Feedback vs Vegetables: which do you like more?
	Posted by Doug Callahan at Aug 27, 2008 12:32 AM CDT Categories: Productivity

"Feedback is a gift!"

I have some feedback for whoever came up with that little pearl of wisdom. Although it's true; "Feedback is a gift" often gets the same reaction as "Eat your vegetables!" And like vegetables, everyone's favorite form of feedback is, of course, unsolicited. However, I am not going to suggest you take feedback from constituents and come up
with an elaborate scheme so you can hide the feedback in a napkin and give it to the dog under the table. The importance of handling feedback and supporting constituents is proportionally equal to the degree of relationship the non-profit has with their constituents. Visitors to a non-profit site are looking for some level of transaction (information, donation, advocacy action) and relationship (trust, connection, emotion). Often the relations drive further transactions so knowing the visitor's needs is essential to responding and catering to them. I'm resisting the urge here to fly off on tangents of measuring needs, demographics, user experience design, etc. and focusing on feedback and relations. Like relations, feedback can be direct or perceived. For non-profits looking to meet needs, foster relations and therefore increase transactions, handling various forms of feedback should be carefully considered.

"Mind your peas and stews."

Yes, back to vegetable analogies! Ok not really, I had no where to go with them. Direct feedback can take the form of a "contact us" survey, an escalation of an issue, praise, or direct involvement. Perceived feedback generally needs to be inferred by analyzing data (site traffic, visitor behavior), A/B splits and escalation trends. This perceived or indirect feedback is arguably more important because it is what constituents do rather than what they say. Unfortunately it's often given less weight or even ignored because it can be difficult to measure and properly analyze. A good way to begin exploring the indirect feedback is by starting with the direct. Escalations on difficulties with a site (navigating, donating, registering, taking action etc.) often come in as anecdotal data that can be verified and measured over time. Here is an example of anecdotal data turning into empirical: an organization was receiving several different complaints from constituents participating in a walk event. The complaints ranged from difficulties getting friends and family to donate to them, trouble finding their personal, customized participant center page, donations ending up in a general fund instead of where they were intended and various other complaints from participants who had been to prior events. Looking at the common threads and walking through the user experiences of several of the participants reporting problems it was discovered that the root cause was the user experience itself, mainly that there was no obvious login nor visual cues that they were logged in or out. In my next post I'd like to discuss some of the systems several organizations use to track issues and feedback. There are tools to make it more efficient to handle issues and create a feedback loop so areas of improvement can be found.

"Chocolate is a vegetable"

It's true, sort of... it comes from a bean. And if I'm sticking to this feedback is a vegetable analogy for some reason then, like chocolate, feedback is bittersweet. I'm sorry I just really like chocolate so I had to work it in here. I'm hoping this all ends up tricking someone into giving me chocolate instead of feedback some day!

I welcome any feedback (or chocolate) you may have.  

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