Why Most Customers Don’t Leave Feedback

Businesses depend on customers leaving reviews and feedback to direct the company’s progress; when customers are happy, it’s a sign your current strategies are working, and when customers are unhappy, they often leave direction and feedback the company can use to improve things. If you could somehow get a robust set of data from every customer, you could gather enough data to set a clear course for the future of the business.

Unfortunately, few (if any) businesses have this luxury. Companies often go out of their way to get customers to leave reviews and respond to surveys, but only a fraction of customers ever provide insights.

Why is it that most customers don’t leave feedback, and what can you do about it?

Visibility and Awareness

Sometimes, customers simply aren’t aware that you’re trying to collect feedback. If they never receive an email, if they don’t know your company is listed on major review sites, and if they have no indication to believe that you’re interested in hearing feedback, they’re not going to go out of their way to leave it.

This is one of the easiest problems to solve, however, and most businesses are already on top of it. Advertising the fact that you’re listed on major review sites and sending out emails to your customers can render this issue null.

Convenience and Accessibility

Customers also won’t provide feedback if it’s inconvenient or hard to do so. Most customers, even if they’re tempted to leave a review, won’t go out of their way to track down your contact information or find your listing in major review sites. However, if they’re presented with a convenient and accessible way to leave feedback, they’ll gladly do it.

This is why SMS text surveys are so valuable. Customers get an immediate notification that a survey is available, and a convenient way to access that survey. If they’re even remotely inclined to leave feedback, they’ll likely follow through.

Timing and Hectic Schedules

We’re all busy with different things. Nobody wants to sit down for an hour to leave feedback for a company we’ve barely engaged with. If a customer believes it’s going to take too long to complete a survey, they’re going to skip the opportunity.

Accordingly, it’s a good idea to keep all your surveys and requests for information as short and concise as possible. Consider informing customers of how much time you expect them to spend, such as “5 minutes” to increase your response rate.

Skepticism and Cynicism

Do your customers believe that you care about what they have to say? If your audience believes their feedback is going to go unheard or if they believe it’s not going to drive meaningful change, they’ll keep their opinions to themselves. It’s on you to convince them otherwise.

The Broader Participation Problem

We also need to think about the “participation” problem in most online communities. According to Jakob Nielsen, an expert in web usability, the “90-9-1 rule” applies to most areas of the web. This rule states that about 90 percent of online users are exclusively “lurkers.” They frequently read and browse various communities, but they don’t contribute content very often. About 9 percent of users are intermittent contributors; they post content and participate in interactive discussions occasionally, but not on a regular or frequent basis. That leaves 1 percent of online users who participate heavily – and they’re disproportionately responsible for most of the discussion.

In other words, the vast majority of your customer base will be naturally unwilling to contribute to your surveys, no matter what you do. There isn’t much you can do to overcome this gap, since some people are predisposed to be unwilling to engage.

The Motivation Problem

It’s also worth noting that there’s a motivation problem in play as well. The majority of people don’t go out of their way to provide feedback or leave reviews – we’ve established that – but what motivates a normally unmotivated person to engage? Usually, that’s due to a truly exceptional experience; people who have an average meal at a decent restaurant aren’t going to leave a review on their own. Instead, they’ll leave a review if they have the best meal of their life, the worst meal of their life, or a particularly memorable service experience.

Accordingly, you’ll get more consistent feedback from your customer base if you’re providing them with unique, memorable experiences.

Solving the Problems

Each business is going to face a unique blend of challenges from its customers. What’s important is that you’re aware of the challenges that exist and that you’re proactively working to address them. No business can achieve a 100 percent response rate, so try to optimize your strategy as best you can to maximize quality feedback from your customers.