How to Collect and Leverage Qualitative User Feedback

For any Saas business or company selling digital products, collecting user feedback is critical.

Very often, businesses collect quantitative feedback in the form of NPS scores, five-star ratings, happiness scores, and similar frameworks.

Gathering and analyzing quantitative feedback is simple when compared to qualitative feedback.

You can assign a number to represent the user's experience with the product or a feature. and you can apply statistical analysis to figure out if something is significant.

However, you should not neglect qualitative feedback.  

This type of feedback can give you rich details and tell you a story about the user's journey with your product or company.

As you go through this post, you learn more about qualitative feedback, how to collect it easily, and how to leverage it for your business or product development.

About qualitative feedback

Qualitative feedback is feedback that includes detailed information about the user’s experience with the product or a feature.

It is descriptive and open-ended, and a typical user feedback form or request consists of one or many questions and a form field that allows your user to type in their input in detail.

You can also ask for qualitative feedback through video recordings, live video conference calls, or referring to user-generated content on social media. We'll look at exactly how to collect good feedback later.

Qualitative feedback can provide you with a more in-depth understanding and insights into how users engage with your product, what they like or dislike, and how it's helping them achieve their goals.

Now, let's look at some of the benefits of using qualitative feedback over quantitative ones:

• Get detailed information that a simple rating or number cannot give you
• Understand the sentiment behind the user’s feedback - what exactly works and does not work for them
• Know why users like or dislike a feature or product, so you can make an informed decision about how to improve it
• Understand how your user experiences your product in multiple ways
• Get ideas for ways to improve your user experience through indirect hints indicated by your users' reviews
• Build a positive relationship between your audience and your brand by listening to ideas, suggestions, criticisms, and more

Qualitative feedback also has a number of challenges that make it less compelling to collect.

Let's look at what they are:

• It's difficult to get users to take the time to give detailed feedback and information
• Many reviewers go off tangent or include details that are irrelevant
• It's more challenging to analyze qualitative feedback when compared to quantitative feedback

In spite of the challenges of gathering and processing qualitative feedback, it's something you should work on from the start. As time goes by, you'll have a wealth of information.

And if you leverage them correctly, you'll make your products and business stand out in your market.

5 Steps for Collecting Qualitative User Feedback

Here are multiple ways that you can collect qualitative feedback through written and video formats. The goal is to make it easy and convenient. The slightest obstacle to sharing feedback will lead to the user refusing to continue, and you lose the opportunity to learn important information.

1. Create a limited set of questions

When collecting feedback in the form of reviews, interview answers, or some other format, you want to ask as few questions as possible.

This is because people have limited time and attention spans, and the fewer questions you ask, the more likely they will be to answer them.

Between one to three questions are ideal, but you can ask for five or more if you offer a reward of some kind for in-depth answers. For example, you could give people a digital badge or point. Or you could offer a real benefit in the form of a discount or reward. 

2. Use simple and direct language

Your user should be able to understand the questions right away. When you draft a question, you should use simple terms and phrases and avoid technical terms.

Think of using a conversational tone and refer to the user as 'you' in the questions. Doing so will make people feel like you're talking directly to them.

3. Use a good form tool or plugin

The typical way to collect qualitative feedback is with a form. And while you can use a free tool like Google Forms, I do not recommend it from a professional or business standpoint. There are limited templates and the interface is not optimized for creating a user-friendly experience.

You should consider investing in a dedicated form tool or platform that is designed to compel users to write answers.

This underestimated tip goes a long way to getting answers to begin with as well as better-quality of replies.

Bonus Tip: You should use a conversational form tool - these are interfaces that create the experience of chatting. That is, your respondent will feel like they're typing in a reply to another human being.

4. Don't forget user-generated content

UGC or user-generated content is free content made by your audience or users.

It's the comments they leave on your social media posts, the reviews they leave on sites like G2 or Capterra, and the discussions they have on Reddit or Quora.

Such platforms are sources of unsolicited, honest, and detailed reviews or information.

So, as part of your data gathering, don't forget to comb the internet for what people are saying.

You could use PR and 'mention' tools or SEO tools to help you track what people are saying about you online.

Also, leverage social media listening tools or management tools to track brand mentions on social media. Such tools also have sentiment analysis functions which can save you hours of labor in analyzing UGC around your brand.

5. Encourage non-written content

There’s a significant number of people who dislike writing entirely. Entering social media comments, filling out forms, and so on are taxing and inconvenient. 

There are users who do not have the time to spare for thinking and writing out content. 

In such cases, offer alternatives. Your interviewee or user should have the option to share a voice note. Or they could use a short video recording tool like Loom or their phone camera to share their feedback. 

Let your audience know that you’ll accept feedback in different formats, and you’ll get more options to leverage.  

Over to you

Qualitative feedback may seem 'fluffy' but it can provide information that can transform your product from good to great.

You need to hear about how people experience your website, product, or overall brand experience at all levels.

We've covered some simple tactics to make qualitative feedback gathering easier and more effective. Give these tips a go and learn how your audience feels to give them more of what they need.