I've been reading a book about Barack Obama's presidential election campaign and it struck me again just how important feedback is when communicating, especially online.

Feedback is important in any interchange between two parties. Gauging how a message is being received is not only helpful, it's vital if you want to keep the conversation alive. A conversation will not last long if what one party is saying is offensive to the other party; they are likely to get up and leave the table fast. So why do so many sites not allow users to give feedback? Do they think they have the perfect message? I certainly hope not.

I've been doing some work recently with a site that is setting up an online community. It's going to be a great site and they are keen to do things as best they can. I noticed they didn't have any feedback loop so asked them about it and there reply was rather telling about how they viewed communication at that point. They said "we will ask them a couple of times a year and see what they tell us. We did this last year and we got about half of our emails back with good feedback, so we are happy" I nearly fell off my chair when I heard that! nearly HALF of their whole list had something to say that needed fixing - that's huge in my books. They had no other way for their users to let them know about problems or frustrations and by the time they asked, half of the users had something to say instantly. That's bad news to me.

The idea with getting feedback is encouraging conversation, not limiting or restricting it. Only asking for feedback once or twice a year could hardly be considered encouraging conversation.

The good news is that once the client and I had talked through the point of gathering feedback, we all agreed that users should be able to talk to us as soon and as often as they think of something they want to say.

So here are five keys to gathering feedback:

1. Feedback is the best market research you will ever get
Many organisations spend huge amounts of cash on finding out what people think, like, desire, need etc. Then when they find out, they find a solution, sell it and make heaps. Feedback from existing users gives you all those insights for free. They will tell you all sorts of things from a small glitch that annoys them, to how you could make your product better for them. You don't have to pay a cent to get all this info. All you have to do is make it easy for your users to give it to you.

2. Everyone's opinion is valid (although you don't have to take it)
Don't limit the feedback you get to only registered users. If you are serious about getting insights about your product, service, or site etc. you need to hear from anyone and everyone. You might get feedback from a first time visitor who hasn't read all the information they should have and they tell you to add a feature that already exists. Some might think "silly fool didn't read enough or see the info" but really want you are being told is that this visitor really wants that feature and they didn't see it up front so they moved on. That equals an unnecessary lost sale simply because the feature wasn't promoted high enough or in the right place. By listening to the feedback, you don't have to change much and you will likely make that sale next time. Getting feedback from everyone is key to good feedback.

3. Make it obvious you want feedback
There is an interesting physiological block that people have to clicking on small bland slightly hidden links. People don't like clicking on feedback links when they are made so small and stuffed at the bottom of a page. It makes them feel like the website doesn't actually want to hear what they have to say.

[Example of a hidden feedback loop]

Make your feedback links obvious and inviting. Remember, feedback is all about encouraging a conversation. The feedback link doesn't have to be the biggest on the page, but do try and make it the same size as everything else. Check out the Google example of making the feedback loop the same as everything else on their page.

[Google feedback loop]

4. Use multiple feedback mechanisms and don't discredit any feedback received through a unconventional method
Feedback is precious and valuable. A user has taken some of their precious little time and spoken to you when they didn't have to. Treat them with respect and make it as easy as possible for them to give you that feedback. Give them as many options as you can resource. Give them emails, forms, forums, places to vent etc. Every user is different and will have a different method they would prefer to share their feedback with you through. If you can accommodate them, do. The insights they share are well worth the effort. And on that note, if you get feedback through an unconventional method like your 'contact us' email or form, don't spend them away with a smack on the hand for using the wrong method. Acknowledge them and let them know the feedback as been received just like any other mechanism you use.

5. Acknowledge the feedback has been received and let them know as much as possible about what will happen with it.
This can be as simple as some text on the 'thank you' page or an auto email response. You are just trying to let the user know that you got their message and their time wasn't wasted. All it has to say is something like:

"Thank you for your feedback.

We are Acme Widgets value your insights and we will do our best to get back to you personally. However, we can't reply to everyone so please don't be offend if we don't get back to you personally. Consider this as confirmation your feedback has been received.

Regards,
Acme Widgets"

In the next week we will talk about some different methods for collecting feedback and how you can implement them for cheap or free.