Today, SaaS companies that succeed and win the heart of their customers are the ones who keenly listen to their feedback and build what they want.
Customers may contact you to fix an issue, improve, or add a new feature to a product. Welcoming feedback is essential to build strong customer relationships.
That’s where feature request software comes in.
Feature request software creates a win-win situation for everyone because customers benefit from products that fit their requirements, and companies benefit from this direct customer insight.
But the most substantial benefit of the feature request process is its ability to create an open connection with your customers.
Before moving forward, let’s understand what feature request software is.
What Is Feature Request Software And How It Can Maximize Customer Satisfaction
Feature request tool is software providing businesses with insights on what the customer wants to see in a product.
It helps the development team and product managers understand what customers want and make product changes based on customers’ requests.
SaaS, digital-first, and eCommerce companies use feature request software to gain insights into customers’ feelings about their products and discover ways to improve them.
For instance, when customers find any feature is underperforming, they may recommend upgrades to the company.
Improving your products based on customers’ recommendations boosts customer retention and acquisition, reduces waste, and supercharges sales.
How Feature Request Software Can Maximize Customer Satisfaction
What many product managers don’t realize is there are numerous reasons why feature request is an integral part of every SaaS product.
You take customer feedback and implement them before your next release to ensure they don’t jump to your competitors offering similar features. Feature request maximizes customer satisfaction in the following ways:
1.) Understand Customer’s Requests And Show That You Care
The key to feature request software is knowing your customers and their requirements.
When customers request a feature, listen intently because you should never ignore your customer’s responses, regardless of whether they are positive or negative.
With 42% of companies not listening to their customers, collecting customer feedback and insights could be the difference between success and failure.
How will you make your customers happy if you’re not listening to them?
Listening carefully strengthens your bond with customers. Making your customers feel that you are paying attention to whatever they have to say and implementing their requests shows you value their feedback and insights, improving customer satisfaction.
2.) Keep Your Customers Engaged
Your product improvement process continues even after collecting feature requests from users. Customers will only feel happy if you implement their suggested features.
Customers love when you take steps toward implementing features requested while keeping them updated about the entire process.
There are several ways to keep customers engaged and happy in your product progress are:
- Email updates
- Publishing mockups and design ideas
- Incorporating and leveraging feedback at various stages of the product development process
- Keeping an open platform where users are regularly informed about the product’s progress
Engaging customers throughout the product’s progress shows they are a key part of your journey. This strengthens their bond and ensures maximum customer satisfaction.
3.) Know Whether Your Products Are Delivering
Feature request allows companies to gather insights into product features that resonate with their target audience.
As customers have an opportunity to contribute their ideas, it provides valuable information on product features.
For instance, request a few customers to test your product’s features during beta tests and ask for suggestions on how to improve these features.
Asking them to rate your products helps you understand whether your products deliver the intended value.
When customers test the features of your products, they are more likely to provide valuable feedback.
Request customers to test features worth including in the product’s final version or as a high priority in future versions.
When you make customers your beta testers, they feel valued because you’re likely to accept their suggestions. This builds trust and strengthens your bonds with them.
4.) Help You Discuss Features With Your Teammates
Before embarking upon or implementing a request from customers, these tools help you discuss features with teammates and other project stakeholders.
Using the tool, team members discuss:
- Whether they have the required resources to build out this feature?
- Why has the company not built the requested feature until now?
- Is the product development team facing any obstacles?
- Is this your most pressing need right now? Can you develop other features benefitting the overall company?
- How relevant is the feature to the existing tool?
- Is the feature a must-have or a deal-breaker feature?
Discussing features with your teammates helps you choose the most important feature.
Feature Request Tools To Consider
Here are some feature request tools to consider for your business:
1.) Zeda
The first tool on our list is Zeda, an ideal app for product teams. This tool helps you build great products, define goals, collect feedback, plan your roadmap, and write defined specifications for the development and design team.
Using Zeda, you organize feature requests in one place, request tracking, and request prioritization.
With Zeda, it becomes easier to feature request boards and collect customer requests and ideas within the feedback portal.
It helps you prioritize features from the most popular list, engage customers and keep them updated as and when feature request status changes.
2.) Jira
Another intuitive platform is Jira, used by many software teams to manage and track projects. The software uses built-in feature request systems, making collecting and tracking customer feedback easy.
It helps you manage and prioritize customer requests, making it convenient for companies to organize and manage the various customer requests systematically.
Using Jira, companies prioritize the request, helping them decide which requests must be addressed first.
The intuitive platform provides an overview of all customer requests making it easier for managers to identify and address issues.
Jira allows managers to approve or reject requests depending on their priorities and constraints.
3.) Trello
Trello is another fantastic and widely used software for collecting feature requests.
Using the Trello account, you make your board public for anyone using a Trello account. Customers create cards on the boards, but they would first need to join your boards via a custom invite link.
Place your invite link in the Reddit thread or as a hyperlink in your email campaign to make it easily accessible. Customers need not be board members for commenting and voting, but they must still log into their Trello account.
Trello helps you move features directly into your Trello product roadmap. It even allows you to sort cards using the vote count.
4.) Savio
Another powerful yet lightweight tool is Savio, a feature request tracking software. The tool allows companies to collect user feedback in an organized and centralized manner.
Using the request tracking feature, companies understand customers’ wants and prioritize features by focusing on the most important criteria.
The tool helps you create a knowledge base of users’ pain points and their ideal solutions.
You easily collect and pipe in product feedback from tools your team is already using.
Other key features include a public voting board and the ability to close the loop on customer requests in just a few clicks.
Using the public voting board, you see what customers want most. What differentiates Savio from others is that it is an affordable solution compared to others on our list.
5.) Sleekplan
Sleekplan is an easy-to-use feature request tracking tool helping you through the entire feedback loop.
It allows you to collect feedback on boards, organize features on the roadmap and show features in a changelog.
The tool helps you send satisfaction surveys to customers.
Sleekplan allows you to segment feedback using customer status and other attributes.
This tool helps you record feature requests, bugs, and suggestions straight from your application.
Besides helping customers add their feedback, Sleekplan allows customers to vote on the existing feature request. This lets you identify helpful product ideas and improve the existing product features.
Feature Requests Are A Two-way Street
Feature request creates a symbiotic relationship between your company and customers.
Whenever you receive feature requests from customers, ensure your team soothes their pain points by addressing all feasible and relevant features requested.
In return, your customers will leave no stone unturned and keep your product up-to-date and in line with the market’s demands.
Before choosing a feature request tool, verify it fits your budget and that you have everything required to motivate customers to give feedback. Zeda fits your description because it’s free and easy to navigate using an attractive interface.
Ella Marcotte
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