Customer feedback is an incredible resource of B2B events. It is a real-time validation, (or criticism) from the people who matter the most to your business – your customers and prospects. Since this is a valuable channel for them to voice out their likes, preferences, pain points and much more, feedback should figure in every event marketer’s repertoire.
Feedback is also a key indicator of whether the event met your company’s key goals and objectives for it, helping you determine the level of success. It’s a great metric to help make better decisions in the future.
This post will tell you all you need to know about collecting feedback at events, and how we can leverage it to hit your objectives.
Collecting it from the right sources
There are a lot of valuable insights that we can derive from collected feedback, but the data needs to be accurate, and reflect the real sentiments of the actual decision makers.
This is the first step. Begin by identifying the executives who are the most likely to make a decision about your product or service, so that you know that the insights that you derive actually contribute positively to your future event strategy.
The volume of feedback is also crucial to the integrity of your data, so the sample size needs to be as large as possible, but still maintaining a focus on decision makers and influencers.
The best places to collect feedback
Now that you know whom to collect feedback from, let’s look at where you can get the most effective feedback. Since the channel you choose is connected to your sample size, you’ll have to ensure that you have maximum reach. There are multiple places that you can collect feedback from, online or offline.
You can have surveys set up right after your demo session, for your prospects to rate your booth. If you’ve engaged them for a reasonable period of time, their voice is definitely necessary. Even if they do not sign up, you would at least know what to improve on. If you are sending them any information or sharing marketing/sales collaterals, you can piggyback your survey on that. If you have their email id, you could always send them a survey form a few days after the event, while it is still fresh in their memory. But we’d reserve this only for existing customers – we wouldn’t want to go overboard on communication with prospects.
You have their attention. What do you ask for now?
You know the right people, and you know where to find them. But what do you ask them?
There are two aspects of collecting post-event information:
- Measuring the success of the event
- Collecting data for future strategy implementation.
You can choose the question based on your specific objectives – you could even combine objectives if you so desire and choose your questions based on that. You can check out some really simple survey forms from SurveyMonkey here.
Collecting feedback at the right time
The most common time to collect feedback is usually after the event, but getting the right kind of feedback before, and even during the event.
Pre-event Feedback:
Why take feedback before the event even starts? It helps you know your attendees better, and it also helps generate awareness for your event.
Pre-event Feedback survey generally leans toward asking your customers what they would like to see, or what would make them more likely to attend – Think about speaker choices, food choices or kinds of goodies available.
During the event:
The feedback you collect during the event is the voice of the attendees. customers themselves – about how the event is shaping up, and to let you know if anything pressing needs to addressed immediately. Or, this could also be about the product or the service – you’ll know where to pass these along.
Post-event:
This is what comes to most people’s minds when they think about feedback. This is the time to check if the insights from the pre-event feedback are correct. Be sure to send this out within a few days of the event, while the attendees can still recollect all aspects of your booth.
Related: Structuring a fail-proof post-event plan for sales advancement
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The importance of collecting the right kind of feedback, at the right time cannot be overstated. Incorporating what you’ve gleaned from all that valuable data into future event strategy is a step forward in showing proper RoI from events.
For more insights on B2B events and meeting scheduling, visit the Jifflenow blog.
