Feature request is a type of product feedback that you will mostly encounter in the SaaS product business. The feature request usually comes in ideas for your product improvements. It can also include suggestions and modifications. Moreover, it may involve improving your UI or asking you for entirely new functionality.
What Are The Various Kinds Of Feature Requests?
When you break feature requests, you get three core categories which are based on the users’ intentions when they share their ideas and they are as below:
Requesting A Bug Fix
Mostly you will see Bug reports when your users encounter something that is not working as expected. Also, this type of feature request comes when your product is not working the way they want it to work.
Product Improvement Suggestions
Product improvement requests are parts of customer feedback that indicate ways to improve the existing products’ functionality. With the help of these product improvement suggestions, either you will be able to improve the usability or revise some existing workflows. You should also know that your customers share their recommendations because they feel that this feedback will be helpful to your business.
Requests For New Features
Lastly, you get new feature requests. Even when your product is functioning seamlessly, some of your potential users sometimes want an utterly new piece of functionality.
Tips For Managing Feature Requests
Before knowing about managing feature requests, you must know the different sources of these requests. It is essential to see the head because you need to respond differently. In most cases, your customer support teams need to connect and respond to your customers, at least initially.
The significant variety of requests usually comes from current customers who notice something that needs to be fixed in the product. Also, some recommendations are based on something that the customers genuinely need.
On feedsocio, you get all types of feature requests from your valuable users. You can use the reaction tools of feedsocio to quickly get more insight and know-how your users feel about the product and change them accordingly. Also, you can keep your end-users informed so that you can make improvements according to your customers.
Considering the hazard that customers can create while giving feedback, it’s never easy to decide how to deal with them. Therefore, some of the top tips that will help you to avoid hassle are as below:
Keep Everything In One Place
The organization is one of the most important and helpful factors for managing feature requests. When you have a chaotic system, it will be hard for you to stay on top of all the various ideas and feedback you will receive from customers. One of the simple ways to do this is to use proper product management software like feedsocio. It will centralize your whole product planning process.
Build A Proper System For Receiving And Managing Requests
Your customers will freely and comfortably send you feature requests if they get a proper organizational way to contact you. Previously, users needed to send an email and wait a long time to read and forward it to the right person. However, that is not the case in today’s time—all you need to do is have a proper system to receive and manage their requests.
Respond Accurately– Personally, Promptly, And Honestly
If you don’t appropriately respond to the feature requests, it will be one of the most frustrating things for your customers. Therefore, you must use automatic replies. It will be worth investing your precious time in responding personally. Also, it will let the end-users know that you are into their opinion, and because of that, they will feel happier using your product.
Furthermore, you need to be honest when you respond. You must not tell your customer that you will consider their request if you have no aim to do so. It will be better to say that the proposal doesn’t fit directly into your strategy and plan. Also, it would help if you let them know the track you are taking them in.
Have Discussions On The Requests With Your Colleagues And Other Customers
If you want growth in the business, you need to consider alternative viewpoints. You may get something that will be of enormous benefit. Therefore, it is worth discussing different feature requests with your colleagues and end-users. You need to evaluate the request of other customers before moving ahead with development.
Moreover, it will be a big hit if your different audience loves the idea. Otherwise, if most audiences reject it, you must consider that particular request discarding and moving on to something else.
Be In Contact With The Potential Audience
You need to connect with your customers and let them be updated about all progress. Also, communication is a positive thing, but you need to be careful and not make any commitments or raise expectations unless you know that you will meet them.
Conclusion
If you want to have a great business and foster long-lasting relationships with your users, you need to appropriately respond to your users’ inquiries, challenges, and requests. It will incline your audiences to continue sharing feedback with you.
Therefore, you will have a great connection with your customers, who will be responsible for the growth of your business. However, you need to accept every feature request and continuously share the process updates.
