Four fundamentals of product feedback loops

Organizations often foster community to facilitate feedback loops between customers and product teams.

In a feedback loop, customers report bugs (in software), request new features, and provide other input relevant to the maintenance and development of the organization’s product or service. The teams within the organization use that input to inform their roadmap and prioritize what to fix and build next. To complete the feedback loop, a company representative communicates with the customers, letting them know how their input will be used and what kind of results they can expect.

Robust and dependable feedback loops benefit both customers and companies by ensuring the following:

1. Customers’ voices are heard and acted upon.
2. Companies’ products/services consistently meet customer needs and wants.

I believe companies need to practice the following four fundamentals to build effective feedback loops (and reap the benefits of doing so - more on these below):

1. Receptiveness
2. Responsiveness
3. Results
4. Recognition

1. Receptiveness

Receptiveness is about being open to feedback—enthusiastically?welcoming?and encouraging it.?It also involves making it easy for customers to provide feedback via a well-known and accessible communication channel, such as email, social media, a community platform (e.g., web forum, Discord or Slack server), a public website (e.g., Butterflye Solutions ' Idea Showcase), or any of the myriad of options.

2. Responsiveness

Responsiveness means promptly acknowledging feedback?by affirming, “We hear you, and we will bring this feedback into internal conversations for careful consideration as we plan the roadmap.”

Responsiveness also requires an easy way for customers to receive communications back from the company — this would typically happen via the same channel through which feedback was originally delivered (see: Receptiveness above) or a channel that complements one of the channels listed above (e.g., Butterflye’s Roadmap).

3. Results

Results mean either integrating feedback into the team’s work plan or not. Whether or not the feedback is acted upon,?results require clear and explicit communication back to customers?so they understand what the results will be — e.g., the bug will be/has been fixed, the feature will be/has been built, etc.

Inevitably, some feedback will not be incorporated into the roadmap. In such cases, it’s important to communicate this to customers. A decision not to build a feature is still a result, even if it’s not the result the customer who requested it was hoping for.

Customers will consider results when making decisions. For example, if the feature they requested is a must-have and they know they won’t get it from you, they may decide to look for alternative products/services that meet their requirements. While losing customers isn’t ideal, neither is trying to retain customers whose needs you can’t meet.

4. Recognition

Recognition is about showing genuine appreciation to customers for spending their time and energy delivering feedback. When customers see that their feedback is truly appreciated, they’ll feel reassured that their time and energy were well-spent and thus compelled to continue sharing feedback in the future.

Recognition is the thread connecting all four foundations.?Companies can recognize customers upon receiving feedback, responding to feedback, and delivering results. Recognition is a form of extrinsic reward that reinforces and motivates the desired behavior of giving feedback.

Firing on all four R’s

With all of these fundamentals (conveniently remembered as “the four R’s”) in place, effective feedback loops are much more possible and probable.

It takes conscious, intentional effort by the company to instill and maintain all four fundamentals in its workflows.?Every team across the organization - community, support, design, product, engineering, etc. - must collectively practice all four R’s to ensure customers experience and feel their effect.

Benefits of investing in feedback loops

Companies stand to reap significant benefits from getting this right:

1. Customer retention and growth: Customers feel more ownership and satisfaction when their voices are heard and have an impact. They demand a product/service that meets their needs, and a company can only know what its customers need by receiving direct input (and observing their use—a form of indirect feedback). Customers are more loyal and more likely to expand their use of a product/service when they know their feedback matters.
2. Customer acquisition: Prospective customers consider whether or not a company receives and acts on feedback when choosing a product/service provider. If they hear current customers raving about a company’s commitment to feedback, they’re more likely to buy—especially in contrast to a company that demonstrates a lack of commitment.
3. Employee hiring and retention: As consumers of products and services themselves, employees understand the importance and impact of a company’s focus on feedback. When employees choose where to work, they’re betting on their employer’s success. To hedge their bets, they’re more likely to join and stay with an employer who values feedback and more likely to pass or jump ship if an employer ignores or devalues customer feedback.

Feedback?

So, those are the four fundamental R’s of effective feedback loops (in my humble opinion). Keeping with the spirit of this post, what do you think?

• Am I missing a critical fifth (or sixth or seventh) fundamental?
• Would you add anything to these four fundamentals if you were giving advice to a company that’s working on its feedback process?