In our daily lives, we receive feedback, but we also ask others for their opinions. By receiving feedback, we learn and grow by understanding what works and what might need improvement. Wouldn’t it be extremely valuable to also receive continuous feedback while we’re working with applications?
Explicit Feedback vs. Implicit Feedback
As highlighted above, it would be very helpful to collect continuous feedback on app usage and performance. This contrasts with implicit feedback. But what exactly is the difference between implicit and explicit feedback? Data for implicit feedback is collected without the user being aware of it. To learn more about this, read this blog post: Fiori Analytics, keeping an eye on you.
Explicit feedback requires a specific action on the part of the user. A very simple example is the 5-star rating you can submit after ending a Microsoft Teams call. Another example of explicit feedback is receiving a questionnaire after purchasing a product online. And there are many more examples. However, there are usually significant variations in the responses, and it is essential to be aware of this when analyzing explicit feedback. Explicit feedback typically yields the highest number of responses that are either very negative or very positive. Users who are “somewhat satisfied” with your service or process probably won’t complete the feedback questions, but their feedback is still very valuable and something we’d like to collect.
Benefits of Gathering Feedback
Feedback gives us insight into what users really have to say when they encounter a challenge in the app. For example, implicit feedback might indicate that many users exited the app on this page and did not continue. Explicit feedback also allows users to tell us why. Another option is to concisely review all the feedback and collect improvement ideas in your backlog. This ultimately benefits users because you’re further improving the app. Explicit feedback could also be used to ask for opinions on a newly launched feature.
How to gather explicit feedback?
When it comes to explicit feedback, there’s a big difference in how you display a questionnaire or feedback buttons within apps. The difference lies in the ability to add a few lines of code to the source code. With public cloud software (SaaS) or standard apps from the App Store, we cannot modify the source code. You’re dependent on the app developer to provide out-of-the-box feedback options. With custom-built apps, however—or apps where we can at least create a new build—we’re able to add additional code. Let’s say we have a custom-built SAP Fiori application; which tools could we use to gather analytics? Examples include Hotjar, Usabilla, and Qualtrics. Some of these tools can collect both implicit and explicit feedback, such as Hotjar. Qualtrics is another excellent tool, offering a comprehensive suite of features. With Qualtrics, you can also create “standalone” surveys. It also includes built-in options for standard surveys such as the NPS (Net Promoter Score), for example, or another standard questionnaire like the CSAT (Customer Satisfaction).
But the focus of Qualtrics XM is on enabling feedback capabilities within apps. This way, gathering feedback can go far beyond simply adding a feedback button. You can choose to display feedback options only under certain conditions or based solely on data within the page itself. Qualtrics also allows you to add additional contextual information—such as importing supplementary data—so you can analyze the data in even greater detail.
How does it work from a technical standpoint?
You can embed feedback into your website by adding a feedback button, which users can click at any time to provide feedback. Another option is to display a feedback form after a task is completed. There are many options. In all cases, you’ll need to embed an additional script in your app or website code. By calling the script in the appropriate locations within your app, the feedback form or button will pop up.
Combining Explicit and Implicit Feedback
In our previous blog post, we discussed implicit feedback. A particularly useful feature would be the ability to combine implicit and explicit feedback. This would provide insights into what the user was doing or struggling with after they submitted their feedback to us. Adobe Analytics and Qualtrics can integrate with each other, offering you a unified view. When selecting software to implement either explicit or implicit feedback, this is an important factor to consider during the selection process.
Tag Manager
A recommended component in such a landscape—which utilizes both explicit and implicit solutions, and perhaps even more—is a Tag Manager. This component serves as a central hub. The main advantage of a tag management system is that it enables non-developers to initiate multiple tasks on a website or application, thereby improving performance while reducing the amount of code written. How does a Tag Manager work? It replaces multiple tags—which were traditionally managed by a developer—with a single container tag that spans all areas of the property. The tag management system is then accessed separately (usually via a website) to prioritize and “fire” individual tags as appropriate based on business rules, navigation events, and known data.
An example of a possible use case for an architecture that uses a tag manager (not specific to feedback collection)
For the developer to collect analytics and feedback:
Actually, the script—which the developer needs to integrate into the respective app—connects to the tag manager. The tag manager, in turn, can add additional scripting for either Adobe or Qualtrics and send data to the appropriate solution for processing. In other words: because additional scripting can be added via the tag manager rather than directly in the source code, you’re simplifying things for the app developer and potentially avoiding the need for multiple new app releases. There are also various tag manager solutions available, such as Google Tag Manager or Adobe Launch.
In Conclusion
We did cover some key points about implicit (in an earlier blog post) and explicit feedback and how it can enhance the user experience. We’ve also seen what a Tag Manager can do for your business and how app developers can work more efficiently.
To create an even better user experience, we highly recommend combining implicit and explicit feedback. That way, you’ll not only know how users interact with your app, but also when and why they’re encountering challenges. Would you like to learn more about how to improve your users’ experience? Feel free to contact us.
