There are only two positions a person can take toward your software product:

1. They use it.
2. They don’t use it.

The insight that people in group 1 offer can be critical in capturing people in group 2. No amount of metrics, analytics, A/B testing, or staring at spreadsheets will give you access to what users in group 1 actually think and feel about your product.

Making your users feel included in product decisions is one of the best ways to create loyal fans. I know this, because some of my favorite companies have been the ones who made me feel that my feedback was valuable to them.

The good news is that gaining access to your users’ minds is pretty easy. Here are a few ways companies have made me feel included.

Teh Twitters

It might seem obvious that your company should have a presence on social media. However, the number of companies who do this completely wrong is staggering.

So who does it right? Slack is one (@slackhq).

When you tweet a product improvement idea at Slack, you almost always receive an answer. In my experience, the replies generally fall into one of three categories.

1. Great idea, I’ve put it on the list.
2. Good idea, it’s already on the list.
3. Interesting idea, but because of [reason you didn’t think of], it’s not likely to happen.

Instantly I know that I’ve been heard and what the likelihood is that my feature request will make it into the product. I get the feeling that Slack actually thinks about their users and their product, and that someone with the authority to do so has already evaluated my idea and come to at least a cursory conclusion about its validity.

Given that most businesses you tweet at never reply — or worse, reply that you should email or call their customer service department — this kind of personal communication is refreshing and makes me, the user, feel like the company actually knows who pays their bills.

Bonus points: Make your replies feel like they’re from a friend or coworker. Include humor and emojis. Let airlines and cable companies take that stuffy, canned, “professional” approach to Twitter.

User Interviews

Originally the idea of user interviews was scary to me. Where would you find the right users to interview and how would you find the time to interview enough of them to find a consensus opinion?

Well, it turns out that there have been users contacting you on Twitter this whole time! Pick a few, send them a message that you’d like to set up a Skype call or hangout, and get something on the calendar.

You might also find good candidates by keeping an eye on certain life cycle events in your product. Maybe a user renews for another year, or cancels their longtime subscription. There’s a good chance those users know exactly what they do and do not like about your product.

Just because a user is willing to talk to you doesn’t mean they’ll be a fountain of free flowing thought, so be prepared with specific conversation topics you want to gain insight about. These could include:

1. Current features the user likes and dislikes, and how they use those features.
2. Potential upcoming features that need validation. If enough users say “meh” to your Big Ideas, you might want to reconsider.
3. Pricing. People have a pretty good idea how much your service is worth to them.
4. Why the user canceled, stayed, etc., and whether or not they would recommend the product to others. Just because they canceled, for instance, doesn’t mean they hate you and everything you stand for. It might just mean they really don’t need what you’re offering anymore, but would recommend it to someone who does.

CloudApp gets this right. When they noticed that my annual renewal didn’t happen after 5 years of being a loyal customer, they asked if I would talk to their CEO, Tyler Koblasa. Later, when I used CloudApp’s 100% price increase as a bad example in an article, we talked again.

A simple face-to-face chat can reap big rewards. Not only do you gain insight into how your customers use your product, but they walk away with the sense that you’re interested in nothing else but making the product better fit their needs.

Bonus points: Offer something special to those users who take the time to talk to you. You might give them a discount on your service, a shout out on Twitter, or a piece of swag. For instance, CloudApp offered to send me a t-shirt. Which brings us to…

Swag-ger

I have a t-shirt from Stripe. A mug from Picturelife. A t-shirt from Joyent. A t-shirt surely in-transit from CloudApp. You get the idea.

People love to get stuff, even if that stuff ends up in a box in storage. And people will remember that time you said “Hey, thanks for the feedback! Mind if I get your address so I can send you something?”

It’s a simple gesture, not as expensive as you might think, and if users actually use the swag you send them, you get free advertising. It’s a win-win.

Bonus points: Go all out. Figure out who your biggest fans are (hint: most vocal on Twitter or Facebook is a good start) and send them a package. Picturelife, for instance, sent a box with a mug, a handwritten note, and a pound of coffee (to go in the mug). I don’t know if I was their biggest fan before that, but I certainly was after.

Lightbulb! Form

Make it easy for users to submit their feedback on your website. While many companies use third party forum providers with a thread dedicated to product ideas, there is nothing about that experience that makes me want to contribute.

Instead, use a simple page or popup that lets your users quickly type their idea and submit. Use their existing session to validate and never require them to sign up for some other site just to give you feedback.

Most importantly, reply! Just as you would use Twitter to respond, be sure to give each idea the attention it deserves. Pass the ideas around internally, figure out if they’re valid, and respond to the user accordingly.

Bonus points: Keep an internal idea board that both your users and team members can contribute to and team members can vote on. The people who help you build your product have great ideas, too. But that’s another topic…

Just because you listen to your users and make them feel like part of the team, doesn’t mean you have to incorporate every idea they come up with. You should know your product’s goals better than individual customers do, but you might also be missing something huge that seems obvious to them.

Including users in your process will only result in positives for your company. Even if you glean little actionable feedback, you’ll transition many of your users from mere customers to hardcore fans.

And even a great product like yours needs fans to succeed.