For years, the brightest minds in business struggled with ways to get inside a customer’s head and find out what they truly want from a product. Then someone had a brilliant idea: why not just ask?
Enter customer feedback surveys.
There’s no better way to find out what your customer thinks than a feedback survey — and product feedback is essential for product and SaaS growth. You can tailor the questions to your specific needs and allow the customer to speak their mind about what they’re enjoying, what could be better, and what they don’t like at all.
However, customer feedback can also be a double-edged sword.
Of course, the goal is to obtain as much feedback as possible. But if you don’t have a decent customer feedback management tool, then you may just find yourself snowed under with data — unable to see the insights.
That’s a big risk. Why? Because acting on customer feedback brings considerable increases to customer satisfaction and customer retention. 81% of customers are likely to return with repeat business if a company exceeds their expectations — and you can only exceed customer expectations if you know what the customer actually expects!
That means trawling through endless data in an attempt to make sense of it all or simply using the right customer feedback management software.
Customer feedback surveys are crucial for understanding customer needs and improving products.
Proper management of customer feedback is necessary to avoid being overwhelmed by data.
81% of customers are likely to return if their expectations are exceeded.
Effective feedback management software helps turn feedback into actionable insights.
52% of customers will switch to a competitor after a single negative experience.
Quick problem resolution increases customer loyalty by 2.4 times.
Customers expect personalized and immediate service; 72% want immediate help, and 60% will become repeat buyers after a personalized experience.
Choosing the right software depends on business needs; many tools offer free trials for evaluation.
airfocus centralizes user feedback from multiple channels into one organized inbox, making it easy to convert insights into actionable strategies and improve customer satisfaction.
These are some statistics showing how important it is to properly manage customer feedback.
Customers know they can get similar features from your competitors, so the customer experience really matters when it comes to retention. This is why customer feedback management software is so important. It allows you to spot issues early so you can solve the customer’s problem before they look elsewhere.
These days, customers do not like to be seen as faceless product users. They are increasingly looking for personalized service that makes them feel like valued customers, and they are not afraid to take their money elsewhere if they have to. Feedback management software helps businesses quickly identify customer needs and ensure development is focused on their experience.
Problems can come up no matter how well-prepared you think you are. Most customers understand this, but their patience can be tested when they report an issue and see no signs of it being addressed. Customer feedback software helps customers see how quickly their issue is being addressed and the steps being taken to solve it. This will increase brand loyalty since customers will see that their concerns have been listened to and addressed.
It can be frustrating when customers face an unexpected issue. That frustration only builds when they can’t fix the issue themselves, and there’s no help in sight. Using a community-centered portal — like airfocus Portal — can help customers quickly find solutions even when customer service teams are inactive.
By now, we have all experienced how frustrating it can be to report a problem and explain everything in detail, only for the customer service representative to have no information to hand when they interact with you. This is a common issue with chatbots but can also happen when there is poor communication between CSAs and a lack of centralized feedback. Customer feedback software can solve this problem by keeping all the required information in one spot, so anybody who picks up the case can help solve the problem — full context included.
Personalization is no longer a nice-to-have feature. Customers expect personalized service, and businesses that can’t offer it tend to be left behind in favor of their competitors. Customer feedback tools will help you identify customer personas and their key needs. This enables you to tailor the user experience to each persona to increase new customers and retention.
Truth be told, this is a tough question to answer. Most customer feedback management tools offer similar functionality at similar costs — it all depends on what your business needs as to which is right for you.
That said, the majority of the software we’re about to cover in our list comes with a free trial included. So if you’re still undecided by the end of this blog, you can get hands-on experience with the tool for little to no financial risk!
So without any further ado, here’s our countdown of the 13 best customer feedback management tools in 2024:
airfocus
Qualaroo
Typeform
Feedier
SurveySparrow
Usersnap
Fider
Feature Upvote
Hotjar
Userbrain
Rapidr
Canny
UserVoice
airfocus offers a comprehensive feedback management system that centralizes user feedback from multiple channels like email, chat, support, and social media into one organized inbox. This ensures no feedback is lost, helping teams convert insights into actionable strategies for product discovery. The platform also features customizable workflows and a branded portal for engaging with communities, sharing roadmaps, and validating ideas efficiently.
