Common Customer Feedback Options
Which Option Is Best For Your Needs?
When selecting a customer feedback tool, think first about your agency's established customer service goals, and then about the scope of your customer feedback needs.
Here's a brief overview of some common feedback collection tools, including information on using social media to collect feedback.
Online, Phone and Mail Surveys
Surveys, particularly online, phone and mail surveys, are among the most frequently used methods for collecting customer feedback (although mail surveys are declining in popularity). Post-transaction surveys (see below), where feedback is collected immediately after an interaction, are common. Read more about online surveys, and general guidance for designing surveys and survey questions.
Post-Transaction Surveys
Post-transaction surveys are conducted immediately after a customer service interaction, and usually provide feedback directly on that interaction. They are particularly useful for establishing customer service performance goals or benchmarks, and setting standards around service delivery. Read more about post-transaction telephone surveys, where a survey is taken at the end of a customer call. If you’re considering using an online survey as a post-transaction survey, learn more about online surveys.
Focus Groups
Focus groups are moderated, small-group discussions where a pre-selected group of individuals (often customers, or potential customers) provide insight into their preferences, attitudes, and opinions about products or services. This feedback provides insight into customer opinions on both existing and potential new services, and can also be used to add more color and insight into feedback collected through other methods. Focus groups can be held in-person or over the telephone, and some organizations leverage customer panels (standing panels of customers who have opted-in to provide feedback on an ongoing basis) to identify focus group participants. Read more about in-person focus groups.
Comment Cards and Feedback Forms
Comment cards and feedback forms are physical, paper cards or forms with one or more survey questions designed to gather customer feedback at the point of an in-person service interaction. These are typically filled out by customers immediately after an interaction and left with someone in your organization. Comment cards can also be completed later and mailed back, or visitors can be directed to a web link to provide additional information. Online feedback forms are similar to paper ones, but instead of leaving the form with someone at your agency, customers leave feedback online after a website visit or after a live experience. Read more about paper comment cards.
Usability Tests
Usability testing is a technique for evaluating a website, application, system, form or product by observing representative user interaction and task completion. Feedback from these tests can be incorporated into improved design and performance. See usability.gov for more information on usability testing. Read Frequently Asked Questions about website usability testing.
Social Media
Social media, such as social networks, online communities, blogs, forums or discussions boards, can be used to collect customer feedback. Systematically collecting and acting upon customer feedback from social media is still fairly new, but this can be an inexpensive means of listening to your customers. For more about social media as it relates to the Paperwork Reduction Act, see OMB memo Social Media, Web-Based Interactive Technologies, and the Paperwork Reduction Act (PDF, 83 KB, 7 pages, April 2010).
Back to How to Collect Customer Feedback
Content Lead:
Alycia Piazza
Page Reviewed/Updated: July 16, 2012
