SaaS Feedback: Everything You Need to Know About Collecting & Using It

Collecting SaaS feedback is essential towards building a sticky product.

The worldwide spend on SaaS products is predicted to reach $145 billion USD by 2022. Even a small piece of that pie can mean a really great business for you.

We have one profitable, bootstrapped SaaS business already (Curator) and are currently building our second SaaS company (Frill).

We consider ourselves obsessed with collecting customer feedback. But we want it to be easy and painless for our product team and for our customers.

In this post, learn the different types of feedback and how to organize all of it in one place that helps you engage your users.

Types of SaaS feedback

86% of companies expect at least 80 percent of their software needs to be met by SaaS after 2022. More companies are buying more SaaS products than ever before.

To capture more of the market and keep your customers happy, you need to listen to feedback.

These are the main types of feedback that SaaS companies get from their target customers and actual users.

1. Pre-prototyping feedback

Definition of this type of SaaS feedback - Before building a SaaS product, you need to understand what users are looking for. It’s smart to talk with target customers before you even prototype your product

How to collect this feedback - There are many different ways to collect this sort of feedback. You can pay a market research company like Centiment or SurveyMonkey. You can cold call and cold email target users and ask for a quick interview. Or you can ask friends and colleagues to introduce you to the right contacts to interview.

2. Low fidelity prototype feedback

Definition of this type of SaaS feedback - After creating a low fidelity prototype (such as a PDF file or a drawing on a whiteboard), you need to get feedback on the dashboard and features.

How to collect this feedback - For this type of feedback, you shouldn’t use a market research company but should reach out directly to target users. You can do this on social media, with cold outbound email, or by requesting introductions from people you know. Your low fidelity prototype most likely won’t be self explanatory, so ask each contact to hop on a 10-minute call to get their feedback. What you’re looking for is data on what users actually want you to build and what are the most critical features for your MVP.

3. High fidelity prototype feedback

Definition of this type of SaaS feedback - You can create a realistic prototype using Adobe XD, Invision, or Miro. Then, you’ll want to collect feedback on the high fidelity prototype before turning that prototype into the backlog required to build your MVP.

How to collect this feedback - Similar to the points above on low fidelity prototypes, you need to build direct relationships with target users. This type of prototype should be a bit more self explanatory, so you could collect feedback via email or survey, but quick screensharing phone calls or in-person user testing will be more ideal.

4. Beta user feedback

Definition of this type of SaaS feedback - After you’ve created an MVP based on your validated prototype, the next step is getting beta users. You’ll want to find out what they think of your product, what features they want to see, and how well it addresses their problems.

How to collect this feedback - If you’re giving away free lifetime access to your beta users, they should reciprocate by giving you suggestions and helping with QA. You could make a private Slack channel or Facebook group for your beta users, or set up a customer feedback portal with Frill so everyone can add ideas at any time.

5. New product or feature launch feedback

Definition of this type of SaaS feedback - When you launch any new product or feature, you need to discover what users think about the overal user experience, the efficacy of the functionality, and whether or not it met their expectations and goals.

How to collect this feedback - When you launch something new, take the opportunity to point users in the direction of your feedback portal. This way they learn where to submit feedback now and in the future. You could promote your feedback portal on your website with an announcement bar and in your email newsletter.

6. Existing feature feedback

Definition of this type of SaaS feedback -This could be suggestions, bug discoveries, functionality improvements, design ideas, etc.

How to collect this feedback - Feedback will often come from all angles. It can come from your customer community, customer support chats, replies to your marketing emails, and other channels. It’s smart to train customers where to give you feedback and to be proactive about how you collect it. A feedback portal or widget where users can submit ideas at any time is your best bet.

7. Desired feature feedback

Definition of this type of SaaS feedback - These are suggestions for new features that your users want you to add to your product, or features that need UX or functionality improvements.

How to collect this feedback - Your life will be a whole lot easier if you start training users where to leave this kind of feedback. Create a dedicated platform for collecting feature ideas and link to it from multiple sources (your website, inside of your app, onboarding emails, etc.)

8. Sales process feedback

Definition of this type of SaaS feedback - Your sales process will largely depend on the annual cost of your software. Software below $500 per year is typically sold without demos, but software over around $1000 per year can be sold with direct credit card payments and demos. But these standards don’t mean there’s not room for improvement. You can get data on every part of your funnel and sales cycle.

