The Customer Success Managers’ Guide to Customer Feedback Tools

You're a Customer Success manager (CSM), juggling multiple accounts, striving to ensure each customer is not just satisfied but genuinely thrilled with your product. Amidst the whirlwind of tasks, one critical question keeps surfacing: how do you know what your customers truly think? This is where customer feedback tools come into play. 

Customer feedback tools are software applications or platforms designed to collect, manage, and analyze feedback from customers. These tools facilitate various methods of gathering insights, such as surveys, questionnaires, polls, and direct feedback forms. 

The primary purpose of these tools is to understand customer experiences, preferences, and pain points – enabling businesses to make data-driven decisions to enhance their products, services, and overall customer satisfaction. 

In this guide, we’ll discuss these invaluable resources, helping you understand their significance, navigate your options, and ultimately leverage them to elevate your customer relationships. Ready to turn feedback into your secret weapon for success? Let's dive in.

The importance of feedback in Customer Success 

Customer feedback is indispensable for driving product improvement and achieving high levels of customer satisfaction. Understanding the voice of the customer is crucial for building strong relationships and ensuring long-term success. Here's a detailed look at why customer feedback is so important:

Direct insights into customer needs

• Understanding preferences: Feedback helps CSMs grasp what customers like and dislike about products or services. This understanding allows businesses to tailor their offerings to better meet customer expectations.
• Identifying pain points: By highlighting specific areas where customers face challenges, feedback provides a roadmap for addressing issues that may hinder customer satisfaction and retention.

Informed strategic decisions

• Data-driven decisions: Feedback offers concrete data that can guide strategic decisions. This data can reveal trends and patterns that might not be visible through other means.
• Prioritizing improvements: With clear feedback, CSMs can prioritize which product features or services need immediate attention, ensuring that resources are allocated efficiently.

Enhancing customer experience

• Customized solutions: Understanding individual customer needs enables CSMs to offer personalized solutions, which can significantly enhance the customer experience.
• Improving communication: Feedback often uncovers gaps in communication, allowing CSMs to refine their engagement strategies and ensure customers feel heard and valued.

Anticipating and addressing issues

• Proactive problem solving: Regular feedback collection helps CSMs identify potential issues before they escalate, allowing for timely interventions that prevent customer churn.
• Continuous improvement: By constantly monitoring feedback, CSMs can implement iterative improvements, ensuring the product or service evolves in line with customer expectations.

Boosting customer loyalty

• Building trust: When customers see that their feedback is taken seriously and leads to tangible improvements, their trust in the company increases.
• Creating advocates: Satisfied customers are more likely to become advocates for the brand, spreading positive word-of-mouth and driving new customer acquisition.

Competitive advantage

• Staying ahead of competitors: Businesses that actively listen to and act on customer feedback can stay ahead of competitors by continuously improving their offerings.
• Market adaptability: Feedback provides insights into market trends, enabling companies to adapt quickly and remain relevant in a constantly changing market landscape.

Effective feedback collection allows CSMs to identify areas for improvement, gauge customer satisfaction, and anticipate potential issues before they escalate. 

By proactively addressing customer concerns and making data-driven decisions, CSMs can enhance product offerings, improve service delivery, and ultimately drive customer loyalty and long-term success.

Now that you know why feedback is important, let’s explore some of the top tried-and-tested feedback tools for Customer Success teams.

Top customer feedback tools

Selecting the right feedback tool is crucial for gathering meaningful insights. Here are some of the top customer feedback tools available, each with unique features and benefits:

1. Velaris

Velaris is a powerful tool designed to enhance Customer Success Management through its advanced features and seamless integration capabilities. 

In terms of collecting customer feedback, Velaris’ features include:

• Customization: In-app surveys can be customized according to your own branding.
• Automation: Surveys and follow-up emails can be automated to send out according to a schedule or specific triggers and responses.
• Segmentation: Surveys can be sent out to pre-set customer segments.
• Insights: Feedback can be viewed and filtered through directly on the platform.
• Key metrics: Can be used to track essential indicators like Net Promoter Score (NPS), Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT), and engagement.
• Proactive alerts: Generates alerts based on health trends, allowing for early issue intervention.
• Collaboration: Centralizes feedback, enhancing team coordination and communication.

