This is how you correctly ask for customer feedback at relevant contact points
Customer feedback can provide useful insights into what customers want and need. With this touchpoint cheat sheet you ask the right questions at the right time.
Obtaining customer feedback along the customer journey offers the opportunity to gain valuable insights into the needs of customers. Why did the customer migrate? How satisfied was she with the customer service interaction? Does the product meet your expectations? The questions that often arise, however, are: “How do I ask what? And when do I ask? ”. The following touchpoint cheat sheet is intended to remedy this by providing an introduction to customer journey mapping and explaining how to ask the right questions at the right time and at the right touchpoint. This example is an exemplary customer journey that works for companies in different industries, such as digital services.
Contents
Gaining insights at crucial touchpoints: the customer journey map
By systematically collecting customer feedback at various contact points along the customer journey, you can gain specific insights into customer wishes and needs. Depending on the journey step and touchpoint, different query formats are suitable to achieve the best results. In order to define which important contact points exist with customers, it is advisable to set up a customer journey map as the basis for this process.
Illustration of an exemplary customer journey. (Graphic: Zenloop)
To briefly outline the customer journey map: The horizontal axis reflects the steps that customers go through from creating a need to making a purchase decision and beyond. This means that a complaint, a complaint or a repurchase is also shown on the horizontal axis. The vertical axis shows possible analysis levels at each step. These levels are, for example, the internal processes at the respective point, the right contact person in the company or the marketing channels that come into play at this point.
Asking the right questions at the right time
Once the customer journey map is in place, the basis for the systematic customer feedback query is created. In order to achieve optimal results with customer surveys along the customer journey, various best practices have emerged for the individual touchpoints:
Website overlay or embedded Net Promoter Score surveys (NPS) are particularly suitable here to gain insights into the user-friendliness of the online shop or the website itself as well as the product selection. If a purchase is not completed, abandoners can be reached with exit intent pop-ups directly on the website or subsequently via shopping cart abandonment emails and asked about the reason for the abandonment via email embed, provided the contact details and contact permission is available.
Survey embedded in website. (Graphic: Zenloop)
Touchpoint 2: purchase and payment
Through a website overlay or an NPS survey embedded on the website, visitors can be asked directly after the purchase process has been completed. This makes it possible to determine satisfaction with the order and payment process.
Website overlay. (Graphic: Zenloop)
Customers can provide important feedback on the quality of the product or service they purchase. The survey e-mail with an embedded NPS query is also best practice here and should ideally be sent a few days after purchasing or receiving the product. Online retailers who have physical products to ship often also send a survey immediately after delivery (a maximum of one day later) to find out how satisfied they are with the delivery process.
Survey embedded in email. (Graphic: Zenloop)
Touchpoint 4: Change and Help
After contacting customer service or a change in the customer portal, customers can give important feedback on service quality and the structure and user-friendliness of the portal. Findings can be used to train employees and improve service quality, as well as to optimize the products and processes of the portals concerned. After contacting customer service, a survey e-mail or, if contact was made by telephone, an SMS is particularly suitable. The premise here is to keep communication as seamless as possible. After making changes without personal contact, a website overlay or embed is suitable after the action is complete.
Touchpoint 5: termination
If a termination occurs, it is essential to understand the reasons for this in order to initiate improvements and actively counteract further terminations. In the best case, companies can win back the affected customers or at least prevent other customers from churning. Here, too, a follow-up email or SMS is suitable after personal contact and, in the event of termination without personal contact, an NPS query via overlay or website embed.
Judith Oberdorf is Head of Customer Success at the integrated experience management platform zenloop. She is an expert in customer experience management and advises zenloop brands such as HelloFresh, Trade Republic, Douglas and Mister Spex.
