One of the things I think Google does a great job at is asking for feedback on their products. I came across a recent example of this when booking a flight through Google Flights, which went through an overhaul earlier this year.
After searching for a flight and staying on the page for 10 seconds, a small tray popped up in the lower right corner. The question asked, “Overall, how satisfied are you with Google Flights?”.
They gave five choices of “Very satisfied”, “Somewhat satisfied”, “Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied”, “Somewhat dissatisfied”, and “Very dissatisfied”. Curious, I clicked “Very satisfied” thinking it might just end there with a “Thanks for your feedback!” message.
Normally when I’m filling out feedback I’ve found that apps only ask for what can be improved when you are unhappy with the product or service. To my surprise though, Google followed up with another question even though I had indicated I was “very satisfied”.
“What, if anything’, do you dislike most about Google Flights?”. I love this question. It’s probably the single most useful question for improving a product. Even though I had indicated a positive sentiment (“very satisfied”), Google knows that they can always make their products better. They could have asked me what I liked most and why. But instead, they chose to ask what I disliked most.
Sure, this might seem like Google is focusing on the negative. But negative or positive is not the point. The point is looking for tangible and actionable feedback to actually make the product better. While it may feel great to know that users are satisfied with your product, that information is not useful on its own. They key is finding out what your users dislike, find annoying, or simply just think can be made better. And there are always things that can be made better. Unhappy users will naturally offer up this information, but the lesson as Google shows here is to remember to ask your happy users too.
Here is the full feedback flow:
Kurt Heinrich 