Besides being a useful customer feedback tool for CS teams, Velaris also provides multiple benefits in terms of automation, reporting, project management, collaboration, and AI-powered insights that make the process of improving the customer experience easier. 

2. SurveyMonkey

SurveyMonkey is a widely-used tool for creating online surveys and collecting feedback. Its ease of use makes it accessible to both technical and non-technical users.  

Key features that benefit Customer Success teams include:

• Customization: Offers a variety of survey templates and the ability to create custom forms.
• Distribution: Surveys can be sent through multiple channels, including email, social media, and website embedding.
• Reporting: Provides real-time analytics and visualizations for tracking responses.
• Automation: While not as sophisticated as specialized tools, SurveyMonkey does offer basic scheduling and automated reminders.

SurveyMonkey is an effective way for Customer Success teams to gather feedback, particularly in the early stages of building a feedback loop. However, it lacks the in-depth segmentation, proactive alerts, and real-time issue tracking that specialized CS tools like Velaris provide. For advanced reporting, automation, and collaboration, CS teams may need additional tools or manual workarounds.

3. Typeform  

Typeform is known for its conversational, user-friendly surveys that can be customized to create more engaging experiences for respondents.  

Features that support CS teams include: 

• Interactive design: Typeform’s engaging survey format helps drive higher response rates.
• Customization: Allows users to brand and style surveys to match company aesthetics.
• Conditional logic: Creates more personalized surveys based on how customers answer certain questions.
• Integrations: Can be connected to tools like HubSpot and Google Sheets for deeper data analysis.

Typeform’s engaging interface can make the survey experience more enjoyable for customers, leading to more thoughtful feedback. However, it doesn’t have specific features tailored to Customer Success, such as health score tracking or built-in segmentation for targeting different customer cohorts. For CS teams, Typeform works best when paired with other tools that can handle more comprehensive Customer Success needs.

4. Qualtrics 

Qualtrics is a robust experience management platform used by large enterprises for detailed customer, employee, and brand feedback.  

Useful features for Customer Success include: 

• Advanced analytics: Provides sophisticated data analysis, including machine learning-based insights.
• Customization: Surveys can be tailored extensively, with options for branching logic, text analysis, and more.
• Omnichannel feedback collection: Allows teams to gather feedback from a variety of sources, including mobile apps, websites, and social media.
• Dashboards and reports: Features customizable dashboards for tracking key metrics like NPS and CSAT.

Qualtrics is a highly versatile tool that gives CS teams access to a wide range of feedback collection and analysis options. While it offers advanced reporting and insights, its broad scope may be more than what smaller CS teams need, especially when compared to dedicated Customer Success platforms like Velaris that focus on proactive customer health monitoring and collaborative workflows.

5. HubSpot  

HubSpot is a CRM platform that includes tools for customer feedback, particularly as part of its Service Hub.  

Key features for CS teams include:

• Surveys: HubSpot offers simple NPS, CSAT, and customer effort score (CES) surveys, integrated into its CRM platform.
• Automations: Follow-up emails and workflows can be triggered automatically based on customer feedback.
• Reporting: Feedback is integrated directly into the CRM, allowing teams to view it alongside customer histories and other important data.
• Customer segmentation: HubSpot’s CRM allows teams to segment customers based on various criteria, which can help target feedback more effectively.

HubSpot’s customer feedback tools are an excellent complement to its CRM capabilities, providing an integrated view of the customer journey. For CS teams already using HubSpot, this can streamline their workflow. However, it doesn’t offer the in-depth Customer Success management features that specialized tools like Velaris can provide.

6. Customer Thermometer  

Customer Thermometer is a simple yet effective tool for gathering quick feedback, often through one-click surveys embedded in emails.  

Features that benefit CS teams include: 

• Ease of use: Allows teams to embed feedback buttons in emails, making it easy for customers to respond with just one click.
• Customization: Feedback buttons and email templates can be customized to match your brand.
• Reporting: Provides real-time insights into feedback, with notifications for negative responses.
• Integrations: Connects with tools like Salesforce, Zendesk, and Slack to feed feedback into other workflows.

Customer Thermometer is great for getting quick feedback from customers without overloading them with lengthy surveys. It works well for capturing immediate customer sentiment, but it doesn’t offer the deep analytics or proactive Customer Success features of specialized platforms. CS teams may find it useful for quick touchpoints but will need a more robust tool for managing long-term customer relationships and improving retention. 

