“I don't like the new interface!”, “Why isn’t there a button for …”, “Doesn’t work on android!” – user comments can be a killer but also indicates where there’s room for software improvements. Just monitoring feedback isn’t enough though; you need to turn it into meaningful and actionable insights. The number of feedback channels have increased over time and so has the volume, which makes manual feedback tracking impossible.
These days, customer feedback is instantaneous. If an inaccuracy has leaked into production and landed on the market, the users will surely let others know about it via social media, on review pages, on app stores, and e-commerce sites. It could be a particular product, a specific feature or a service that doesn’t fulfill their wishes – the feedback comes immediately and is sometimes harsh.
Make the customer part of your team
What to do then? Consider incorporating user comments into your daily development and testing processes. Why is it so important? The possibility to ongoingly incorporate user feedback in development, testing, marketing, and other processes, can separate your solution from the rest.
Earlier, feedback cycles were longer and could be handled differently. Now, competition is fierce and speed is everything. If you’re able to quickly gather and understand end-user feedback, you can identify defects, validate requirements, plan enhancements and new product design initiatives. And this means that you can take the improved version to market at speed. It will also help to understand your company’s social footprint, to compare your solution with competing solutions, and to improve your social media strategy.
Capture the customer sentiment
How do you do it then? Businesses need to devise a methodology through which they can extract relevant data from user reviews and convert them to valuable customer insights. It’s one thing to just gather data; making meaning out of it requires a more advanced tool. Go for a tool that allows:
At the end of the day, it’s about understanding the customer expectations better by continuously involving their voices in the process. Performed correctly, it paves the way for improved quality, an enhanced user experience, better brand-building, and, outermost, improved sales. With CXInsight, Cognizant helps some of the world’s most reputable companies to incorporate user feedback to amplify a variety of processes. What are you waiting for?
Heinrich Grefe
Director Quality Engineering and Assurance
