sales-customer-feedback

What this skill does

# Customer Feedback & VoC Strategy

Help the user design, optimize, and act on customer feedback programs — from choosing the right CX metrics and survey tools through improving response rates, building closed-loop workflows, and proving ROI.

## Step 1 — Gather context

If `references/learnings.md` exists, read it first for accumulated knowledge.

Ask the user:

1. **What do you need help with?**
   - A) Choosing a feedback tool / platform comparison
   - B) Designing a VoC program from scratch
   - C) Improving survey response rates
   - D) Choosing the right metric (NPS vs CSAT vs CES vs custom)
   - E) Closing the loop — turning feedback into action
   - F) Text analytics / making sense of open-ended responses
   - G) Executive reporting / proving CX ROI
   - H) Survey fatigue — customers feel over-surveyed
   - I) Something else — describe it

2. **What type of business?**
   - A) B2B SaaS
   - B) B2B enterprise / services
   - C) B2C ecommerce
   - D) B2C subscription
   - E) Financial services / healthcare / regulated
   - F) Other

3. **Current feedback tool?** (Medallia, Qualtrics, SurveyMonkey, Typeform, Delighted, AskNicely, Skeepers, none yet, other)

4. **What's your scale?** (monthly feedback volume: <100, 100-1K, 1K-10K, 10K+)

**If the user's request already provides enough context, skip to the relevant step.** Lead with your best-effort answer, then ask 1-2 clarifying questions at the end.

## Step 2 — Route or answer directly

If the request maps to a platform-specific skill, route:
- Typeform platform questions → `/sales-typeform {your question}`
- SurveyMonkey platform questions → `/sales-surveymonkey {your question}`
- Qualtrics platform questions → `/sales-qualtrics {your question}`
- Medallia platform questions → `/sales-medallia {your question}`
- Skeepers Feedback Management → `/sales-skeepers {your question}`
- Pendo NPS/CSAT/PMF surveys → `/sales-pendo {your question}`
- Whatfix in-app NPS/usability surveys → `/sales-whatfix {your question}`
- Chameleon in-app microsurveys (NPS/CSAT/PMF) → `/sales-chameleon {your question}`
- Vitally NPS/surveys (within a Customer Success platform) → `/sales-vitally {your question}`
- ChurnZero NPS/CSAT/CES surveys → `/sales-churnzero {your question}`
- In-app NPS/CSAT surveys → `/sales-in-app-messaging {your question}`
- Product review collection (public reviews) → `/sales-customer-reviews {your question}`
- Email survey delivery optimization → `/sales-email-marketing {your question}`
- SMS survey delivery → `/sales-sms-marketing {your question}`

Otherwise, answer directly using the strategy guidance below.

## Step 3 — Feedback strategy

### CX metrics comparison

| Metric | Measures | Best for | Question | Scale |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| **NPS** | Loyalty / advocacy | Relationship health, benchmarking | "How likely are you to recommend us?" | 0-10 |
| **CSAT** | Satisfaction with a specific interaction | Transactional touchpoints | "How satisfied were you with...?" | 1-5 |
| **CES** | Effort required | Support, onboarding, self-service | "How easy was it to...?" | 1-7 |
| **Custom** | Whatever matters to you | Specific business outcomes | Tailored to your context | Varies |

**When to use which**:
- **NPS**: Quarterly/annual relationship surveys + post-major-milestone (onboarding complete, renewal)
- **CSAT**: After every service interaction (support ticket, sales call, delivery)
- **CES**: After self-service flows (help center, checkout, account changes)
- **Don't combine all three** in one survey — pick the right metric for each touchpoint

