How to Create Feedback Emails + Templates, Examples & Tips

Customer feedback is like a gold mine. It’s not easy to get, but it’s worth a fortune. 

The key to customer feedback is understanding how to get it. 

Emails are one of the easiest ways to get it since they’re non-intrusive but can be personalized. 

So why are feedback emails important? 

Imagine having a highly converting lead generation system, only to realize that your customer retention rate is low. 

Your business is a leaking bucket, but you don’t know why. Feedback is the band-aid you need to fix it.

Customers appreciate it when a business listens to their feedback and executes on it. It’s an excellent way to fix issues with your marketing strategy and product while increasing customer retention and building loyalty. 

Customer feedback helps SaaS companies and other digital businesses provide users with a fantastic customer experience. 

Without feedback, you’re almost destined to fail. That’s because you won’t know what’s wrong and won’t know what’s ineffective or how to fix it.

As Brian Halligan, CEO of HubSpot, put it:

“Feedback is the breakfast of champions.” 

Keeping a pulse of how your customers feel allows you to create a product that transcends the market and delivers products that exceed their expectations. 

• 42% of startup businesses fail because they are selling a product or service that people don’t need or want
• Only 1 out of 26 customers are likely to bring up their concerns or complaints. 
• Depending on the industry, acquiring a new customer is 5 to 25 times more expensive than retaining a current customer. 

If you’ve ever seen feedback emails before, you may notice that most are overly long and complicated. The goal of the feedback email is to generate insightful, high-quality responses from a large sample size of your customers. 

This article will give you tips, templates, and subject lines to get you writing feedback emails that generate responses and improve your business. 

What exactly are feedback emails? 

A feedback email is sent to a specific group of people asking for their opinion of your product or service. In this case, you’d send the feedback email to your customers or users. 

The goal of the emails is to access the strong points and flaws of a business, product, or customer experience. 

You can do so in many ways: 

• Send a form with multiple choice answers or open-ended questions.
• Asking customers to reply to your emails and share their thoughts.
• Ask to access specific modules or features within your software or customer portal.
• Include an NPS survey that rates your product on a scale of 0 to 10. 

Customer feedback can be used for many reasons. Perhaps you’re asking for honest feedback about a new product, or you may be looking for positive reviews to add to your marketing site. 

Why feedback emails are important

As a business owner, you’re on a constant lookout for improvement. Customer satisfaction is perhaps the best metric that defines long-term success in your organization. Customers that receive excellent customer experience spend 140% more. 

A good customer experience means retention and referrals. Bad customer experiences mean they’ll run off to your competitors. 

Feedback emails show customers that their opinions matter. 

Customers want to feel important and that their needs are met, especially when paying for your product. When asking for feedback about their experience with your website, product, or any other interaction, your customers will feel involved as they are treated almost like they are a part of your team. 

Of course, just asking for feedback and collecting it is not enough. 

It’s essential to act on the collected feedback and let them know you’ve delivered the desired improvements based on their recommendations. Communicating the good news will further reciprocate their goodwill so that they’ll continue providing feedback in the future and likely become loyal customers. 

You need to find common patterns within the responses, implement improvements or new products, and share your initiatives with your audience. This approach is commonly referred to as a customer feedback loop.

It helps you improve your product

Receiving feedback from customers is an excellent way to gain insight into what your customers truly want and give you ideas on how to tweak a product. 72% of B2B buyers claim that negative reviews provide insight into product quality. 

Often business owners make the mistake of making assumptions about what their customers want. They may launch new products or features that completely flop or confuse their users. 

Each time a customer has good or bad feedback, it’s an opportunity to learn how users feel about your product. Perhaps, they find one feature useful but another confusing. Reducing friction when using your software allows your customers to adapt the software to their business quickly. 

Negative feedback provides opportunities

Most businesses shy away from negative feedback. However, unhappy customers should be seen as an opportunity. Perhaps they complained about the service they’ve received or how the tech didn’t work for them. 

