Thanks to tools like Google Analytics, small businesses can now measure website user traffic and online customer engagement with a level of sophistication once available only in high priced software. But you can’t depend solely on website behaviors to provide you with all the customer feedback necessary to fully understand the needs of your customers. “Markets are conversations,” said the authors of the early web-era classic book, The Cluetrain Manifesto. Sometimes mere metrics don’t provide a clear picture of what customers and users think, need or want.

Here are some other tools that can help you in reaching out to customers to find out how you may better serve them.

Email/Web-based survey integration

If you have an email list and are using one of the more popular small business email marketing services, you can integrate your email service with popular online survey services. For example, the e-mail marketing companies Emma and MailChimp both provide ways to integrate their mailings with SurveyMonkey. (But then, MailChimp and SurveyMonkey getting together may result in somewhat of a zoo.)

Feedback widgets embedded in your website

Services like SuggestionBox provide a wide range of customizable forms you can embed on your website. In addition to enabling the customer to reach you directly, these services also provide you with a means to provide suggested solutions based on the questions a user selects, answering the question before they have to reach out to you.

Customer Service Chat

Customer chat services like Olark or LivePerson, enable you  to handle chat-based customer interaction in real-time. Customer chat programs can be set so they can display when you’re online, or off. A free alternative to the pay services is to explore using consumer-oriented chat solutions provided by Skype or Google+.

Website “Intercept” Surveys

You’ve probably been on a website that, after a few pages of looking around, served up a request for you to participate in a four-question survey to help them improve their site. Chances are, they were using a service provided by Google called “Consumer Surveys.” While the service can be used for large-scale and expensive consumer marketing research, there is also a low cost, even free, version that provides you the opportunity to ask four standard questions to your customers or users.

(Featured photo via picjumbo.com)