Feedback Fatigue: Give your customers a break
18 Oct 2021

It’s safe to say that marketers want to know what customers think, meaning they want to gather as much data as possible for their marketing strategy. By asking for feedback, you gain insight into what your customers expect from you. Forrester predicted that companies are spending 20% more time and money on feedback to improve the customer experience, but that since 2020, the customer response rate is getting lower. More goes in and less comes out. This seems crazy, but when you dive into the matter, it, unfortunately, makes sense.

This article was originally posted on Marketing Facts.

Customers today are burdened by what we’re calling a ‘feedback overload’. Between pop-ups and feedback forms, there seems to constantly be an excess of feedback requests being fired at customers. To combat this, it’s key to define a well-thought-out feedback strategy, so that your efforts really pay off.

What is feedback fatigue?

Everyone has experienced something like the following: you have ordered a new e-reader online, and you receive one e-mail with one feedback form after another. The web shop wants to know what you think of their services. The brand wants to know what you think of the product. The delivery service wants to know what you think of the delivery. And so on and so forth. And what about you? You don’t even know what you think yet, because you’re still unpacking and installing it. And what do you do? Nothing. After being bombarded with forms, there’s no way you’re going to take the time to fill in any of them, so you probably delete the emails to avoid a full inbox.

This is what we call “feedback fatigue” or “feedback overload”.

There are two common causes of this;

Premature or pointless feedback requests.
You scroll and click through a website. Various pop-ups appear with a feedback form. As a visitor who’s just browsing, you don’t want these at all. You want to have a look, but because you are constantly distracted, you click away. So as a marketer, you receive fewer and fewer responses.

Disorganised feedback forms.
A feedback form that doesn’t work properly, doesn’t look neat, or has too many questions will keep customers from completing the survey or rushing it. The latter is of no use either, because the quality of the feedback decreases.

Avoid feedback fatigue

• Don’t collect feedback during every contact moment of the customer journey.
  Choose what you want to know and measure now. Only when the feedback loop is complete, can you set your sights on something else.
• Don’t keep asking the same questions.
  Ask your customers a mix of relevant questions; this will also give you the information you need. Segment your customers; the more targeted the questions, the more valuable the answers.
• Do mention how long it takes to fill in the form.
  Customers like to know where they stand and what they are getting into. Be honest and open.
• Make sure you dedicate time to follow up.
  If you’re not sure if you have time to follow up, don’t ask for feedback. Customers notice, and next time they will spend their valuable time differently.

How NOT to do it

Earlier, we briefly mentioned a common experience, when you buy a product, in this case an e-reader, from an online store.

Let’s look at how many times I was disturbed before I even purchased the e-reader:

• While I check out all the e-readers in a webshop, the first pop-up appears about accepting cookies. Shortly afterwards, I see another pop-up about the newsletter, offering an extra discount if I subscribe immediately.
• As I scroll through the e-readers, I am then asked what I think of the website. That’s the first feedback form, but already the third pop-up. I click it away and look further.
• Form number two arrives. A pop-up appears asking whether I have found what I am looking for. I click away from this one too, as I’m already on the right page and have decided which e-reader I want to buy.
• As I read it carefully to make sure it really meets my requirements, what do you know? Form number three appears on the screen and asks if the product description is sufficient. It’s clear, and I click ‘yes’ so I can continue and order the e-reader.
• After I have paid, I receive a confirmation of purchase in the mail. I also immediately receive the fourth feedback form asking me if I am satisfied with the webshop.
• After the e-reader has been delivered, I receive another e-mail confirming the delivery and form number five asks me what I think of the delivery. What’s exhausting is that the product fit through the letterbox, so I didn’t see or talk to the delivery person. To round things off, I also receive an e-mail with the seventh form and the question of how I like the product.

All in all, nine times or sometimes even more, I am distracted for just one purchase.

Fortunately, not every company goes through the motions of collecting customer feedback, but have you ever counted how often you ask customers for feedback? For a customer there are actually very few advantages to giving feedback, it costs them both time and effort. So how do you make sure leaving feedback is easy and, above all, fun?

How you make feedback better

In order to collect feedback from your users, it’s essential that you keep it light-hearted and approachable. You don’t want to bother your customers, but you do want to gain insight into their online experience. Therefore, it’s important that you think carefully about whether your forms should be active or passive.

By 2020, there was an estimated 2 billion WhatsApp users and 1.3 billion Facebook Messenger users worldwide, according to Statista, and TechCrunch calculated that WhatsApp sends 100 billion messages per day. May we suggest another opinion for collecting feedback in a fun way: Conversational feedback.

So it’s pretty obvious that chat is here to stay, so we thought, what better way to reach out to users than with an instant chat? It’s easy, and it saves time for the user. The idea is that customers or users will feel as if they are sharing their opinion with someone they know well, making it casual and easy to share. (Spoiler: Mopinion will soon launch its own conversational feedback, stay tuned)

Beware

Remember: Less is more, so keep it relevant. Make sure that you’re not opting for pop-up feedback forms, feedback by e-mail, a button on your site and a chat function, to avoid the dreaded feedback fatigue. Do, however, experiment with what works best for your visitors. Ask your customers a mix of questions, and make sure giving feedback is both easy and fun.