Using UserVoice To Get What You Want

Installing the new UserVoice customer feedback widget was easy.  Setting up the associated forum was easy to.  Now it’s time to take advantage of this powerful service and get what you want from it.

Installing this tool is one thing, easy.  The flip side to installing this tool is the question ‘Are people going to use it?’.  To help answer that question, I’m writing this post to demonstrate the power of this service.  It all starts with the Feedback link you see snug up against the vertical scroll bar in your browser to the right.  It looks like the one in the image when you move your mouse over it.  It’s out of the way, but there if you need it.

Clicking the feedback link will activate the feedback widget and the following dialog will be displayed.

This displays a list of the top ideas as voted on by other visitors.  You might notice that this particular post is not on the top anymore and has been out-voted by the ‘Add Twitthis, stumble to Blogger Posts’ request.  That will be my next post to write on.  It may not be the next post out the gate, but it will be the one that I’ll focus on.

Clicking the ‘Report a Bug’ link will change the screen to display the following.

With this screen, you can submit an idea or report a bug.  It’s really no different than the existing ‘Contact’ form found on most every blog. 

Submit a Bug

If at any time you come across a bug and are feeling exceptionally helpful, you could report it via the Submit a Bug form.  The form will send an email off to the owner, so your voice is heard immediately.  Of course, you can use this for more than just bugs.  It’s there for you to use for whatever reason you can think of. 

Submit an Idea

The Submit an Idea area is a little more involved.  You can help to shape the posts I write by providing some suggestions of your own; letting me know what you want to know more about, whatever that might be. 

If the idea is already in the list, you can vote for it.  I’ll always work from the top of the stack, it’s just easier that way and would be what people expect. 

If you don’t see your idea in the list, or want to see a complete list of ideas submitted to me, click the ‘Go to our feedback forum’ to see the complete forum in action.

Submit Anonymously or Not?

UserVoice was smart to allow anonymous users to provide ideas.  I believe that will help to encourage more people to submit an idea perhaps, but there are plenty of benefits to creating an account too that I’ll elaborate on in a bit.  Here’s a shot of the screen you’ll see when you are looking at the feedback forum.

You don’t need to have an account to add a suggestion.  Simply type your suggestion into the main textbox extended across the top and hit enter (or click the Search button, it acts like a submit button as well). 

If you do this anonymously, you won’t get any of the feedback that I might add to the request.  In fact, I may have questions for you to further clarify what your suggestion means.  I therefore encourage that if you are going to leave me a suggestion, please also take the time to create an account with UserVoice.  That way, you’ll be kept up to date on the progress of your suggestion or idea. 

There are plenty of features found on this page such as the voting abilities and status markers that show my progress on each item.  You can also add comments to existing suggestions, or see what I’ve completed.

With all the functionality provided, I feel this tool will be around my blog for a while.  In fact, I’m considering removing my contact form altogether, I may no longer need it since this covers the exact same functionality. 

Have you checked it out yet?  I mean, you’ve read this far after all, you might as well check it out, right? 

Tell me what you think guys and gals!  If there are any further questions on how how to use my feedback widget, just let me know. Now you know how.

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