By urgency: decide what needs a quick fix and what can wait.
Using AI for smarter analysis
AI and machine learning can make sense of lots of feedback fast. They spot trends and patterns you might miss. This tech can:
- Quickly read feedback: AI goes through comments fast and saves you time
- Find hidden insights: It can uncover helpful ideas in the feedback
Here’s an example. We introduced our first AI feature – smart replies! Canny can now automatically reply to collect more details about each feature request. You won’t have to manually return to each post and clarify the ask.
By analyzing feedback well, you’ll know what your users want. You’ll also stay ahead in the market.
Managing feedback
Collecting and analyzing feedback is great. But then you need to do something about it. The next step in your feedback process is managing it. It’s about seeing patterns and finding an ongoing working method of managing feedback.
There are many ways to do that. But having a centralized portal is by far the easiest way. There are tools out there that will simplify this process.
Ideally, you want to:
- Put all feedback in one place
- Allow people to comment and upvote the requests
- Add tags and segment feedback
- Set prioritization criteria
- Add winning ideas to the roadmap
- Push those tasks to your project management tool
- Keep your teams and your customers up-to-date on the progress
- Post changes and updates to the changelog
Let’s talk more about prioritization.
Prioritizing feedback
Knowing what to do first matters. Think about:
- User impact: how much does it affect your users?
- Easy wins: can you make quick improvements?
- Long-term value: will it make your product better over time?
There are lots of prioritization frameworks and methods you can try. We compiled a list of the best ones here – check it out.
Integrating feedback in development
Feedback should shape your product. To do this:
- Hold regular reviews: look at feedback when planning new updates
- Implement fast: try to find low-hanging fruit for quick improvements
- Evaluate ideas: prioritize feature requests to find the best opportunities
- Use feedback in design: use user ideas when designing new features
By managing feedback well, you help your product grow. It also shows your users that their voices matter.
Pleasing customers
Gathering and managing feedback can also lead to a stronger customer relationship. You’ll also get a better understanding of your brand – how your customers see it.
Happy customers don’t typically complain. And super happy customers become your brand ambassadors. They tell their friends and bring business to you. They tweet about you when you don’t even ask. And those are the best referrals you could ask for.
How can you use customer feedback to please your customers? Here are a few ideas.
- Quick fixes: solve small problems fast. It shows you’re listening.
- Customer-inspired features: add features or services your users ask for. It makes them feel heard.
- Regular updates: show you’re working on their feedback. Keep them in the loop.
Canny has a built-in changelog feature that helps with that. Everyone who voted for that feature gets notified as soon as your update is live.
Building a feedback culture
Creating a culture that values feedback is vital in any organization, especially in fast-moving sectors.
A feedback-friendly environment starts with open communication:
- Regular meetings: hold team meetings where everyone can share ideas and feedback
- Easy way to give feedback: encourage your team to speak freely and share honest feedback
Some tools might help with that. For example:
- Internal surveys: to gather anonymous feedback from employees
- Collaboration platforms: platforms where employees can easily share ideas and feedback in real time
Feedback management is a skill and requires continuous learning. How can you advance it?
- Workshops: conduct workshops on how to give constructive feedback
- Feedback as part of performance reviews: incorporate peer feedback into evaluations
Management should lead by example. Act on the specific feedback you receive. Show that employee feedback leads to action.
Building a feedback culture improves your product and empowers your employees. It creates a sense of ownership and pride in their work. This boosts employee satisfaction.
Moving forward
So why is feedback important?
It keeps you on track and gives you a competitive edge. It shows you’re listening and caring about what your customers think. This builds trust and loyalty. Happy customers tend to stay and even become advocates for your brand. They’re your best marketers, sharing their positive customer experience with others.
The future of feedback management
Feedback management will likely evolve in the near future. Expect to see:
- More AI and automation. AI will play a more significant role in analyzing feedback and spotting trends faster.
- Integrated systems. Feedback tools will become more integrated with other platforms.
- Proactive feedback collection. Businesses will actively seek feedback at every customer touchpoint.
Want to hear more predictions? Check out our recent blog about top SaaS trends for product managers in 2024.
Long-term benefits of a feedback system
A robust feedback system brings long-term gains like:
- Continuous improvement. Regular feedback leads to ongoing refinement of products and services.
- Customer-centric innovation. Feedback-driven innovation ensures that new features and services truly meet customer needs.
- Building a loyal community. Customers feel valued and part of your product’s journey.
The critical role of feedback in 2024
In 2024, feedback isn’t just nice to have. It’s essential. It’s the key to understanding your market, improving your product, and increasing customer satisfaction. The ability to quickly adapt based on user feedback can make or break a business.
Feedback can help you stay focused on the right goals and give you an edge over your competition. When you show your customers that you care about their opinions, they’ll be over the moon. They’ll trust you more and stick around because they know your product is constantly improving. Moreover, it’s improving in the way that they want it to. What’s not to love?
Don’t forget about employee feedback too. It helps employee engagement and job satisfaction.
Start managing user feedback and boost your growth in 2024!
