How video feedback can connect your business to your customers

It’s never been more important to deeply understand your market, customers and employees at scale. From uncovering new opportunities for product research and development, to the key factors of employee retention and satisfaction, those who know the drivers of positive change are leading the charge.

But as the need for insights becomes more apparent, so too do the limitations of current solutions.

While quantitative market research tells us the “what”, it often lacks the depth and context that can highlight important and possibly groundbreaking insights from respondents. Qualitative research, on the other hand, delivers the “why”, but current approaches are siloed, slow, expensive and hard to scale. And as more qualitative research moves online post-pandemic, researchers have to reassess how they capture critical, context-based insights.

This is where video feedback comes in. It’s a cost-effective way to capture in-depth insights from remote audiences at scale – and a brilliant way to complement quantitative findings.

Here’s what you need to know.

What is video feedback?

Often also known as video surveys, video feedback is a form of qualitative research where organisations can request feedback from customers, prospects, employees or anyone else in a video format. Like in-depth interviews and focus groups, this research method gives businesses the opportunity to collect richer, more nuanced insight into an audience’s thoughts, opinions and feelings.

Video feedback can pick up on non-verbal cues, like facial expressions and body language, but do so with greater flexibility and reach than other forms of qualitative research: organisations can drastically scale their ability to capture meaningful insights as they’re using an accessible format that people are already familiar with.

What’s most beneficial for organisations is that respondents can submit video surveys in their own time, enabling researchers to analyse results as they come in, and no moderator is required, resulting in more authentic and consistent responses. In the absence of in-depth interviews and focus groups – or instances where it’s difficult to use those methods – video feedback can help organisations to investigate pain points that are difficult to express via surveys and written responses.

Researchers can then use sophisticated tools to comb video responses and review them for sentiment, key topics, ideas and more.

Start collecting video feedback with Qualtrics™ 

Business of video feedback

1. Get to the “why” faster

Quantitative research often fails to understand causes and motivations, yet video feedback enables authentic and truthful responses – helping to get you to the “why” faster and unlocking new insights that can steer everything from product development to key strategic decisions.

2. Capture richer data

With video feedback you can capture participants’ non-verbal cues as well as the verbal. Facial expressions, body language, emotional reactions and even tone of voice can provide a richer and more nuanced understanding of the respondents’ perspectives.

3. Collect responses around the clock

Once you’ve recruited participants and ensured they’re correctly set up, they can record and submit their feedback in their own time – creating flexibility for respondents and continuous data collection for you, which could potentially shorten your research timeframe.

4. Create a wider, more inclusive sample

As respondents record their videos remotely, video feedback can significantly extend your research sample by enabling data collection from people in different time zones and geographic locations. These parameters also make this research method more accessible and inclusive than in-person options.

5. Empower every team to carry out research

With the right video feedback software, other departments can easily carry out market research, extract critical insights, and make pivotal changes to enhance what they do and how they deliver it.

6. Save money

Video feedback is popular for its cost-effectiveness – it doesn’t demand an interviewer or moderator, travel fees or venue hire.

7. Show audiences you’re listening

People want to be heard and understood, and giving them the opportunity to voice their experiences, desires and concerns empowers both them and you. And as you action their video feedback, you can increase loyalty and engagement – building your brand image and turning customers into evangelists.

8. Unearth more compelling stories

For researchers, video feedback gives far more compelling stories – stories which they can use in stakeholder meetings to push specific decisions forward and get key stakeholders engaged with the process.

Video feedback considerations

What to be mindful of when using video feedback in your market research.

Privacy and data protection

Privacy and data protection are paramount when using video feedback systems. Your respondents’ information and submission must be safeguarded according to relevant data protection laws and ethical guidelines – especially as the process involves recording video cameras.

Participant effort

Video feedback systems require a higher level of effort from respondents compared to traditional surveys. Participants need to find a quiet space, have the right equipment such as a video recorder, and be willing to be recorded, all of which could potentially discourage some people from taking part.