They could’ve written a negative online review on various third-party sites, which could hurt your brand reputation. Instead, they took the effort to communicate with you and share their experiences, entrusting that you can fix it. 

Negative feedback gives you a customer satisfaction strategy on a silver plate! 

Businesses can use the complaint to address the issue and win them back as customers. 

At the very least, they could prevent future complaints that pertain to the same problem. 

To help you get started with feedback emails, we’ll provide a bunch of templates, examples, and tips.

Let’s dive in with some subject line inspiration to help you get your ideas brewing.

10 subject lines to get readers to open your email 

• {{person.firstName}}, do you disagree with [negative reviewer’s name]
• {{person.firstName}}, you’re in the top 3%, what do you think? 
• {{person.firstName}}, take our survey, get 10% off on your next purchase
• How can we make make [your product name] better for you? 
• {{person.firstName}} thanks for trying [your product name] What do you think? 
• {{person.firstName}}, help us make [your product name] better. 
• Was [your product name] all that you’d hope for? 
• CEO of [your company name] needs your help! 
• {{person.firstName}}, help us change the world [or any other big mission you want to achieve]
• Spare 2 minutes and get 20% off our annual subscription!

Nailing the right subject line isn’t always easy. Rather than spending hours feeling stuck, Encharge offers a free AI subject line generator. Just plug in your topic and get dozens of subject lines ideas for your feedback emails.

Additionally, it’s also good to keep a file of your favorite subject lines to use as reference. Feel free to add these. 

5 Feedback email templates you can steal 

Next, we have five email templates and concepts you can use for your own business. 

NPS score email 

Net Promoter Score (NPS) emails are designed for customers to answer a short questionnaire and rate their user experience on a scale of 0 to 10. This metric measures the likelihood they will refer your company to their friends, colleagues, or family. NPS email surveys are the easiest way to verify your customer’s feelings about your product. 

The question you ask is:

“How likely are you to recommend [product name] to your friends or colleagues?”

The results allow you to gauge future growth, customer loyalty and retention, and develop your product based on customer feedback. 

Here’s a template for you to model your next NPS score emails from. 

Below, Binance is a cryptocurrency platform that sends out an NPS score email to its users for feedback on their software. It’s helpful to add a clickable image that visually represents the 0-10 score. This gives readers the impression that the survey is easy to complete. 

Encharge offers integrations with form builders and survey tools so that you can build clean surveys. Furthermore, a tool like SurveySparrow lets you embed NPS surveys into the email by copying and pasting the pre-generated HTML code, so customers won’t have to click on a link to access the email. 

Product-market fit email

Product-market fit is a term coined by startup investor Marc Andreessen that means a product satisfies a group of people. Every great entrepreneur identifies a need in the marketplace and builds a solution that customers are willing to pay for. 

The Sean Ellis Test is a popularized survey used to determine whether your product achieves product-market fit. The primary question asked to your customers in this survey is: 

“How would you feel if you could no longer use our product?” 

Respondents can choose between:

• Very disappointed
• Somewhat disappointed
• Not disappointed

If over 40% of survey respondents answered “very disappointed, ” your business has achieved product-market fit. Anything under 40% means your product needs tweaking to meet the market’s demands better. 

This product-market fit (PMF) survey should be sent to only individuals who meet these qualifications: 

• People who experienced your core product.
• People who have used your product at least twice.
• People have used your product within the last two weeks.

Slack sent the PMF survey to their users and received a 51% ratio of individuals who would be very disappointed if their product was no longer available. 

Consider using the following template below. It specifically tells readers what the survey is for and adds an incentive to complete it. 

Churn cancellation feedback email

Cancellations are inevitable, especially in SaaS businesses. How you manage the cancellation can win back customers by re-engaging with them. 

At the very least, it’s crucial to try to get feedback from them. 

The churn cancellation feedback email is sent after a person decides to cancel their subscription with you. 

