What do you mean by email feedback?
Email feedback is a process of collecting feedback through email. More often, the email contains a link to the brief feedback survey questionnaire, or sometimes it includes an embedded survey that is sent to the targeted audience. The respondents thus get a chance to open the survey and answer the questions in an unbiased manner, or they can answer the questions by responding to the email depending on the delivery method chosen by the surveyor.
For example, an automobile company is interested to know the opinions of the owners who have purchased a recently launched car. As the company has all the details of the customers who bought the newly launched automobile, it becomes easier for the company to send out feedback emails to them. However, before sending the email, they created an appealing, engaging, and thoughtful feedback survey using an equally trusted, reliable, and effective online feedback software. The feedback thus received not only helped the company to understand if the owners are happy with their car, but they also understood the areas needing improvement to enhance customer satisfaction ratio.
Feedback is an opportunity to bring change
Whether it is about a person, product, service, or about an enterprise, we have been giving feedback now and then. Feedback has always been a vital part of communication, irrelevant to whether it is given or taken. Useful feedback will still benefit the giver, receiver, and more extensive organization.
Asking for feedback is the first step to initiate change. By asking for feedback from customers, employees, stakeholders, or other entities, an organization is depicting the respondents how much they care, what they think, and why they want them to have nothing less than a satisfactory experience.
To some extent, it is true that by asking for feedback, you might provoke unhappy customers to give negative or absurd feedback, which they otherwise would not have given. Nevertheless, what about the people who are happy using your products or services, who are advocating your brand, it is essential to provide them with a voice, and email feedback is a way to let them speak. Don’t back off – do not fear the negative criticism, think about the positive minds, and the impact will be immense. Go ahead and make a choice, select the best email feedback software out there and bridge the gap between you and your customers.
Types of Email Feedback
Three primary options are using which surveyors or organizations can collect email feedback.
Embedded email feedback
Embedded email feedback is embedding the feedback survey in the email itself. As all the survey questions are available within the email, the respondents can take the survey and give their feedback in the email body itself without having to open a new window. More often, the survey questionnaire prepared for the embedded email feedback is kept short and less illustrative.
Surveyors prefer close-ended questions when they opt for embedded email feedback, and almost every feedback software online provides a great variety in close-ended questions and rating questions to collect feedback. However, Net Promoter Score, Matrix Questions, and Rating questions are also widely used to collect raw feedback through the embedded email feedback.
For example, a newly opened store wanted their visitors to have a good store experience and at the same time, wanted to understand things that can be improved to provide an even better experience. As most of the visitors were invitees, the store decided to send embedded email feedback to collect their feedback
Redirected email feedback
It is the most typical form, which is a widely used, trusted, reliable, and proven way of collecting feedback through email. Your chosen feedback software will allow you to send a customized feedback survey link to the targeted audience clicking on which the respondent is taken to the new window containing the survey questionnaire. More often, this method is used when the survey questionnaire is lengthy and descriptive.
In some instances, the surveyor motivates the audience to take the survey by. Offering them some reward or incentive on successful completion of the survey. There are no limitations on the use of question types, as surveyors can freely use open-ended, close-ended, multiple-choice, single choice or any questions of their choice
For example, an established restaurant wanted to know what customers think about their services and understand if they are happy with the service, food quality, and ambiance at the hotel. Consistency in service and quality is the hallmark of customer satisfaction; additionally, asking customers for suggestions and areas needing improvement not only creates a feeling of belongingness in them, but it helps in boosting customer loyalty. The restaurant sends a redirected email feedback survey to its customers to collect their honest feedback, suggestions, and to analyze what changes need to be made for reducing the unhappy customer percentage.
Embed question in an email
When you do not want to settle for a traditional method of sending a survey link or survey questionnaire in the email, you can decide on this option. In addition to that, when you want to reduce the churn rate, enhance the email opening, and survey taking speed, then opting for embed questions in an email is the best option.