To counter this, you may need to provide clear instructions, ensure participants understand the benefits of giving video feedback, and potentially offer incentives for participation.

Resources for analysis

The analysis of video feedback, particularly of high definition video recording, is typically more complex and time consuming than many other forms of research.

Researchers will need to watch each video – often multiple times – to capture every nuance of the interview. They may also need to transcribe the videos or directly utilise video feedback through specialised software for analysis. This requires a significant investment of time and resources, which can be a drawback, especially for larger studies.

Recording quality and equipment issues

Video tape recording technology and video tape decks were the norm once upon a time in market research, but today things are very different.

The success of video feedback is dependent on respondents having access to a video camera and a good internet connection – potentially introducing bias if certain groups are less likely to have the necessary technology. Varying video quality could also impact your analysis, highlighting the need for clear recording and uploading instructions.

Getting the most out of video feedback

Some simple best practices that can make a big difference to the quality of your findings.

Pilot test

Before rolling out your video survey, it can be helpful to conduct a pilot test with a smaller group.

This test can identify any technical glitches or problems with the recording or uploading process, as well as highlight any questions that might be confusing or misinterpreted by the participants.  Feedback from the pilot test can then be used to refine the process and make any necessary adjustments before the full roll-out.

This can not only ensure a smoother experience for the participants but also improves the quality of the data collected.

Define your objectives

Defining and communicating the objectives of the research can help respondents provide more relevant and targeted feedback, because when participants understand the purpose of the study, they’re often more motivated to contribute thoughtful responses.

You should find an opportunity to explain why you’re conducting the study, what you hope to learn and how the participants’ feedback will be used.

Give clear instructions

Providing detailed instructions is crucial for ensuring that participants understand the video feedback process.

This should cover technical aspects, such as how to record and submit the video, as well as guidance on the length and content of the video. The instructions could also include tips on what to do if they encounter technical issues, like problems with uploading the video.

Clarity ultimately prevents confusion and frustration, leading to more effective and insightful responses.

Follow privacy and ethical guidelines

Given the personal nature of video feedback, it’s essential for researchers to adhere to strict privacy and ethical guidelines.

You need to be transparent about how you plan to use, store and protect the footage; participants should be informed about who will have access to their videos, how long the videos will be kept, and how they can withdraw their data if they choose to do so.

Beyond legal compliance alone, these measures can help to build trust with your participants, which is the key ingredient to making them feel comfortable and respected.

How to measure video feedback responses

Your research team may already be collecting customer feedback from surveys, interviews, focus groups and more, and video feedback survey software can add a unique dimension to your market research capabilities.

Implementing video survey software into your existing technology stack is simple with the right tools – or you could opt for an all-in-one solution that provides end-to-end video research capability, including data collection, analytics and reporting.

More specifically: Qualtrics Video Feedback.

With Qualtrics Video Feedback, you can bring insights to life through the power of video and leverage:

• Built-in time stamping: Enabling researchers to instantly flag key insights from one place.
• Real-time transcription: Saving time for the higher-value tasks in your research project.
• AI-powered topic and sentiment analysis: Pull out the most significant insights by. uncovering exactly how respondents feel and why they feel that way – all with the power of sentence-level topic and sentiment analysis, powered by AI.
• Customised showreels of video feedback: Video clips can be brought together to tell powerful stories that create connections and empathy, and help brands make better business decisions.
• Integration into one central system: Qualtrics™ Video Feedback allows you to collect, analyse, share and act on video responses from a single platform. You can even create highlight reels to bring the data to life so that anyone can understand it.
• Built into the Qualtrics dashboard: The dashboard tools automatically extract meaningful insights to ensure organisations understand quantitative and qualitative feedback side-by-side in one place.

Starting with video feedback software

With Qualtrics Video Feedback, you can go from measuring responses to understanding the story behind every single data point.

Let your respondents share their story in their own words, so you can get to know them and start delivering and improving products, services, campaigns and more to meet their needs and expectations.