Your best feedback comes from people who canceled subscriptions. They have a specific reason for not continuing their service. Perhaps, they aren’t getting the desired result, or it might be too expensive. Either way, it’s vital to get a consensus on why consumers choose to leave your software. 

Here’s an email template for that:

You can easily implement such an email survey with Encharge. Simply create landing pages for each of the answers. Then you can segment respondents based on which link they’ve clicked.

Basecamp provides excellent customer service, which leaves a lasting impression on users. Canceled users may be concerned about being charged again or perhaps looking for a refund. They offer an FAQ link that directs them to the answer. 

Basecamp even tells them how to re-subscribe in case the cancellation happened by accident. And lastly, they encourage readers to complete an anonymous survey to feel comfortable voicing their frustrations. 

Trial expiration feedback email

Trial expiration emails are sent when the trial period is close to ending or has already ended. These emails remind customers about the appending status of their account and nudge them to upgrade sooner rather than later. 

In this template, there are a few key takeaways: 

• It tells them what they would lose if they do not upgrade 
• Reiterates the benefit of the product and the price for upgrading 
• Provides an option to give feedback in case they don’t wish to continue using your product 

Feature opinion feedback email 

Features should only be added to a product when it adds value to the user. Adding new features can only confuse users if they don’t immediately see the value or can quickly implement it. 

This email template has a few things going for it: 

• Asks open-ended questions which allow users to elaborate on their opinion about the features 
• It tells you whether or not the feature should be tweaked or not. 

Best feedback email examples 

When it comes to email copy and marketing strategy, we recommend keeping a swipe file for inspiration. If you like the way an email is written or how they entice users to provide feedback, chances are others will like it too. 

Example 1: Ramit Sethi 

Ramit Sethi uses a direct subject line and tells the reader it’ll only take 1 minute to complete. This feedback email is sent to leads who have gone through his mini-course. Since he uses the mini-course as a lead nurturing sequence to convert into sales for his full course, it allows him to see whether people are gaining value from his mini-course. 

Example 2: YoungLA

YoungLA, a retail brand, uses its feedback email as a lead generation strategy to acquire more sales. In their subject line, they personalize the email and ask a short question, “what do you think?” Using a short question like, “what do you think” piques the reader’s curiosity and gets them wondering why they want your opinion. 

YoungLA asks for a photo and feedback to use reviews for their branding inside the email. They reward users by giving customers a 15% off on their next order, further incentivizing them to provide feedback. 

Example 3: Unsplash 

For SaaS companies, it can be beneficial to tell them how their answers can help improve the product. Many companies provide generic reasoning such as “we’ll use the responses to create a better experience for you.” Being specific lets customers know what their responses are going towards. 

In this example, Unsplash tells users they are specifically looking for information to determine what to build. Readers get a sense of ownership when they know they have some control in affecting the product and user experience. Furthermore, the email tells you exactly how many questions there are, so they know it won’t take much of their time. 

Example 4: Twitch 

Email surveys, especially ones that take longer than a few minutes, can be a big ask for users. If obtaining feedback is truly valuable to you, consider throwing in a little incentive like a discount or gift card. Twitch tells users that it’ll take 10 minutes to complete their survey. They provide survey responders with a $10 Vita e-Gift card to thank their users. The more time-intensive and complex your feedback questions are, the more incentive you’ll need to give your customers. 

Example 5: Peace Yoga Gear 

Peace Yoga Gear is a clothing brand that tailors their feedback based on their customer’s satisfaction level. Depending on their customer’s answers, they’ll be directed to a link that asks them more detailed questions. 

For example, if a customer clicks on the “Yes – I’ve actually told friends or family about this already,” you can ask them what aspects of the product they love. If they answered, “no, probably not,” you can ask them “why they didn’t like the product or experience and ask them how might that be improved.” 

