How Much Does A Feedback Machine Cost?

Factor 1: Choice of Feedback Machine

For every need there is a feedback machine. The first element that affects how much a feedback machine costs is which one of them you end up choosing.

Smiley Terminals

Also known as feedback terminals, smiley terminals fit many scenarios. If you’re looking to quickly assess what customers think about your store, choose a smiley terminal. If you want to measure satisfaction with a specific area – such as a waiting room or a washroom – choose a smiley terminal. Smiley terminals are also great for more complex scenarios. Suppose you were looking to compare employee engagement at different offices. It’s as simple as setting up a smiley feedback machine in each of these locations and letting the feedback data stream from each office into a central dashboard.

These feedback machines also come in different sizes. While the standard smiley feedback terminal is the size of an A4 page, there are also smaller models. Smaller smiley terminals can be the size of an A6 page, barely surpassing the size of your hand.

Smiley terminals can also be fastened to a wall, or sit in its own stand. Depending on your unique situation, you might need to move around the smiley terminals often, in which case a stand-based feedback machine would be best. If you know the smiley terminal will not move, and you want to boost visibility, you might consider a wall mount model instead.

Finally, all smiley terminals are battery powered, so you’re not restricted by having to find a power source.

Pricing starts at $35 per month billed annually.

Survey tablet

If you want more detailed feedback, consider a survey tablet. Like their smiley terminal counterparts, survey tablets feedback machines fit a range of scenarios, but are best suited for when you need to ask different types of questions to your audience.

Let’s see an example. With the smiley terminals you are limited to smiley-type questions and multiple-choice questions. With the survey tablets, you can also ask open-text questions and scale-type questions. This means you get more control over the types of questions to ask your audience, allowing you to capture feedback the way your audience will respond best to.

Survey tablets also allow you to ask follow-up questions. Let’s suppose you’re measuring customer satisfaction. You can start with a smiley-face question like “How was your experience today?” If the customer tapped a green face, you can follow up with an open-text question such as “Great! What did you like so much about your visit today?” If the customer tapped a red or orange face, you can also follow up with an open-text question, but this time the text could be: “Sorry to hear that. What could we have done differently today?”

Although survey tablets do not come in different sizes, they can be wall mounted or standing like the smiley terminals. It is also worth noting that survey tablets do need to be connected to a power outlet, unlike the smiley terminals.

Pricing starts at $100 per month billed annually.

Factor 2: Service Provider Terms and Conditions

The second element that impacts the price you pay for feedback machines is the way your provider sets up their service.

Some providers, for example, will sell you the feedback machines up-front as a standalone purchase. This means you pay only once, but you may miss out on key aspects that may make your feedback collection easier. For example, customer support and ongoing maintenance may not be available. Troubleshooting would also be up to you. Also, reading the feedback data might not be easy. You may need to build a custom integration with another software program such as excel to see your data, requiring an investment in time and resources you otherwise might not have anticipated.

Other providers will include feedback machines as part of their service, but may tie you in with unexpected fees. You would first sign a license agreement for a specific amount of time. As part of that license agreement, you would then get the necessary feedback machines, as well as customer support and troubleshooting channels. However, you may also be hit with setup fees and hidden costs for features. For example, if you wanted to export your feedback data into excel, you may need to pay an additional fee or that, or upgrade your license tier. If you wanted an advisor to work with you, that would also incur an extra fee.

Then there is the Ombea way. Ombea’s business model can be defined as Hardware as a Service – or HaaS. At Ombea, you sign up for a license on a yearly or multi-year basis, and pay only for what you use. The cost of the feedback machines is included in the license. Ombea then ships the required feedback machines to your desired location or locations. The license also includes 24/7 customer support and access to a dedicated advisor to help you whenever you need. Furthermore, all the features you need are unlocked from day one, meaning you’ll never find a blocked feature that requires purchasing.

Factor 3: Reach

A final element in the price for a feedback machine is reach. You may just want to get feedback from your audience at physical locations, but what about those that visit your online and mobile channels?

Feedback solution providers, including Ombea, have an array of tools that can help you reach even the most unreachable audiences. You can use Ombea to send a quick post-purchase smiley question through SMS or email.

You can have employees add a smiley question at the end of their signature where recipients can rate how helpful an email was.

And you can even capture feedback from your online channels and push them to leave stellar online reviews

In Ombea’s case, you can combine your feedback machine license with a license to use any of these tools.

Concluding Remarks

How much you pay for a feedback machine will ultimately depend on what feedback machine you want, the way your provider structures their service, and the reach you want. Thus, it is important to have a chat with a representative in order to determine an accurate price for exactly what you need – nothing more and nothing less.

Click here to talk to one of our feedback experts today.