How to Track Customer Feedback and Feature Requests: Your Step-by-Step Guide

It’s no secret that all exceptional products are built by actively listening to customers and implementing their suggestions.

Although it sounds straightforward, keeping track of it all gets much more difficult as your product grows and feedback starts pouring in from everywhere.

It’s easy to end up with no proper system at all or with messy spreadsheets that take weeks to put together and get out of sync within a day.

This leads to loads of problems as ideas won't get prioritized based on data but rather by gut feeling - making you end up with a product that misses the mark.

But don’t worry, in this blog, we’ll dive deep into the world of customer feedback tracking. 

We’ll give you an in-depth overview of the entire subject, from common mistakes to tips and tools you can set up in the next hour to help you keep track of user feedback like a pro.

Why is feedback tracking so important?

An issue with customer feedback is that there’s never a shortage of it. 

Staying on top of customer suggestions with a small customer base is effortless as you know everyone’s needs individually. However, as your product grows and hundreds of suggestions start rolling in, it’s a different game.

That’s where keeping the feedback top of mind no longer works and there's an urgent need for a proper system to make sense of it.

Not keeping track of feedback leads you down a dangerous path as you end up guessing your business priorities which almost always gets you to a product that nobody wants - causing churn, bloated interfaces, and a lot of missed potential.

Keeping track of customer feedback allows you to identify the most important issues or future ideas and act on them quickly without being fearful that users will benefit from them.

This in turn leads to word-of-mouth referrals and even more sales as your customers see that you care about them and actually implement their ideas.

Read more about the benefits of customer feedback →

Common mistakes with feedback tracking

Now that you have a good understanding of why tracking feedback is essential, we’ve been analyzing the feedback systems of 300+ companies to figure out the most common mistakes in feedback tracking. 

1. Having friction for sending feedback

It’s important to realize that no one wants to scroll through your entire website to eventually find a random email address to which they can send their issue and never hear back again.

Therefore, it’s no surprise that you don’t have enough data to understand why your customers might be leaving you for a competitor. 

Maybe you’re just missing a crucial feature or there’s an annoying bug?

With a tool like Featurebase, you can remove all the friction from the feedback process by collecting feedback straight from your app or by setting up a gamified feedback forum where each user can additionally see and upvote other ideas.

We’ve found that with Featurebase, companies get many times as much feedback as they were getting with their previous solution, letting you have all the necessary data for making educated product decisions.

2. Not organizing feedback effectively

Without a proper feedback system, important suggestions from larger customers get thrown into the same spreadsheet as less crucial feedback from a group of free users.

Rather than blindly throwing all feedback together, your goal is to organize everything into different buckets e.g. feedback from enterprise customers & suggestions from free users should be separated as one group is much more important than the other.

This can be very hard to do with regular spreadsheets, but a good customer feedback tool can fully automate this process by organizing feedback with AI and customer data.

For example, with Featurebase, you can effortlessly link user data to their feedback. This helps you segment feedback by key metrics such as their payment plan or MRR (monthly recurring revenue).

🎯 Tip: To learn more about organizing user feedback, check out this full customer feedback analysis guide as a starting point. 

3. Not challenging user suggestions

Although your customers often know your product and the market better than you, their thoughts shouldn’t be taken as the only source of truth.

For example, if someone points out a feature idea, you should try to deeply understand the underlying need for it to come up with a better solution to their problem.

This involves reaching back out to the user to clarify that you understood everything correctly and suggesting your own version of the implementation that fits better into your product as you have a better overview of all the functionalities.

It can be time-consuming with regular methods, but luckily many tools automate this process by letting you instantly communicate with all people interested in an idea.

Example of one-to-many communication with Featurebase. Simply comment on a user suggestion to send an email to all people who have subscribed to the idea.

🎯 Tip: To learn more about this topic, take a look at our article on how to challenge customer feedback and say no to feature requests.

6 Steps to successfully track feedback and feature requests 

If you found that you’re guilty of one of the mistakes from the list above, don’t worry, that’s why we have written this section.

Next, we’ll give you a step-by-step guide on how to properly track user feedback and organize it without spending weeks setting up painfully complex spreadsheets.

1. Figure out where you currently collect feedback

As the first step, write down all channels where your customers interact with you the most.

For example, you might be using a tool like Intercom, Zendesk, or Slack to provide customer support. Perhaps you’re constantly on sales calls and track each client's feedback in Hubspot or Salesforce? 

In this list, make sure to also include more quantitive feedback sources, for example, survey results.

This is important for the next step to figure out what channels you might be missing in your current feedback stack.

2.  Figure out where you’re missing out on feedback

Customer feedback comes in all kinds of different forms and at various stages of your customer's life cycle.

As a quick win, you can collect feedback at these times:

• Run a survey to figure out why a customer upgraded to a paid plan
• Set up page-specific surveys to ask what integrations you’re missing
• Capture feedback when customers cancel their subscriptions

These are just some of the key moments when you’re leaving valuable feedback on the table.

In addition to that, ask yourself, how easy it is to leave feedback. The majority of feedback comes from customers running into issues or looking for functionalities that don’t yet exist.