### Platform comparison

| Platform | Best for | Pricing | Key strength |
|---|---|---|---|
| **Medallia** | Enterprise, 10K+ responses/mo | Custom (high, EDR-based) | Real-time action management, DXA, AI analytics |
| **Qualtrics** | Enterprise, research-heavy orgs | Custom (high, seat + response) | Survey methodology depth, XM suite breadth |
| **SurveyMonkey** | SMB, quick surveys | From $25/mo | Ease of use, fast setup, affordable |
| **Typeform** | Design-focused, conversational surveys | From $25/mo | Beautiful UX, high completion rates |
| **Delighted** | Startup NPS/CSAT | From $224/mo | Simple, focused on CX metrics |
| **AskNicely** | Frontline team NPS | Custom | Frontline coaching + NPS in one |
| **CustomerGauge** | B2B account experience | Custom | Account-level NPS, revenue attribution |
| **Zonka Feedback** | Mid-market, multi-channel | From $49/mo | Strong offline/kiosk + digital |
| **Birdeye** | Multi-location service businesses | ~$299/mo/location | Integrated with reviews + messaging, healthcare PMS connectors |
| **Skeepers** | Ecommerce (reviews + feedback) | From ~3K EUR/mo | Combined reviews + NPS/CSAT in one platform |

**Decision framework**:
- **Just starting / <100 responses**: SurveyMonkey or Typeform — simple, affordable
- **Growing B2C**: Delighted or Zonka — focused CX metrics without enterprise complexity
- **B2B account health**: CustomerGauge — ties NPS to revenue by account
- **Enterprise program**: Medallia or Qualtrics — full VoC platforms with action management
- **Multi-location service business**: Birdeye — surveys integrated with reviews, messaging, and listings in one platform
- **Already using reviews platform**: Skeepers — adds NPS/CSAT to existing review collection

### Response rate optimization

**Benchmark response rates by channel:**
| Channel | Typical rate | Target |
|---|---|---|
| Email survey | 5-15% | 15-25% |
| SMS survey | 10-20% | 20-30% |
| In-app survey | 15-30% | 25-40% |
| Post-chat survey | 10-25% | 20-35% |

**Proven tactics (in priority order):**
1. **Shorten the survey** — 2-3 questions max for transactional, 8-12 max for relationship
2. **Send immediately** — within 1 hour of interaction for transactional surveys
3. **Use the right channel** — match the interaction channel (chat → in-app, phone → SMS, email → email)
4. **Personalize sender and subject** — personal name > company name, reference the interaction
5. **Embed the first question in the email** — 1-click NPS rating in the email body
6. **Throttle aggressively** — no more than 1 survey per customer per 90 days minimum
7. **Close the loop visibly** — customers who see action from their feedback are 2x more likely to respond next time

### Closed-loop feedback workflow

1. **Capture** → Feedback received (survey response, social mention, support interaction)
2. **Route** → Alert the right person based on score, topic, and customer segment
3. **Acknowledge** → Respond to the customer within 24-48 hours (especially detractors)
4. **Investigate** → Root cause analysis — is this a systemic issue or one-off?
5. **Act** → Fix the root cause, not just the symptom
6. **Report** → Track which issues were resolved and their impact on scores
7. **Communicate** → Tell customers what changed because of their feedback ("You said, we did")

### Proving CX ROI

- **Link NPS to revenue**: Promoters spend more / retain at higher rate than detractors
- **Track closed-loop impact**: Detractors who receive follow-up have higher retention
- **Calculate cost of inaction**: Revenue at risk from detractor accounts
- **Benchmark against industry**: Use published NPS benchmarks (Medallia, Qualtrics, Satmetrix)

## Step 4 — Actionable guidance

Focus on the user's specific situation: program design, survey design, tool setup, analysis, or closed-loop workflows. If you discover a tip not covered in `references/learnings.md`, append it there.

## Gotchas

> *Best-effort from research — review these, especially items about specific platform capabilities that may change.*

- **NPS is not a universal metric.** NPS measures loyalty/advocacy — it's meaningless for one-time transactions. Use CSAT or CES for transactional touchpoints.
- **Survey fatigue is the #1 silent killer.** Over-surveying depresses response rates AND scores. Implement strict throttling rules across ALL survey tools — many organizations have multiple teams surveying the same customers i