There’s a lot of insight that can be gleaned from customer feedback; however, conventional methods for collecting this information are often cumbersome and ineffective. 

UserVoice combines customer support with user feedback tools that are designed to make it easy for users to share their opinions of a product. The company has recently gone after the mobile market, developing mobile support and the capability to ask for feedback from customers in-app. Instead of launching a browser or requesting a customer fill out a five-minute survey, UserVoice keeps things simple. Via a quick pop-up window, a user may be asked to answer two five-second questions, with the option to say more if they’d like. Not having to leave an app to give feedback has led to dramatic increases in response rates. “We’re built with the idea that getting feedback is a gift,” says UserVoice CEO Richard White. “You need to construct it as a win-win.” UserVoice aims to be a win-win for its customers, too, giving its clients the tools they need to both retain customers and influence product development.

The company first gained traction among small and medium-sized software companies that were already close to their customers and understood the value of getting their feedback. Large companies came later, and now include Bing Ads and Yahoo! Mail and Weather. “It’s only in the last eighteen months or so that large companies have come around to this idea,” White says. “Social media has taught them that large-scale engagement is not only possible, but necessary.” As business has picked up, so has recognition. UserVoice won the 2013 CRM Idol competition, which showcases promising companies in the CRM space.

For small to medium-sized customers, UserVoice provides a full customer support solution. They can build a self--service knowledge base, with analytics to see which areas customers are actually going to. A dashboard tracks how quickly agents are responding and monitors the support backlog. UserVoice’s larger clients tend to have their own contact centers, and use the start-up primarily for its feedback functions. Integrations with CRM and marketing systems help UserVoice sync with companies that have more built-out IT solutions. 

Besides adding mobile support and feedback tools, White cites the addition of analytics as another game-changer for the company, calling it “a huge innovation that allows us to tell an ROI story.” Clients can segment out their customers, figuring out what the biggest issues are among customers who spend $100 or more a month on the app, for example, compared to those in a free trial stage. “Smarter segmentation lets customers grade and rate feedback better in a more efficient timeframe,” notes Brent Leary, a partner at the CRM consultancy CRM Essentials. Or they can see if customer satisfaction scores go up or down after contacting the customer support team. “We’re giving product managers and support managers reasons to say why they need investment,” White says.

While it’s easy to find a contact number for most Web companies, the same is not true for products that live on mobile devices, something UserVoice is trying to change. “Mobile customer care is about three to four years behind the Web, both in terms of vendor tools and penetration. Mobile support remains a relatively untested field,” White says. 

Leary sees UserVoice positioned ahead of the curve. He offers the example of Amazon’s mayday button, which takes users to customer support with a single tap, as an example of how user expectations of mobile support are changing. “Things like that will put a lot of pressure on companies to do a better job building customer support and user experience into these mobile devices.” Feedback remains UserVoice’s biggest asset. “That’s where UserVoice has an opportunity to step up and become a big player,” Leary says.  —Sarah Sluis