Insights from airfocus allows you to centralize, segment, and filter feedback from multiple channels in order to see what truly matters to your customers. It’s incredibly simple to use and connects directly with your product backlog — ideal for product teams!
airfocus Insights collates customer feedback from multiple channels in one, shared location. That means actionable insights for discovery, product strategy, marketing plans, promo campaigns and more can now be found all in one place, accessible by everyone involved in the customer lifecycle.
Once the feedback is there, you can also segment the insights based on a range of criteria and filter the feedback to show what’s really important. No more ambiguity — just crystal clear customer-centric plans.
Better still, Insights empowers teams to close the feedback loop and get back to customers in a way that makes them feel truly valued. Hello, boost in customer satisfaction! And as we already know, high customer satisfaction rates translate to great success for your business too.
When we built airfocus Portal, we wanted it to be the secret weapon product managers could use to amplify their customers’ voices. And we think we nailed it.
airfocus Portal gives product managers a customer feedback management solution that allows customers to easily throw in their two cents, fits with their brand, and keeps feedback from customers, teammates, and even business stakeholders all in one place.
You can use airfocus Portal to share roadmaps, ideas, and plans with relevant parties, then gather user feedback and ideas. You can even test and validate ideas or concepts, all in a fully-branded application.
We’re really excited about our new AI Assist, built specifically for product managers. We know time is at a premium in the product management world, so we wanted to make a solution that would allow PMs to get started quickly and cut down on tedious work.
We knew that AI has the power to transform the way we collect and address customer feedback. It allows us to make purely objective decisions based on real user feedback and data analysis, allowing us to spend less time organizing feedback and more time building what your customers really need.
"airfocus is a great tool for PM's/Engineering/Scrum teams - or anyone that practices AGILE" - Eric P (via g2)
Rating: G2 - 4.4 stars.
Demos: Getting Started with airfocus.
Pricing: Plans start at $59 per editor per month.
Free trial: Yes.
Qualaroo’s customer and user feedback software is designed to “ask the right questions at the right time”. It’s an on-page widget that you can configure to pop up at any time while a customer browses or uses your product.
The Qualaroo ‘Nudge’ can be used to (politely and unobtrusively) request written feedback while the software also tracks browsing behavior, time on page, purchasing trends, and so on. Teams can also use Qualaroo to target specific customer segments, based on where in the buying journey they are, the location they live in, how frequently they visit the page or use the product, and more.
Rating: G2 - 4.3 stars.
Demos: You can sign up for a demo here.
Pricing: Plans start at $19.99 per 100 responses per month (billed annually).
Free trial: Yes. They also have a free plan for up to 50 responses.
Typeform helps you create sleek and stylish surveys, customized straight from a library of templates. It’s web-based platform is super easy to use and the results speak for themselves.
If you need to build an attractive quiz, poll, survey, or form, Typeform is the perfect tool. You can then share your survey format via a range of integrations, including Slack, Zapier, MailChimp, and Salesforce.
What Typeform lacks in data-heavy features, it makes up for in design. There’s also a handy ‘Logic Jumps’ option to make building a survey even easier.
Ratings: G2 - 4.5 stars.
Demos: No.
Pricing: Free plan with basic features, paid plans start at EUR 25 per month.
Free trial: Yes.
Feedier has taken customer feedback and gamified it — offering playful, interactive surveys across website, in-app, email, and SMS.
Feedier is intuitive at both the customer end and for product teams using the platform. Run continuous feedback gathering — including NPS (Net Promoter Score) — and then use Feedier's technology to link that feedback directly to your business KPIs (sales, operations, etc.).
The only thing holding Feedier back is its lack of data-rich reporting.
Ratings: G2 - 4.5 stars.
Demos: No.
Pricing: Feedier prices its platform based on your number of users, volume of feedback, and need for integrations.
Free trial: No.
