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Web analytics tools like Google Analytics can provide you with a bag load of statistical information. All good stuff because the info it provides can help you to understand more about your traffic and how to improve your ROI.

But on the other hand, the excitement of whizzy tools like Google Analytics can sometimes mean that more fundamental things are overlooked in relation to how your website is performing.

Think about implementing feedback loops for customers and it’ll give you the best and most honest information around. OK, so some of the feedback may be a little harsh and some of it may be useless but it’s all information that will give you a better understanding of what your customers really want, what they don’t like and what they do like about your website. They may even be nice to you ;0)

We’ve picked out 2 really good feedback loop services than can help you make your websites do more and help to retain more customers. We’re not affiliated with any of these companies but I thought it’d be useful to pick out a couple of real life services that do the job. I do like the look of them both though…

Product Reviews
Everyone uses product reviews these days and it makes perfect sense to do just that. If you’re going to spend £100 on a shiny new thing then you’re going to want to know if it’s worth the money and that it can do the job.

You can easily find the best priced product by using Google Base, Kelkoo and other comparison tools but what you really want to know is what the people who bought it thought of it.

At the same time, you don’t want to cram so many product reviews into your website so that the layout becomes horrible to use and services like Reevoo have overcome this with a number of different ways to layout and style the process of capturing and displaying product reviews on your website.

For more info on Reevoo click here

Customer Satisfaction Surveys
When customers engage with your website their experiences can vary massively because of things like browser differences, operating systems, network connectivity, how skilled the user is etc etc.

You don’t have control of how they interact and the thing is, you’ll never know exactly what happened and what they thought unless you ask them.

Surveying customers can be really low-effort in terms of set-up and deployment and what’s great is that it gives you the very best information on how to keep your customers happy. OK, so some customers won’t respond and you might get some abuse but you’ll be left with info you and your team can really work with.

Shopzilla lets you set-up your own surveys online and they’ll collate and send you the data so all you need to do is make sure your customers are asked to participate.

We’ve talked about automated messaging on our blog before and if you utilise that as a way to deliver surveys using email to your customers, say 3 days after they bought, then the whole process can be automated and set-up with low-effort and low-cost.

…what you waiting for?

Seriously though, you should think about surveys and product reviews for your website. Even if you decide one or both is not for you then at least give them some thought as these could be a couple of things, which are relatively easy to implement, that are holding your website back.