3. Pick the right tool

Now that you have a good overview of where your feedback is coming from and have identified areas for improvement, it’s time to pick the right tool to set up a proper system. 

Here are the key features to look for when choosing a feedback management tool:

1. Integration Compatibility - Ensure the tool integrates smoothly with your existing tools to maintain seamless workflows across platforms.
2. Support for Multiple Feedback Types - The tool should be versatile enough to handle various types of feedback, including bug reports and feature requests.
3. User-Friendliness and Accessibility - Look for a tool that is easy to use and includes customizable widgets for straightforward feedback submission directly from your product or website.
4. Data Syncing and User Segmentation - The tool should offer capabilities for syncing user data and segmenting feedback based on user demographics or subscription levels, helping in effective prioritization and response.

For a more detailed breakdown of what to look for in a feedback management tool, you can read our in-depth guide.

We’ve been working for 3 years to craft the next generation of user feedback tools at Featurebase to help you capture and track feedback in a way that’s enjoyable.

With Featurebase, you have unlimited options for collecting feedback. It supports bug report tracking, in-app feedback collection, surveys, public feedback communities, and all the features you need to extract insights from that feedback. 

Try out Featurebase for free

4. Analyze & Organize Feedback

Once you've collected feedback, the next crucial step is to analyze and organize it effectively. 

This involves categorizing the feedback based on its importance, type, and urgency, which is essential for identifying trends and pinpointing issues that need quick resolution. 

With Featurebase, this managing feedback is streamlined through tools that allow you to sort and filter feedback efficiently.

You can use features like tagging and boards to organize feedback into categories such as 'Immediate Fixes', 'Feature Enhancements', and 'Long-Term Projects'. 

This helps in clarifying which feedback should be acted upon quickly and which can be scheduled for future updates. 

Additionally, the ability to measure the urgency and importance of requests through follow-up questions helps in prioritizing tasks that are critical to user satisfaction and business goals.

5. Plan What to Add Next

With a well-organized feedback system, planning your next steps becomes more data-driven. 

With a tool like Featurebase, you can prioritize ideas based on actual user demand and the impact of potential features. Utilizing user segmentation and feature voting, you can gain clear insights into what your most important users are most enthusiastic about or what issues are affecting them the most.

To take your feedback prioritization to the next level, consider learning more about some feature prioritization frameworks, such as value vs. effort and RICE scoring.

Regular updates to your product roadmap within Featurebase can keep your entire team aligned on these priorities, ensuring everyone is working towards the same objectives.

6. Implement Changes & Communicate Updates

The final phase involves implementing the planned changes and effectively communicating these updates back to your users. 

Clear communication isn’t only great for customer relationships but also drives further engagement and feedback. 

Featurebase supports this with automated status update emails and changelogs that inform users about the latest updates directly within your product.

This continual loop of feedback and updates ensures that your users know their input is valued and taken seriously, creating a community of engaged users. 

By incorporating a tool like Featurebase into your feedback management process, you can build a robust system that not only tracks and analyzes customer feedback but also ensures continuous improvement and user satisfaction, helping you stay aligned with your customer's evolving needs. 

Sign up for Featurebase today →

Essential practices for tracking customer feedback

1. Set Up a Triage Process

Triaging is the middle step between the user's request and adding it to your repository. 

It makes sure the feedback is in the proper format, gets assigned to the right team, and helps you identify what needs urgent action. This way, important stuff gets handled right away.

Featurebase helps by automatically sorting feedback and eliminating duplicate requests with AI.

The triaging process is also where the importance of integrations comes in, with a proper feedback tracking tool, you can convert feedback into actionable issues in your issue management software (Jira, Linear, Clickup, etc..). 

This makes sure that as your engineering team starts working on the topic, the users who requested it get automatically notified via email.

2. Educate Your Team About Your Feedback System

Even if you have the best feedback system in the world, it’s only as good as you utilize it. Therefore, every team member must understand all of the functionalities.

For instance, with Featurebase, you can directly post feedback on behalf of users and seamlessly integrate it with platforms like Intercom to capture all customer requests. 

Educating all teammates about these functionalities makes sure the new system is actually being used to its full potential.

3. Close the Feedback Loop

Closing the feedback loop is crucial for building trust. When users give feedback, they're engaging with your product. Letting them know that you've made changes based on their input shows that you value their thoughts. 

Closing the feedback loop is crucial for building trust. When users give feedback, they're engaging with your product. Letting them know that you've made changes based on their input shows that you value their thoughts. 

Featurebase sends automatic updates to users when their feedback has resulted in a new feature or fix. This keeps them informed and encourages them to continue participating.

By managing feedback this way, we don't just collect insights—we actively use them to improve and evolve our product while keeping our users engaged and informed.

Conclusion

Tracking user feedback at scale can be quite tricky, but with tools like Featurebase, you can transform random, scattered feedback into actionable insights that drive your product development forward. 

Remember, the goal isn't just to collect feedback but to use it effectively to make your product better and keep your customers engaged.

If you're looking for an all-in-one tool to take control of your feedback-tracking process, check out what we've been building at Featurebase to replace all your user feedback management and collection tools with one.

Ready to get started? Sign up to Featurebase for free today to take your feedback-tracking game to the next level.