Getting feedback from users - what's the best method?

Getting useful feedback without irritating users

[HarryM]

Not sure if this is the right forum, but I couldn't find one more suitable.

I want to get feedback from users but am not sure of best approach. The site is non-commercial.

There are plenty of methods. Pop-under questionaires. Formmail scripts. Commercial products. Even (shudder) guest books. But I am not sure which is the best way to encourage people to provide feedback, and not merely irritate them. :)

Anyone any experience in this?

[Dreamquick]

I have experience being on the recieving end of this (as we all do) and I'd like to point out that no matter how well worded it is a questionaire inside a popup/under gets closed before it's even loaded...

For me the best way to get feedback is to put something eye-catching up on the normal screen (maybe an image) asking for feedback, if I'm ever going to give that site feedback that's your best chance of getting it...

- Tony

[cfx211]

If you collect email addresses of users, send them a survey from using zoomerang or something similar. If you get their phone number give them a call. I used to do both for the last company I worked for, and found that for qualitative feedback nothing beats talking to people.

Just ask them if they have some time to talk, and most people don't mind that you called them.

[HarryM]

Thanks for the replies. Unfortunately my PC was being upgraded, so I couldn't reply sooner.

If you collect email addresses of users

This isn't a commercial site, so I have no reason to justify asking for email addresses, and I am sure nobody would supply them. :)

What I am looking for is having a faciliy on each page which is attractive (but also unobtrusive), and will encourage users to provide feedback. But which way to go? A standard form with check boxes? An open question and text area? Output to email or database? Or a proprietory solution?

Has anybody any experience of this?

[aspdaddy]

What kind of feedback do you want?
Have you tried alt.html.critique

[HarryM]

No, I'm not after comment on the site's appearance or technical aspects, but comment on the content. From the stats I can see people who spend as much as 30 mins on the site. So what do they like, and what don't they like?

I would like to provide an opportunity for feedback, but the question is which method is most effective?

[John_Caius]

I am involved in a large non-commercial site. Because it provides health-related information, all users are required to tick the "I have read and accepted the terms and conditions of use" box before continuing and we also collect some anonymous data like "are you a doctor, patient or interested member of the public?".

Within this four-point questionnaire is a voluntary e-mail address box. 20-25% of our users fill this in and 75% of the addresses are valid. We get about 10,000-15,000 visitors a day.

[John_Caius]

The first step should be to set up a feedback form and link to it with useful inviting text like "help us to improve the quality of the information we provide".

Step two - you could set up a discussion forum with controls in place to minimise spam etc. Discussion forums are better for getting feedback than guest books because a community is less prone to spam than a one-way comment box.

[clearvision]

How about after each article, info bit etc. you put a small,quick form that asks them to rate the page and also allows them to add text info, questions or comments(the creative part of me wants to call it "Quick Rate"). Make sure it refers them back to he same page or another page that may be of interest... it may increase page views as well :)

[HarryM]

Thanks all for the input. I have now set up a php formmail system and will see how it goes.