How to collect this feedback - Ask users for feedback on your website. For example, you could have a feedback widget for people who have been on your pricing page for longer than 60 seconds. The chat pop-up could ask if they have any questions on the pricing. For inside sales, your account executives could regularly ask for feedback from leads and closed accounts during the end of the sales cycle.

The best tools for collecting SaaS feedback

Try these top tools for collecting, organizing, and prioritizing feedback on your SaaS product.

1. Frill

Frill is the go-to feedback tool for SaaS companies looking for a highly sophisticated yet simple-to-use solution. The platform helps organizations understand customer needs and preferences by collecting user feedback from websites and apps via widgets and Idea portals.

Besides feedback collection, Frill offers smart tools for managing, analyzing, and understanding feedback. Whether you are a small, medium, or large SaaS company, you won’t have trouble finding a Frill plan that fits your budget.

Features:

• Web platform and embeddable widget

• Language translation options

• Unlimited team members and tracked users

• Roadmap

• Freemium plan

• Customizable themes

• Automatic status updates

Pricing:

Frill offers an affordable plan that small companies with low web traffic can use to collect all the user feedback they need. If you opt for annual billing, you will pay less per month and get one month free.

2. Refiner

Refiner is an excellent tool for collecting quantitative user feedback. You can use the platform to learn about customer satisfaction and how to improve your services via micro-surveys or in-product surveys. You can tailor surveys to meet your unique needs and get the specific answers you want. Refiner also allows you to automate what follows after a user completes a feedback survey.

Features:

• Multilingual surveys

• Unlimited survey responses

• NPS, CSAT, CES, and PMF templates

• In-app surveys for mobile and websites

• Email surveys

• Slack and email notifications

Pricing:

You can opt for the $79 per month plan, which offers everything most SaaS companies need to understand their customers. Alternatively, you could pay $199 monthly to access multilingual surveys, unlimited reporting dashboards, and other advanced features.

3. Usersnap

With Usersnap, you can gather quantitative and qualitative user feedback through micro-surveys and feature request boards. The platform also provides insights into customer experience through its in-app screen capture feature. The many feedback collection tools provided by Usersnap simplify understanding customer needs so SaaS companies can keep improving their products and services.

Features:

• In-app screen capturing

• Micro-surveys

• Feature request boards

• Customizable widgets

• Public requests upvote board

Pricing:

Usersnap’s most affordable plan costs €69 per month and supports five active projects and ten team members. If you have more than ten team members, choose the €129 or €249 per month plan.

4. ProProfs Survey Maker

ProProfs Survey Maker offers several options for collecting quantitative feedback to gain clear insights into what users like and dislike about your product. For example, in-app surveys allow users to give feedback without leaving your SaaS tool. Also, the platform provides feedback tools for collecting user suggestions on how to improve your product and services.

Features:

• Online questionnaire software

• NPS survey software

• Scored survey software

• Market research software

• Email survey software

• Zendesk, Salesforce, and Mailchimp integration

• Online form builder

Pricing:

You can pay $300 or $600 per year. Both plans allow you to get 500 feedback responses per month, but you need the $600 plan to access multilingual surveys, pop-up surveys, and other advanced features.

5. Survicate

With Survicate, you can automate surveys and continuously collect customer insights in real time. SaaS companies can get all the user insights they need with Survicate tools like in-product surveys, mobile app surveys, and website surveys. You can avoid the hassle of building surveys from scratch since Survicate offers hundreds of survey templates that you can modify to meet your needs.

Features:

• Slack, HubSpot, and Klaviyo integration

• Multilingual surveys

• Unlimited free users

• Custom survey design

Pricing:

You can pay as little as $89 per month for continuous surveys or as much as $269 per month.

6. Typeform

Typeform allows you to create surveys and share or embed them anywhere on your app or website. You don’t need coding skills to make the most of the tool, and you can share surveys or questionnaires via email or social media.

Besides traditional surveys, Typeform offers Videoask – a tool that allows you to record a video where you ask survey questions and share your link. Customers who receive the video can respond with their own video, offering a fun way to provide customer feedback.

Features:

• Hundreds of customizable templates

• Google Analytics, Mailchimp, and Airtable integration

• Videoask

• Unlimited typeforms and questions

• Webhooks

Pricing:

You can opt for the $25, $50, or $83 per month plan.

7. UserVoice

UserVoice equips SaaS teams to understand what customers want. With the platform, capturing, tracking, and managing user feedback becomes effortless, and you can scale the platform to manage as much feedback as you need. Another advantage of the platform is it allows you to gather feedback from multiple sources and manage all the data in one convenient location.