It works by allowing you to embed only the first question of your feedback survey in the email body. The question works as a motivator giving the respondent a glimpse of the remaining review. When the respondent answers the first question in the email body, then it proves their interest and willingness to take the rest of the survey. Likewise, they are redirected to the remaining part of the feedback survey, which they can complete at their own pace. The feedback survey is just like any other survey wherein the surveyors can opt for any type of questions according to their choice.
300+ free survey templates: sample questions and questionnaires
Three tips for nailing down your email feedback campaign
Using customer feedback software to collect feedback helps you improve product or service quality, analyze customer satisfaction, and enhance the working environment. Before even you start designing your first email feedback campaign, you must outline the motive behind the campaign. Have a word with the internal teams handling sales, marketing, customer support, and development departments. Map what you expect from this campaign and how-to insights in an effective manner, then only you will be able to meet with the end goal of your email feedback campaign.
NOTE: If a customer does not reply to your email, then not even by slightest chance, assume that the customer is happy or satisfied. Remember, only 1 out of 26 unhappy customers take the efforts to give negative feedback others just pile up in the churn; thus, assumptions are harmful in a business.
Keep it Simple Silly (KISS Strategy):
As far as possible, keeping feedback simple and focused is the mantra to get more responses for your email feedback campaign. Do not beg, do not stand on your knees, and do not spread your hands for the feedback. Remove all the unnecessary text, extra elements, and confusing or distracting offers from the mail and speak honestly of your intentions focusing on results.
Here is an example of one of the clutter-free emails asking for feedback: no images, optional headings, bullet points, or distractors used in the body. An email directly speaking of the intended actions and highlighting the call-to-action provokes a response from everyone that is actively engaged in the email.
The focused message and the conversion action we expect from them are conveyed in a simple manner encouraging viewers to take action by clicking the survey link.
Personalize the email
Suppose you met with an accident on a busy street, and you are expecting some help from the people. Still, the probability of someone helping you in the is inversely proportional to the number of bystanders. We call it bystanders effect. Thus, you need to analyze and understand social psychology before sending out the email for collecting feedback. If you send out the survey invitation to a large number of people, then the possibility is that very few people will reply as 90 of email audiences will think that at least someone apart from them will take the survey.
To overcome this problem, you need to personalize the email, address each recipient with his/her first name. Addressing the recipient with his/her first name will make them feel valued, and chances are more than they will think the email was sent directly to them. You are interested in getting feedback from them, initiating prompt action from each of the recipients.
Nevertheless, due to advanced technology, using the first name in the email has become very common. Hence if you have any other details of the recipient which you can use for personalization like where they are working or to which place they belong would work. After addressing them by their names, you can tell them how lucky they are to work for such a prestigious company or mention the name of their city and let them know the weather today is in their city; it will motivate them more to take the feedback survey.
Convey how much their opinion matters
Again you have to deal with the social psychology here as you will be dealing with a bunch of people wanting an explanation as to how their opinion is valuable to an esteemed business like yours. To convince them their opinion matters, you need to convey to them the importance of their opinion.
Therefore, whenever you are sending out email feedback, it is essential to tell them or include in the email body the reason behind asking their input and how you plan to utilize it for their further satisfaction. Take a look at the email template we shared before, and you will understand it communicates what’s important to customers – matters as we plan new features according to their expectations.
Not only it answers to their ‘ why,’ but it also explains ‘how’ their feedback or opinion will be used in the future for their as well as others’ benefit. Ultimately by telling people the reason behind wanting their opinion and your plan to utilize it in the future will help to increase the number of responses you will be getting through your email feedback campaign.
Conclusion
Getting feedback from your employees, customers, or stakeholders about your products or services is a straightforward way of gaining valuable insights necessary to improve and grow your business. However, the entire process from creating feedback surveys to distributing and analyzing them is painstaking unless you opt for a trusted and reliable feedback software.
A well-designed survey helps in retrieving all the necessary data that depicts certain areas where your business is falling short of satisfying your customers or employees. Acting on the insights to bring the expected change puts your business ahead in tapping new markets, grabbing new growth opportunities, and unrevealing unique revenue possibilities.
Irrelevant to why you need feedback, there is no other better communication channel than email. So go ahead and start collecting email feedback to get pleasantly surprising insights and information.