Example 6: Groove 

Groove is a software company that provides an alternative for customer support emails by organizing all customer support channels in one place. They’ve taken a unique approach to customer feedback requests. 

There are many points at which you can request feedback. Alex from Groove uses it as part of their onboarding email to ask customers why they decided to sign up for the Groove. This allows them to adjust their product to help meet customers’ expectations. 

For example, if new customers said that they signed up because they wanted to save time on customer service tasks, it would be counterintuitive to have a complex product. In this case, Alex can continue to tweak his product and customer experience to fit what they’re looking for. 

Example 7: Ramit Sethi 

Customer feedback doesn’t simply have to relate to product development. Ramit Sethi uses feedback to see what readers think about his emails. He’s often known for very long-form “blog-post” style emails which deliver a lot of information. 

It’s vital to get a pulse on your marketing. Perhaps your marketing might come off too aggressive or boring. Frequent sales pitches turn off most email subscribers. Getting feedback is an excellent way to become aware of the quality of your copy. 

Example 8: Moz

Moz brilliantly demonstrates empathy by understanding that subscribers are often bombarded by emails. Since Moz is a larger company that sends many types of emails, they give users the option to select which type of email they want. Letting users set their email preferences is a great way to get feedback without asking for it discreetly. 

The tone of the email sounds like they’re doing you a favor. However, Moz also benefits by seeing what types of emails its subscribers enjoy the most. 

5 tips for creating feedback emails that generate a response

Feedback is highly critical in your business. The best way to grow your business long-term is to have a great product that people love. Thus, generating responses allows you to continually make new iterations to your product. 

Before we begin with our best tips on generating better responses, let’s go over a general structure for creating feedback emails. 

Here’s what the emails should include:

• Write an attention-grabbing subject line 
• Begin with a personalized salutation, so they know it isn’t spam 
• Explain the reasoning as to why they’re receiving the feedback request (the more specific, the better)
• Tell them how long the process will take 
• End the email with a thank you and CTA

1. Craft compelling subject lines 

The subject line of the feedback email is the first thing your customers see. 33.9% of recipients open their emails based on the subject line. 

The easiest way to make your subject lines better is to do any of the following: 

• Make it bold 
• Keep it short and direct 
• Personalize the subject line
• Stir curiosity 
• Fear of missing out or offering something of value

A subject line that uses curiosity could be, “did this happen to you too?” 

In this example, Brett Dev uses the subject line, “it’s over Colin,” to spark curiosity. Readers would be left wondering, “what’s over?” As a result, it’ll pique their interest enough to open and read the email. 

Another fear of missing out on the headline could be, “this is how Sean added 325,859 email subscribers with [product name].”

Within the email, you can talk about your customer’s testimonial story. Then at the bottom, you could segway into a trial expiration email where you warn them not to let their trial end. 

A value-based subject line could be “take survey for 25% off.” It’s straightforward and tells users why they should open the email. 

Further reading: 6 Killer Tips to Craft Compelling and Clickable Email Subject Lines

2. Embed the survey into the email 

SurveyMonkey performed a test and found that embedding а survey into the email gave an open rate of 32%. 

Here’s what they’ve found: 

• Respondents are more compelled to click on the survey when they see the survey on the email. Embedding the first question onto the email is more enticing than having a link or button that leads to it. 
• Once the respondents have completed the first question, they’re more likely to finish the rest of it since they’ve already invested their time. 

In this example, Capital one embedded their survey into the email, making it very easy to respond to. 

3. Keep the survey super-short 

The most challenging part of putting your survey together is staying focused on one thing. There are a lot of questions you want to ask, but the reality is that your customers are only willing to give you a few minutes of their time. 

They’re more willing to respond if you respect their time. Instead of listing pages of questions, it’s helpful to segment surveys based on where the customer is in their journey. A long-time customer may receive a different survey than a new customer who is still on the trial period. 

4. Choose the right types of survey questions 

There are many survey types to choose from. Knowing these types and how they work can help you elicit the response you’re looking for. 

