Quick wins: 4Q for continuous user feedback
4Q is a quick, simple and free way to solicit useful feedback from your visitors.
Requiring the addition of just a line of JavaScript, 4Q invites a proportion of your visitors to offer their feedback on your site by answering 4 quick questions. If accepted, the survey hides in the background. Once the user has finished their visit, they are asked the following questions:
- Based on today's visit, how would you rate your site experience overall? (Choose a value between 1 and 10)
- Which of the following best describes the primary purpose of your visit? (Customised list of reasons, plus a free-text other option)
- Were you able to complete the purpose of your visit today? (Yes/no) If no, user is asked: Please tell us why you were not able to fully complete the purpose of your visit today? (Free text)
- What do you value most about the [company] website? (Free text)
These key questions are perfect for tracking the relevance of your site to your users needs over time.
Although there are a multitude of user survey systems available, I particularly like 4Q because:
- The DHTML invitation is lightweight, clearly signposted and can feature a logo of your choice.
- You can set the percentage of visitors invited to take part.
- By capturing a feedback at the end of a visit, you capture your visitor's real feelings on your site
- The results are stored for up to 6 months, allowing you to view the effect of any changes to your site over time.
- It's completely free, even for commercial use!
Periodically reviewing the feedback and comments left by visitors has proved really beneficial. I have been alerted to small annoyances in design and copy that are trivial to fix and offer real improvements to users.