SurveySparrow prides itself on being a “one-of-its-kind continuous improvement platform where the customer feedback loop can be brought to a closure”.
The platform aims to bring in more customer feedback by making enticing and interesting surveys that grab your customer’s attention. They’re so confident about their conversational interface that they promise a 40% increase in customer responses!
Once all your feedback is collected, SurveySparrow allows you to import contexts and create custom lists based on user profiles. This allows you to start customizing your surveys to individual user groups, rather than just sending out a generic form to everyone.
"Every step in creating a survey form is super simple and almost no learning curves needed before working with this software.” - Maszni A (via Capterra)
Ratings: G2 - 4.5 stars.
Demos: No.
Pricing: Free plan with basic features, paid plans start at EUR 25 per month.
Free trial: Yes.
Usersnap takes customer feedback to the next level by seamlessly integrating itself into your website — making it ideal for real-time UX feedback and customer support.
The unobtrusive widget reveals a handy customer service menu once clicked, allowing you to gather general feedback, offer links to the relevant documentation, connect the customer to your support team, and submit bug reports with their unique bug reporting tool.
The bug report tool allows your customers to select very specific parts of your website and explain the issue they’re having. This saves your team time by directing you straight to the issue.
"Really useful and simple way to receive feedback in development" - Arttu R (via g2)
Ratings: G2 - 4.5 stars.
Demos: You can book a demo on the website.
Pricing: Plans start at $49 per month for 5 members.
Free trial: Yes.
Fider is unique to this list for one main reason: it’s an open-source platform and there’s no cost to users!
Fider may be free but it’s still feature-packed and a great customer feedback management tool for product and marketing teams. Fider operates more like a community board — somewhere users can go to share their thoughts and vote on other people’s feedback.
It also has everything you need to give a voice to your customers in a completely customizable and on-brand way.
“Simple, slick and self-hosted” - Petar S. (via ProductHunt)
Ratings: G2 - Not available.
Demos: You can book a demo on the website.
Pricing: Plans start at $49 per month for 5 members.
Free trial: Yes.
Feature Upvote aims to be the simplest way to manage your customer feedback. It gathers all of your customer feedback into one place and organizes it in a way that offers value even at a glance.
As the name suggests, this platform invites customers and employees to add their own ideas and/or vote on others. The more upvotes an idea gets, the higher up the list it goes.
Group decision-making doesn’t get easier than that! (And for when it does, there’s our ‘Ultimate Guide to to Group Decision Making - Techniques, Tools and Strategies’ available here)
“Affordable and easy to set up” - Margherita (via alternativeto.net)
Ratings: G2 - Not available.
Demos: You can watch a demo on the website.
Pricing: Plans start at EUR 47 per board per month (billed annually).
Free trial: Yes.
Hotjar promises their platform "helps you understand how users behave on your site, what they need, and how they feel." This is perfect for businesses seeking a holistic understanding of how users interact with their website.
Hotjar features all the typical tools you would expect in customer feedback management software. It offers great roadmapping tools to visualize user behavior and plenty of feedback collection channels, including surveys and interviews. Hotjar even offers recordings of a user’s experience on your website so you can see how your users navigate the pages in real-time.
Hotjar’s pricing structure is a little complicated, with multiple packages for their “Observe,” “Ask,” and “Engage” platforms. Businesses can also create customized plans if needed. All platforms come with a free basic plan, and users are automatically given access to the basic plans of the other platforms. So if you buy an Observe package, you’ll receive Ask basic and Engage basic at no extra cost.
Ratings: G2 - 4.3 stars.
Demos: No.
Pricing: Free plan with basic features for up to 35 sessions daily, then $39 per month.
Free trial: Yes.
Finding enough people to test your product can be difficult, especially for smaller businesses. Userbrain is a slightly different customer feedback management software that solves that issue by giving companies access to 100k+ product testers from across the globe.
The biggest feature of Userbrain is just how simple it is to test your product. You get access to real users and can choose them based on your product and market to get the most value from the results.
Userbrain allows you to analyze user testing, collaborate with your team, and schedule regular testing with their testers, or you can invite your own if you’d rather keep it in-house.
