It’s a constant problem: You know the importance of audience feedback, but getting it is easier said than done. Leaving ratings and reviews will never be as important for a customer (who has a million other priorities) as it will be for a brand (who is entirely focused on optimizing their product and user experience) but that doesn’t mean you have to operate in the dark.
There’s no one better suited to help you understand the needs of your customer base than your customers themselves, so it’s worth a little creative thinking to help them engage with your brand in a way that gives you the information you need without creating friction.
Storyly’s New Question Stickers Make it Easy to Just Ask
One of the main advantages of the Story format is the opportunity for audience participation. Emoji sliders, quizzes, and polls make it easy for users to quickly answer questions like “Who wore it better?” “Which new feature are you most looking forward to?” or “How excited are you for our Spring collection?”
But for more in-depth feedback, multiple choice doesn’t always cut it. That’s why we’ve added the brand new question sticker option that lets you ask your audience anything and gives them complete freedom to respond. Rather than relying on a limited number of options, the questions sticker invites a free text response where users can write in whatever they like. With question stickers, you can go beyond the demographic data on your audience and learn their motivations, needs, and priorities directly from the source and use these insights to create emotional connections with your users!
In-app Story stickers are among the best vehicles for audience engagement and have much higher response rates than email campaigns, notifications, or in-app messaging making them perfect for gathering feedback on user preferences, needs, and expectations.
Getting the Most Useful Feedback
The open-ended nature of the question sticker makes it a powerful tool for gathering audience feedback but make sure to ask the right questions if you want useful answers. For yes-or-no questions or ratings, it’s best to use sliders or polls. Utilize the question sticker when you want to gather deeper insight.
- Make your question specific. Broad questions often lead to broad answers, but actionable insights are often in the specific details of the user experience. Rather than asking if a customer is pleased with their purchase, ask them if there’s anything they would change about the product or what they like most. Go beyond “How did you hear about us?” with “What made you choose us over the competition?” Or gain deep audience insights by asking questions like, “What’s your biggest obstacle to maintaining a workout routine?” “What kind of recipes would you like to see more of?” or “What’s most important to you when choosing a hotel?”
- Make it easy to answer. (Spoiler alert: Storyly questions stickers have you covered!) The more streamlined the process of answering the questions, the more user feedback you will get, and the more helpful those insights will be. Storyly Stories are full screen to minimize distractions, and offer mobile-native interactability, meaning that users can just answer the question sticker directly in the Story without going anywhere!
- Make sure to say thank you. Show users that you value their time and input by thanking them for offering their insights. Consider a thank-you promo code for their next purchase, or contest entry for each answer. Making the experience fun for users will help you get more answers overall, as well as incentivize returning feedback from your most loyal customers.
Qualitative Market Research: Understanding Your Users' Pain Points
A bad review can be a BIG deal, and companies of all sizes should take them seriously. In fact, a recent Corra study showed that by the time a dissatisfied customer writes a negative review, they’ve already decided not to work with that company again and are instead focused on warning others away. And since Moz reports that 65% of online shoppers take reviews into account when making purchasing decisions and that a single negative article can drive away up to 22% of potential shoppers, dissatisfied customers can create a major impact quite quickly.
In order to avoid situations like this, it’s crucial to enhance your market research with qualitative data that goes beyond what users do and illuminates why they make those decisions. The question sticker is an ideal tool for gathering this type of insight straight from the source by opening a dialogue with your audience. Here are a few tips for letting them know you are listening so they can share this vital information.
- Don’t assume you already know your customer’s biggest complaints. According to research by 1st Financial Training Services, 91% of unhappy customers won’t complain to a company about their experience, they’ll simply choose not to patronize them again. But that doesn’t mean they stay silent; White House Office of Consmer Affairs found that dissatisfied customers tell between 9 and 15 people personally about their experience. Storyly’s question sticker creates an invitation for customers to share their concerns while they can still be addressed, greatly aiding in customer retention.
- Show that you value their input. Asking for customer feedback without plans to implement necessary changes is a quick way to erode customer trust and can make your clients feel more unheard than if you’d never asked for feedback in the first place. By contrast, showing customers that their feedback leads to action can have a powerful impact on brand loyalty. Bring back an oft-requested discontinued product, eliminate policies your clients find frustrating, and make design changes when something isn’t working. Honoring client feedback with trackable changes, is a surefire way to create a customer-focused strategy that users will love.
- Prioritize Passion. No one hopes for negative reviews, but negative feedback can be a huge gift. As mentioned above, most unhappy customers will simply abandon a brand, so if someone takes the time to give honest feedback it likely means they care a lot. Picture their journey: They likely bought into your product or service to solve a problem or fulfill a need, but when it doesn’t work out, the problem and the need are still there, unaddressed. By complaining, an angry customer is telling you how to meet their needs and likely the needs of others who left without saying a word. If you are able to fix their problem, your biggest potential detractors could become your best promotors– and they’ll do so with the same passion!
Question Stickers in Action
Open-ended question stickers are a great opportunity to gather actionable insights and learn more about your audience than user data alone could reveal. Here are a few examples of how to put the question sticker to use as an engagement tool for market research, user feedback, and fun!
- Create a sense of community among users by asking about personal favorites like songs, TV shows, and movies. Let these preferences influence your content and social media strategy.
- Find out more about your users' shopping habits by asking them about their last online purchase, or their favorite ways to shop.
- Ask users of finance apps their thoughts on certain economic trends, or what they’d most like to learn about investment strategies.
- Drive engagement by asking for input on a new product collection and reward answers with contest entries.
- Ask users on a recipe app to share their favorite food-related memories and feature some of the answers in a roundup to deepen brand investment
Getting inspired? Great! Book a call today to start opening a dialogue with the experts in your user experience– your customers.
