Story of a Feature: Jotform Feedback Buttons for Web Sites

Story of a Feature: Jotform Feedback Buttons for Web Sites

Aytekin Tank
by Aytekin Tank

When we were getting ready to release the new version of Jotform, we really wanted to hear from our beta users. We needed an easy way for them to let us know about the problems they encounter or suggestions they might have without leaving the form builder. So, we wanted to have one of those cool feedback buttons that show up on the side of the web sites. We searched for a solution, but existing products didn’t do what we wanted.

Problems with the existing products in this market:

1. They require visitors to sign-up

This was a deal breaker for us. I have not done a real scientific test but I am pretty sure when you ask users to sign-up to a third party site to just send some short feedback, most people will simply leave. You will never hear from them and they will be more frustrated than before.

In fact, I have been a victim in the past. I was on a site and wanted to send my ideas about the product. I clicked on the feedback button and written a long comment full of great suggestions, then I clicked on the next button and to my surprise, the next page asked me to sign-up for a third party site. I think it was GetSatisfaction. I did not want to sign up for this site just to leave my comment on a product, so I simply closed the window. I was pretty angry about being taken advantage. They did not ask for me to create an account, or even mentioned anything about it before I filled the form and clicked on the submit button. My ideas were probably bad 🙂 but wasting time was frustrating.

2. They are confusing and complex

Some of these products have so many options that sometimes you have to search for a textbox where you can enter your comments. Hey man, I just clicked on a simple looking “Feedback” button, let me just do that and enter my comment.

3. Leaving the site

Another problem with these feedback buttons is that they are taking your users away from your site. After entering your feedback and clicking on the submit button, there is usually a redirect to their own version of a support site. What it should really do is to thank the user and close the window.

4. They are not customizable

Depending on the status of your web site, it makes more sense to create different questionnaires for the users. If you have a web site that’s in the beta period or just released, you might want to find out user problems, expectations and bug reports. If you have a more mature web site, you would ask questions about how they found your web site or how satisfied they are with your product. Current feedback button providers pretty much give you a one size fits all solution.

Duh! Moment: Why not Use Jotform to Create our own Feedback Buttons!

After trying different products and searching for a good solution, we simply decided to implement our own version of feedback button. We did not stop there and implemented this as a feature on our new version 3.0.

This turned out to be a great feature. It is already being used on hundreds of web sites. You can give it a try yourself.

Demo:

Go to https://www.jotform.com homepage and click on the feedback button on the right side.

While you are at it, feel free to share your ideas about Jotform. 🙂 We received hundreds of messages from this form but we can’t get enough of it. It is a great way to have a connection with your customers that’s not only about problem and solutions.

Create Your own Feedback Button in Minutes:

Creating your own feedback button is very easy and quick. Here is a step by step guide:

  1. Point your browser to Jotform Form Builder
  2. Drag and drop fields from the left side and create a questionnaire for your visitors. Try to keep your form short, but make sure to have at least one Text Area field so that users can type their ideas, problems, questions etc.
  3. Save & Preview your form.
  4. Click on “Setup & Share” toolbar tab, then “Share Form”, then “Advanced Option” and copy “Feedback Button” HTML source code.
  5. Copy this HTML source code to your web site and start getting feedback right away!
Story of a Feature: Jotform Feedback Buttons for Web Sites Image-1
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AUTHOR
Aytekin Tank
Aytekin Tank
Aytekin Tank is the founder and CEO of Jotform and the bestselling author of Automate Your Busywork. A developer by trade but a storyteller by heart, he writes about his journey as an entrepreneur and shares advice for other startups. He loves to hear from Jotform users. You can reach Aytekin from his official website aytekintank.com.

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