How to Ask Customers for Help: Get Feedback and Reviews (!) using a Google Forms Survey

Hey business owners — when a customer or client leaves your establishment, do you follow up with a request for feedback and reviews? Or do you find asking for help difficult and awkward?

Well, here is an effective and painless (!) way to ask for help using a quick online survey to gather feedback about your business, and also to ask customers to leave reviews in the process.

The Why

Why should you ask for feedback? By asking for feedback, you empower your customers to voice their appreciation and their concerns, and they provide immediate information on how to improve your services.

In addition, you can use their feedback in testimonials on your website, and perhaps most importantly (!), you can ask clients to leave reviews on your business listings (positive reviews are a critical ranking factor in local listings).

The How

Google Forms are a simple and powerful tool for building customer feedback forms. Click here for a sample Google Form questionnaire (this form is also embedded at the end of this post). You will see examples of some different question types. Also, you will see requests for reviews at the end of the survey.

You can place this feedback form on your website, for example at https://mywebsite.com/feedback. Service-oriented businesses can contact their clients soon after their visit (by email or text), expressing the importance of their opinions to improving your service, and asking them to complete the form.

Retail establishments could pass out business cards with the URL, or perhaps a free pen with the URL printed on it. Customers who appreciate your business will likely want to help make it better – they want you to succeed!

It’s that easy –  you just have to do it!

Information on Google Forms is easy to find in a web search. For example see

• WP Beginner’s How to Embed a Google Form in WordPress, and
• Google’s Using Google Forms.
• And, here is the place to Create a Google Form (you will need to be signed in to a Google account).

Some Suggestions

The number of questions should be relatively small, and even one or two questions might be enough. The questions should be meaningful however.

You might consider creating two different feedback forms, one for less satisfied and one for more satisfied customers. You want to give less satisfied customers a way to express their concerns, and then to see if you are able to address their concerns or not ( it is possible that your business goals are not aligned with their needs). More satisfied customers on the other hand are in a better position to help you fine tune what you already do well, and to promote your services to others with similar needs. The types of feedback you solicit on those two forms might be slightly different.

You should test test test your form. If the form on your website does not behave well on mobile, the URL can automatically redirect to the stand-alone form on Google.

Resources

See the great info in What’s the Best Way to Ask For a Review?

Resource to generate a link to write a Google review. and similarly a Direct Link from Google.

Great tips on refining your links to your Google review section on Super Digital (25 Jan 2018): How to Ask Your Clients for Google + Business Reviews.

A compendium of insights on Google Reviews, on Local Visibility System (14 Feb 2018): 25 Hard Truths about Google Reviews.

How Should You Ask for Online Reviews? The Pros and Cons of Each Approach, from Local Visibility System (Apr 5, 2018)

Moving Forward

Are feedback forms the way to go for your business? If yes, then go for it! Do get in touch if you wish to discuss your situation further, or if we can be be of assistance. You could see enormous returns from this simple process.

Please add any suggestions that you might have in the comments below.

Sample Feedback Form (click for standalone form)