What is Direct Feedback?

Direct feedback is customer input gathered by asking consumers what they think about a brand, product, customer service interaction, or other touchpoints along the customer journey. Direct feedback is typically gathered by surveying customers and the results can be used with other data, such as indirect feedback and operational data, to help businesses understand the customer experience (CX). Brands have been focusing on optimizing CX because great experiences can help increase loyalty and turn customers into brand promoters.

The surveys that collect direct feedback take many different forms and can measure different dimensions related to the customer experience. Below are some of the more common survey types.

• Net Promoter Score® (NPS®): Surveys that capture Net Promoter Scores ask one simple, but powerful, question: “How likely is it that you would recommend [brand] to a friend or colleague?” The willingness to promote a brand indicates loyalty and is a predictor of future business growth.

• Customer satisfaction (CSAT): Customer satisfaction surveys provide direct feedback about how a customer feels about a recent interaction or other component of CX. For example, a customer could be asked to complete a CSAT survey immediately following an online purchase or upon the completion of a customer service interaction.

• Customer effort: A customer effort score (CES) is a measure of how easy or difficult a brand is to do business with. CES surveys are often sent out by contact centers to collect direct feedback about how much work customers had to put into getting their issues resolved.

Direct feedback can be gathered by automated customer survey tools. These applications can administer surveys in several different channels, including voice, email and chat, and then provide the results to voice of the customer (VOC) solutions to be included in a holistic analysis of CX and the customer journey.