How to Offer Feature Voting to Your Users (+ 7 Tools)
Feature voting is an essential…feature…in when managing customer feedback as a SaaS company.
Feature voting is really quite simple. Many SaaS companies enable this via upvoting, where users can upvote a feature idea added to an idea board by either other users or the product development team. Idea boards are typically intended for users to add ideas, but your PM can add ideas to get upvotes and comments as well.
In this guide, we dive into why you should offer feature voting, different ways to do it, and the best tools for the job.
Why you should offer feature voting to your users
Here’s what Frill’s own idea board and public roadmap looks like. Some of our features have upwards of 70 upvotes on them, cueing our team into the fact that the request is popular.
Feature voting offers a lot of benefits for SaaS product managers. Here are the top ones:
Interactive - Feature voting offers a way for users to interact directly with your product team, instead of just your marketing, sales, and customer service team. Engaged users are more likely to stick around, and every bit of interaction counts.
Quick and easy for users - It’s super easy for users to hit that upvote button. They don’t have to write a comment or submit their own idea. They can just see an idea they like and upvote it. This is an instant way for them to give feedback. If you use a tool like Frill that offers SSO for users, they’ll be automatically logged into the idea board when they’re signed into their account.
Faster prioritization for you - Not sure what feature request to add into your next sprint? A quick glance at your idea board will show you which features have been upvoted the most.
Helps you build a better product - Ultimately, customer feedback is all about helping you get as close to your customers as possible so you can build the product they want. Feature upvoting might seem like a small thing, but it has a big impact.
3 ways to offer feature voting
While customer feedback software is certainly the best way for companies to offer feature voting, it’s not the only way. Companies can also use project management Kanban boards or even polls.
Here are the top three ways to collect votes on new potential features from your users.
1. Customer feedback tools
A great customer feedback tool should make it easy for users to add new ideas and vote on existing ideas. You can make this public to everyone, or require users to sign in with SSO in order to see it.
Pros:
Exclusively designed for collecting user feedback
Should have upvoting built in
Comes with other cool features like an in-app widget, a public roadmap, and release notes
SSO with the credentials they use for your product
Cons:
Unless you have a small user base, you will need to pay for the tool, but it should be affordable (with Frill, for example, you can get unlimited ideas for $49 per month)
2. Trello or other project management tools
You can also use Trello. Here’s an example feature request board built with Trello from Sociamonials. But as you can see, it’s kind of a mess.
Pros:
Consolidate your tool budget (you can use the project management tool you’re already paying for)
Cons:
Users have to have an account with that project management tool in order to upvote something
People can add ideas and upvote your features even if they’re not a user (because the tool doesn’t offer SSO connected to your product)
Lack of privacy for users who vote on features (their full names are shown)
Ugly UX and ideas can be difficult to read because of all the clutter
3. Surveys and polls
Ah, the feature request heard around the world, Elon’s edit button poll. Pointless news items aside, this is neither the best nor the worst way to source feedback from your audience.
You can use a survey or a poll to ask for your audience’s approval of a certain feature idea.
A designated feedback tool will give you better results because you can collect open-ended feedback from your audience. But there are different types of feedback.
A survey or poll could be a good fit for gathering feedback on a big product decision or direction for your product.
Pros:
Can fetch a high number of responses
Can be used to get feedback from a particular segment (when you email your survey to a subset of users)
Cons:
Doesn’t allow for open-ended feedback
Has to be implemented every time (someone has to actually create the poll or send the email)
7 feature voting tools built for SaaS companies
Let’s assume that you want to use a feature voting tool that’s truly designed for the job--and just say no to messy Trello boards.
Here are 7 user feedback tools that include feature voting.
1. Frill
Frill is a customer feedback tool that includes an idea board, product roadmap, and announcements all in one place so you can collect feedback from users, add it to your roadmap, and then publish release notes.
You can set up your roadmap in a Kanban-style board, and create you own columns/tags. Popular options include: under consideration, upcoming, building, and launched.
Pricing:
The lowest priced plan is $25 per month, and you get up to 50 active ideas at a time. For unlimited ideas and white labelling, you can choose the Growth plan which is $149 per month.
Get started with a free trial of Frill.
2. Acute
Acute is a customer feedback tool that offers easy-to-customize widgets that you can embed in your website and product. You can synch the tool with user data to discover things like their signup date and MRR. And of course, feature voting is included, so that users can upvote existing feature ideas from other users. Unlike Frill, Acute doesn’t offer a feature for release notes.
Pricing:
Acute’s Enterprise plan is $99 per month for unlimited feature suggestions.
3. Savio
Savio is a tool for collecting and tracking feature requests. The top feature is the ability to centralize product feedback from multiple sources, such as Zendesk, Intercom, Help Scout, Slack and other sources. You can also prioritize features through some useful integrations, such as checking for requests from top-paying customers in Hubspot. There is a featuring voting board for users as well.
Pricing:
To get access to all of Savio’s features, you’ll need the Scaling Plan, which costs $199 per month. The Growth plan, which is $99 per month, allows for up to 10 teammates but doesn’t include the Salesforce integration.
4. Sleekplan
Sleekplan is a user feedback tool that SaaS product managers can use to manage their feedback board, feature voting, public roadmap, and changelog. The tool also includes customer satisfaction ratings (CSAT) and net promoter score (NPS) surveys.
Pricing:
The Business plan costs $45 per month. If you need more team seats, you can contact sales for a custom quote for an Enterprise plan.
5. Rapidr
With Rapidr, you can manage feature requests and bugs. The top features include the feature suggestion and upvoting board, bug tracking, and release notes. The bug tracking feature works as a product widget for users to submit an issue with a description and screenshot. They can submit an issue or an idea, based on the type of feedback they’d like to offer.
Pricing:
Rapidr’s pricing changes based on how many tracked users you have. With the Growth plan, which costs $99 per month, you can track up to 500 users. To track an unlimited number of users, you’ll need to contact sales for a custom quote.
6. Nolt
Nolt offers product feedback boards, public roadmaps, feature voting, custom branding, and single sign-on to make it easy for your users to interact with the boards.
Pricing:
You’ll pay $25 per month to use Nolt.
7. Hellonext
You can use Hellonext to collect product feedback. The tool offers public and private feedback boards with feature voting, board integrations with Jira and Intercom, public roadmaps, and a public changelog. You can use add a widget to your product that collects feedback and announces updates from your changelog.
Pricing:
With their $99 per month plan, you get feedback boards, and all the integrations you need.
If you want to offer feature voting to your users, you first need to create a feedback board. Then, users can upvote others’ ideas and add their own.
Looking for a beautiful feedback tool with UX that you and your users will love? Then check out Frill.