Userbrain is a little pricey but offers something unique, so it balances out. Packages start at EUR 79 per month and offer a free trial or two months if you pay annually.
Ratings: G2 - 4.8 stars.
Demos: You can book it on the website.
Pricing: plans start at EUR 79 per month (billed annually).
Free trial: Yes.
Rapidr promises to help you “build better products with customer feedback.” The platform allows you to gather prioritized feedback from your customers and teammates all in one place.
Rapidr’s customer feedback management software offers many solutions and features. Businesses can grab a custom domain that directs customers to Rapidr’s easy-to-use and customizable customer feedback portal that aims to close the feedback loop for good.
You can easily collaborate with other teammates with the simple invite system, and there’s little to get in their way thanks to Single Sign On. You can also set permissions for each collaborator so they can only perform the actions you need them to perform.
Rapidr has a simple pricing structure with Startup, Business, and Enterprise plans that start at $49 per month for 200 tracked users. Businesses can scale their plans, starting at $20 for an additional 200 tracked users. Plans come with a 14-day free trial with no credit card required.
Ratings: G2 - 4.8 stars.
Demos: You can book it on the website.
Pricing: plans start at $49 per month.
Free trial: Yes.
Canny offers a comprehensive set of tools to manage customer feedback effectively. Feedback Collection allows users to gather insights from customers and teams.
Canny has options for privacy, voting, and customizations. Canny allows users to “vote on behalf,” which helps with manual feedback tracking by adding a customer to a post. Internal comments and pinned comments allow teams to discuss ideas privately without losing crucial context.
The built-in feedback analysis tools will then organize feedback using tags, categories, and segmentation to inform product decisions. You can also sort feedback based on MRR impact to track how a feature affects revenue.
Canny’s prioritization and roadmapping tools directly link to feedback analysis, helping users prioritize features, create roadmaps, and update stakeholders with status updates and estimates. Plus, a changelog feature announces updates to engage users and maintain transparency.
Ratings: G2 - 4.5 stars.
Demos: You can request a demo on their website.
Pricing: Free plan with basic features, paid plans start at $99 per month.
Free trial: Yes.
UserVoice helps businesses quantify customer requests and understand the “why” behind them. The platform aims to replace traditional, fragmented feedback collection methods by offering a centralized approach to help businesses pinpoint key user needs from various feedback channels.
UserVoice offers a branded customer portal that can be used to collect feedback and build a community of users. Customers can use this to share feedback and ideas, and it can also act as a secondary customer service area in which customers help each other get the most out of the platform. In-app feedback widgets give customers the ability to give feedback without navigating away from whatever activities they are doing. This helps improve feedback quality and the user experience.
Customers submitting feedback expect to be heard and are happier when they can see a company take action. UserVoice’s “Engage Customers” feature allows customers to see precisely how you’re acting on their feedback and invites others to give feedback on your work.
UserVoice also has tools to help align teams or the entire organization around critical issues through product strategy visualizations, user feedback, and shareable reports.
Rating: G2 - 4.5 stars.
Demo: You can request a demo on their website.
Pricing: Plans start from $699 per month for up to 200 users.
Free trial: Yes.
A1: Customer feedback helps businesses understand their customers' wants and needs, improving the customer experience and increasing customer loyalty and retention. It also helps businesses improve their products by generating ideas for backlog items and influencing prioritization.
A2: Customer feedback can be collected through a wide range of channels, including surveys, social media, internet forums, review websites, customer support tickets, feature requests, and more. Businesses can also contact customers directly to obtain feedback. Businesses should funnel customer feedback from all channels into one centralized customer feedback tool to ensure they can use the information to directly improve the customer experience.
If you’ll allow us to be blunt for a moment: if you’re not listening to your customers, then you won’t have many customers for long. That’s why airfocus makes it so easy to integrate customer feedback into your product’s vision and strategy. We understand how important customer feedback is and want to enable you to take the key and create real and valuable change.
Start your free trial today to find out how we can help make that happen for you.
The original article was published in January 2023 and updated in June 2024.
Andrei Tiburca