For example, do you want to know why customers canceled their membership? In this case, you’ll want to consider using open-ended questions. 

If you’re looking for a product-market fit, then an NPS survey would suffice. 

Here are some survey types to consider: 

Rating scale questions: Customers will rate their experience through a number scale like “0 to 10” or from a negative to positive rating (very dissatisfied to neutral to very satisfied). 

Pros: 

• It can be used to evaluate any aspect of the customer experience.
• Provides statistical data that can be tracked over time.

Cons: 

• It doesn’t dig into why customers chose that rating. 

Multiple choice questions are similar to the rating scale, where users can select one or more options. Multiple choice questions are an excellent way to gather information to make new product decisions, decide where to advertise to reach your audience or understand where you can improve. 

Pros:

• Eliminates subjectivity 
• Results can be compiled, analyzed, and tracked for insight 
• Customers can choose multiple answers 

Cons: 

• It doesn’t tell you why customers chose their answer 

Dichotomous survey questions: These questions only have two possible answers: yes/no, agree/disagree, or true/false. It’s designed for quick and easy responses. For instance, you could ask customers whether they’re aware of specific product features and then dive deeper with a different set of questions depending on their answer. 

Pros: 

• Lets you segment customers into two groups 
• Gets more responses 
• Results are easy to understand

Cons: 

• Doesn’t provide depth of knowledge like why the customer decided to give their answer 
• Doesn’t allow for neutral or in-between responses 

Open-ended survey questions: They allow customers to provide feedback in their own words. Open-ended questions are the perfect follow-up for close-ended questions so that you receive more context as to why they have given their answers. 

Pros: 

• Helps you understand why they feel a particular way 
• Offers qualitative data 

Cons: 

• May receive fewer responses 
• Time-consuming to analyze 

It’s important to remember that you can mix and match these types of questions to get the response you want. 

5. Write a captivating feedback invitation email 

Feedback emails should be personalized, relevant, and specific. Asking for broad feedback about their company won’t provide you with great answers even if you receive a reply. An personalized email with their name and explains the relevance increases the chances of a response. 

1. Be clear on the purpose of the feedback. Why are you conducting the survey? Are you looking to build new product features? Do you want to send more relevant emails? 
2. Explain why the recipient was chosen to participate. Are they long-time VIP members? Did they purchase a specific product? Has their trial recently ended? 
3. Demonstrate how it can benefit them. For example, their feedback will be taken in consideration in the next product update. Or maybe they will receive a discount on their next order. 
4. Tell them how long the process will take. Tell them that the survey will take 1 minute takes away their concern that the survey will take a long time. You’ll want to take the survey yourself or have others provide feedback to give an accurate estimate. 
5. Thank them by showing them gratitude and providing a CTA. 

6. Incentivize customers with an irresistible discount 

Asking your friends for a favor is one thing, but asking strangers is much harder to do. There’s no real benefit for customers to respond to it. 

The longer the survey, the more you’ll want to provide incentives to the customer. Increases the response rates by giving customers something worthwhile. Here are some examples of discount subject lines: 

• Share your insight – $25 Amazon e-Gift card
• Get 50% when you let us know how you feel 
• Let’s make [product name] better – survey competition 

However, note that large irrelevant discounts may skew the honesty of the responses and ultimately the accuracy of the results. You might want to keep your rewards nominal and relevant to your business. For instance, you can offer a discount on your software, but avoid giving away free iPhones and expensive gifts.

Final thoughts on writing killer feedback emails 

You are now equipped with the knowledge to create your own surveys and series of feedback emails. 

Don’t continue running your business without getting feedback. It helps your business grow and improves their experience with you. 
Now it’s your turn. Sign up for a free 14-day trial of Encharge today, so you can craft and load your feedback emails onto a powerful and easy-to-use marketing automation platform.

Read more: 6 Essential Practices To Create A Killer User Onboarding Survey For A SaaS