Saturday 18 January 2014

Breaking the silence: the role of a slide-out feedback form to capture user experience

The challenge to capture feedback
Accurate information about service provision is important for patients to decide which provider to attend.  SXT (www.sxt.org.uk) was formed in 2012 and over 3000 clients have been successfully directed to a local provider offering the service they require.  However, despite adding a hyperlink to a webform for feedback less than a dozen individuals elected to leave their thoughts.  Feedback is a challenge to capture across all web-based services (e.g. TripAdvisor 2%, I want great care 25%*).  We therefore tested if the introduction of a slide-out feedback form, appearing three seconds after the client viewed a single provider page, would engage users and determine if they found the SXT service useful.  

Developing a new approach
Over the summer months in 2013 the website was re-designed (v3.0) and made responsive so that it adapts to any device – computer, phone & tablet.  During this development a slide-out feedback form was added asking the question ‘Did you find this service useful?  This form gives the option to score from 10 (very useful) to 1 (not useful) using radio buttons and a comment box is available for any text.  The new site went live on the 5th August 2013 and the database records details of the date, time, postcode, service requested, local providers displayed, the provider selected, feedback score and comment.  The design and development of the website was done by Matthew Ford, Laura Paplauskaite & Michael Wallace (www.bitzesty.com)

What was the result?
Over six months a total of 683 clients looked for information or a service and 451 (66%) chose a specific provider and the slide-out feedback form was displayed.  A total of 67 (15%) clients left a score and these are shown on the table below.  The provider types chosen by clients giving feedback were 15 genitourinary medicine clinics, five sexual reproductive health clinics, five third sector clinics, four general practices, two sexual assault referral centres and one pharmacy. Only three clients wrote text with their feedback. The majority of clients found the service useful with 85% giving a response of eight or more out of ten.

Device used
Did you find this service useful? [Score 1 – 10]

Total
1
7
8
9
10
Phone & Tablet
0
1
5
3
26
35
Computer
5
4
6
3
14
32
Total
5
5
11
6
40
67

What's next?
The slide-out feedback form has enabled SXT to engage clients and the responses to date support its utility to identify local services.  Further work will include placement of slide-out feedback form(s) on other pages of the website to determine the utility of the information services provided.


* Personal communication Dr Neil Bacon (Founder of I want great care www.iwgc.org)