1. Zonka Feedback

Zonka Feedback enables businesses to collect and act on real-time customer insights across multiple channels, helping teams quickly enhance satisfaction by addressing trends and concerns.

Features that support Customer Success teams include:

• Multi-Channel Feedback Collection: Zonka Feedback captures insights across email, SMS, web, and kiosks, allowing businesses to reach customers wherever they’re most engaged.
• Real-Time Analytics: Provides in-depth reporting on customer satisfaction scores, such as NPS, CSAT, and CES, to monitor feedback trends.
• Customizable Templates: Allows teams to design surveys that align with brand aesthetics and meet diverse customer feedback needs.
• Automated Alerts and Follow-Ups: Enables quick responses to customer feedback, helping to improve customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Zonka Feedback’s robust features allow Customer Success teams to easily capture feedback and monitor key satisfaction metrics, making it ideal for companies focused on continuous customer experience improvement. While Zonka Feedback offers powerful insights and feedback capabilities, it is most effective for Customer Success when paired with dedicated tools for advanced health scoring and customer segmentation.

Now that we’ve explored some of the best customer feedback tools for CS teams, let’s explore how you can ensure you’re selecting the right one.

Choosing the right customer feedback tool for your needs

Selecting the best feedback tool requires careful consideration of your specific needs and goals. Here are some key factors to consider:

• Identify your goals: Different feedback tools serve different purposes. Identify whether your primary goal is to improve customer satisfaction, identify product issues, or gather insights for strategic planning.

• Consider your audience: Understand your customer base and choose tools that cater to their preferences. 

• Evaluate key features: Look for essential features such as ease of use, customization, and integration capabilities. 

Many of the best customer success software feature comprehensive feedback tools that can improve your understanding of customers. Once you’ve selected the right tool for you, you’ll be able to move on to the next step – which is making the most out of the feedback you receive.

Best practices for integrating feedback into your Customer Success strategy

To maximize the benefits of customer feedback tools, it's essential to integrate them effectively into your CSM strategy. Here are some tips:

• Regularly collect feedback:  Continuous feedback collection ensures you stay updated on customer sentiments and needs. The best way to do this is by scheduling regular feedback requests and automating the process to maintain consistency. Tools like Velaris can be useful here, as their drag-and-drop automation builders make it easier to standardize these processes and increase efficiency.

• Analyze and act on feedback: Effective analysis of feedback data is crucial. Use analytics features to identify trends, pinpoint issues, and uncover opportunities for improvement. Velaris' integrated analytics capabilities allow you to combine feedback data with other customer health metrics, providing a holistic view of customer satisfaction and engagement.

• Enhance customer collaboration and communication: Encourage customer collaboration in the feedback process. For this you can use platforms that facilitate communication and collaboration with customers. Velaris, for instance, excels in bringing customer collaboration and communication into one place, making it easier to engage with customers and gather valuable insights.
• Ensure anonymity and confidentiality: Protecting customer privacy is crucial for honest feedback. Ensure your feedback tools offer options for anonymity and confidentiality. Provide clear guidelines on how feedback will be used and assure customers that their responses will remain confidential.
• Close the feedback loop: Closing the feedback loop involves acknowledging receipt of feedback, acting on it, and informing customers of the actions taken. Use tools like Velaris that facilitate follow-up communication with customers.

By consistently gathering, analyzing, and acting on customer insights, you can create a culture of proactive improvement. This ensures your team stays aligned with customer needs and anticipates challenges before they escalate. 

Conclusion

In today’s competitive landscape, effectively collecting and integrating customer feedback is essential for driving growth and retaining loyal customers. With the right tools, your team can turn customer insights into actionable strategies that enhance your product, service delivery, and overall customer experience. 

While non-specialized feedback tools like SurveyMonkey and HubSpot offer valuable features, specialized solutions like Velaris provide a more tailored approach to managing Customer Success, offering deeper insights, automation, and collaboration capabilities.

If you're looking to elevate your Customer Success strategy and ensure that your feedback processes are as efficient and impactful as possible, exploring a specialized tool like Velaris could be the next step in your journey. 

Book a demo today to see how Velaris can help you streamline feedback collection, improve customer satisfaction, and drive long-term success.