User surveys can provide an incredible layer of insight and information. These, in turn, help your organization make data-driven decisions that improve overall user experience. 

The ability to dish up surveys in your mobile app can provide valuable insights into how users are interacting with, experiencing, and feeling about your app. (Not to mention, users are usually much more responsive to in-app surveys than other channels, like email.) That means more feedback for your team to act on.

That’s why Appcues Mobile now allows you to conduct mobile surveys directly in your native mobile applications—without needing engineering or developer resources. Designed for you to dig deeper with your app users, mobile surveys are a great option for gathering user feedback in real time.

Appcues mobile surveys support a variety of question types so you can build surveys that meet your needs: 

• Text input: Allow customers to write free-form responses to open-ended questions
• Ratings: Choose from emojis, numbers, or stars to get a sense of user satisfaction 😀1️⃣⭐
• Single select: Provide users with a list of options, and allow them to select one
• Multi-select: Provide users with a list of options, and allow them to select multiple responses

The top 5 uses cases for in-app surveys

#1 | Learn more about your users

Surveying your users can give you a deeper understanding of who they are, what they want, and how they interact with your app—arming you with the data you need to make decisions that improve the overall user experience. You can also use surveys to gather customer data (think demographics, interests, and behaviors), which can be handy for targeted marketing and personalization.

Some example questions: 

1. How did you find [app name]?
2. What is your role? 

#2 | Deliver better app experiences

By better understanding user needs and motivations, you can deliver tailored content and experiences that make them more likely to engage with your app. This is especially helpful when creating your user onboarding experience. Remember: don’t serve up a one-size-fits-all approach— customize the experience to fit the user's individual needs instead.

Some example questions to use: 

1. What do you want to accomplish today?
2. Would you like to see a walkthrough of how to use [feature name]?

#3 | Gather valuable product and user feedback

Surveys designed to answer specific product questions—like feedback on new features, recent app changes, your product roadmap, and overall user experience—are the most common use cases we see. Well-timed surveys at specific areas of user drop-off can also help identify core areas of potential friction. 

Some example questions to use: 

1. What feature would you like to see added next?
2. How do you like the new design of [app name]?
3. Did you accomplish what you wanted to today?
4. Was [feature name] easy to use?
5. How did you like this [feature name]?

#4 | Track sentiment & measure satisfaction

It can be hard to make improvements to your product if you don’t have a core baseline for user satisfaction. Regular survey pulse checks help you understand how users are feeling about your app so that you can establish a baseline, identify areas for improvement, and measure progress.

Some example questions to use: 

1. How likely are you to recommend [app name]?
2. How easy was [app name] to use? 

#5 | Drive more app store reviews 

This goes hand-in-hand with tracking sentiment, but surveys are also a valuable way to capitalize on positive user feelings. For users who give low scores, push them to explain their frustration—and for users who give top scores, encourage them to leave a positive app store review in real-time. Users are much more likely to leave a review when they are asked to do so in the moment, and those testimonials can do wonders for your app's reputation and downloads. 

Mobile survey best practices to remember

Surveying your users can produce invaluable insights for your team, but this wouldn’t be a thorough blog post if we didn’t include some best practices. So let’s get into it: 

Survey at the right time

When you send a survey is just as important as what you send. It can be hard to find the right moment to survey, but you shouldn’t interrupt users when they’re too new or when they’re in the middle of trying to do something. Here are some great times to ask for feedback: 

• After they’ve interacted with something new
• After finishing a flow, like an onboarding experience 
• After completing a core aha moment
• After a certain level of usage (e.g., a number of days using the app)

Additionally, make sure to avoid over-asking. Survey fatigue is real, and it will drive users away from your app.

Survey with the right content

Think about the survey content you’re serving up and how it’s going to be perceived by your audience. Here are some things to consider: 

• Customize the survey to match your brand. Users are more likely to answer a survey that feels native to the experience they’re in. Take the extra couple of minutes to ensure it’s designed well
• Determine what questions should be required. Users get frustrated when every question is required; be prepared to make trade-offs
• Make surveys short. This is especially important on mobile because you have less real estate (and users have less patience) 
• Limit response choices.  Don’t make users scroll to see all of the choices
• Limit open-ended questions. Mobile surveyees want them to be as easy as possible, and too many text fields is overwhelming 

Survey the right audience

You probably saw this coming after the last 2 sections, but the most important piece of surveying is to make sure you’re hitting the right audience. 

Segment your users effectively to make sure the questions you’re asking are relevant (e.g., if the survey is about a specific feature, use segmentation to make sure the audience you survey has actually seen that feature). 

Act on your survey feedback

Most importantly, survey feedback is only valuable if your team acts on it. Ensure your team is monitoring survey responses and acting on feedback to create a better experience for your users. Act on negative product feedback, follow up with users to learn more, segment your customers based on their sentiment, map out user journeys based on feedback—whatever the case may be, just be sure your team is taking the necessary steps to make use of those valuable insights.

Ready to get more feedback from your mobile app users? Book time with our team of experts.