Features:

• Built-in reports and metrics

• Web portal and in-app widget

• Public status updates

• Unlimited micro-surveys

Pricing:

The $199 per month plan gives you access to unlimited micro-surveys and end-user responses.

8. CustomerSure

You can use CustomerSure to collect customer feedback and share your insights with teams across your company. The software also provides tools for making the most of insights to understand and implement the product and service improvements your customers want.

Features:

• Custom email, SMS, web, and app surveys

• Multilingual

• Real-time alerts

• Personalized reports

Pricing:

£199 per month will give you 10,000 surveys per month. You will need the £2,499 monthly plan if you want unlimited surveys.

9. Userpilot

SaaS teams use Userpilot to collect qualitative user feedback through in-app micro-surveys. You can customize surveys to match your needs and preferences and use insights from the surveys to optimize your product experience. Another reason to love Userpilot is the option to analyze user feedback at scale.

Features:

• Net Promoter Score (NPS)

• Integrations

• Growth insights

• Live chat support

Pricing:

Available monthly Userpilot plans include the $249 Traction plan, the $499 Growth plan, and the $1,000 Enterprise plan.

10. Hotjar

Get feedback and respond in real-time with Hotjar’s live feedback and heatmap. The feature allows you to understand how users interact with your website and identify and rectify shortcomings before they lead to customer churn. Users can also submit recordings of issues experienced while using your platform.

Features:

• Heatmaps

• Recordings

• Surveys

• Feedback in 40+ languages

• Forever feedback storage

Pricing:

Hotjar’s free plan offers automatic data capturing and unlimited heatmaps. However, you need a paid plan if you want unlimited feedback widgets. The paid plans cost $32 and $80 per month.

How to organize SaaS feedback

While there are many different types of SaaS feedback, the most important type for any product-led team is feedback on your current features and UX.

It’s smart to have one central place to collect all of this feedback.

Here’s what Frill’s own Frill board looks like:

We have four different labels that organize the user’s feedback.

• Under consideration

• Confirmed

• In development

• Shipped

With Frill, you can create as many columns as you want, and manually assign the right label after a user has submitted an idea.

There are a lot of benefits to having a dedicated feedback board:

• Consolidate feedback in one place

• Gradually train users where to leave feedback

• Ability to engage and communicate with users for more context

The user engagement piece is essential, as this can foster even more loyalty to your product.

How to engage users and get feedback 24/7

People are busy, especially B2B software users. It’s important to understand that getting feedback from your users is like getting a free gift. Sure, it could benefit them if you build it, but it’s really a favor that they are giving you.

It’s so important to be encouraging and grateful.

Here are some best practices when it comes to requesting and encouraging SaaS feedback.

Close the feedback loop

Don’t make it difficult for users to leave feedback. A tight feedback loop is simple and easy.

Here’s how:

• Use one consolidated portal for SaaS feedback

• Make sure that portal has simple UX

• Don’t ask too many questions or attempt to collect a lot of data points

• Leave the suggestion collection open-ended

Communicate with users whether or not you will use their suggestions

You should respond to every user whether or not you plan to implement their feedback. Whatever feedback collection tool you use should make it easy to communicate back and forth with your users.

If you’ve implemented SSO, they can offer feedback with the same login they use for your SaaS platform.

Other users should also be able to hop in on the conversation to offer their take.

Reward users who regularly provide constructive feedback

Everyone knows what a power user is. But what about a power critic?

If you’ve got users who are always offering suggestions, you should thank them for their time. While you might not be willing to give your software subscription away for free, you can find other ways to show your appreciation. You could send them an Amazon gift card, offer some swag, or if it makes sense, an in-depth customer success or strategy session.

Set up an announcements page to showcase your listening and innovation

Users want to rely on software that is going to get better with time, not worse. (Those are the only two options, really.)

Showcase your business as one that cares about users and wants to continually innovate.

You can do this by showing your announcements in your feedback portal and on your website.

Create a new announcement for any update—big or small—that you want users to know about.

While there are many types of SaaS feedback, none are so critical as the feedback you collect about your product. After all, without this customer feedback, you wouldn’t be able to build something that people want to pay for and you could lose out to competitors who are more in touch with the end user experience.

Frill is a customer feedback, roadmap, and announcement tool for SaaS. Check out our affordable plans.