Exiting

FEEDBACK MAP

45 minutes

A big sheet of paper, minimum size A3, or a whiteboard
Markers, pens and pencils of different colours
Sticky notes

What is this tool and what is its purpose and benefit?

Collecting continuous feedback on the service after its launch is important for obtaining information about its functionality, user-orientation, and how customers feel about it. A feedback map is a visual way to organise and analyse informal and formal customer feedback collected through different channels. Presenting feedback visually helps to form an overview of the feedback and the type of information obtained to be analysed and provided for improvements, monitoring of the service, foreseeing the service in light of current and upcoming trends, to analyse at which point of its lifespan the service is at, and to direct an organisation’s activity in relation to the service. If operating on different markets it can also help to identify differences and similarities in customer behaviour between different markets.

Steps how to use this tool in practice

The same steps apply when working individually, in pairs or in a group.

STEP 1

Take a big sheet of paper, for example sized A3 or A2, and start preparing your customer feedback map. Alternatively, you can use a wall where you attach notes or a whiteboard.

STEP 2

Write at the centre of the paper the name of your service, and think how and through which formal and informal channels you can get feedback from your customers. Have a horizontal line at the centre of the paper and write “formal feedback” on the top of the paper and “informal feedback” on the bottom of the paper.

STEP 3

Start adding informal and formal channels to contact your customers and gather feedback from them. Divide the space around the centre between these into spaces like slices of cake adding the formal channels above the central horizontal line and the informal channels below the central horizontal line.

Examples of collecting feedback formally include observation, interviews, questionnaires, emailing etc.
Examples of collecting feedback informally include social media, feedback on your website, forums, feedback left on your webpage, self-reflection and conversations with customers.

STEP 4

Plan who to contact and how, what kind of feedback you want to obtain, and with what kind of questions. Decide also your timeline, materials, logistics and locations for collecting feedback.

STEP 5

Contact people to collect feedback.

STEP 6

Add the feedback onto your feedback map, and analyse and summarise your findings for the updates, improvements and other activities you may need to do to your service. If using sticky notes, you can use different colours for different types of feedback, neutral, positive and negative, as this kind of visual element makes getting an overview even easier. You can first organise the feedback separately for each channel that has been used, then combine together all feedback obtained through informal channels and, separately, all feedback obtained through formal channels, and finally combine together the informal and formal feedback.

STEP 7

Monitor the situation regularly to see where you are at with your service in order to make necessary decisions. You can monitor the situation, for example, each month or every second month. Taking a photo of each feedback map and comparing them will provide you a visual evolution of feedback.

Tips and hints for using this tool

You may decide about the repeatability of intentional feedback channels and the functionality of unintentional feedback channels. What can you do to improve the feedback from your clients?
Feedback maps can also be used adapted at the research and testing phases.
You can reflect the feedback against your own professional identity and your organisation’s identity.

The inspiration for your feedback map can be found here: