Feedback Fatigue: The Silent Killer of Consumer Goodwill?

The incessant demand for feedback is a plague.

I dread to think of the total time spent answering, opting out, or deleting customer feedback surveys, emails, and messages over the last few years. Now I'm spending more time on the subject by writing this; but I've wanted to rant about it for ages.

In the relentless pursuit of data, we've become unwitting participants in an endless market research experiment. Our simple act of purchasing has morphed into an obligation to provide feedback, turning almost every transaction into a burden.

Sir John Hegarty recently highlighted a revealing statistic from Havas: 74% of brands could vanish, and we wouldn't even notice or care. Yet, paradoxically, we find ourselves inundated with their surveys about every mundane interaction. This disparity between our indifference and brands' desperation for engagement is striking.

We're no longer just consumers; we've been drafted as unpaid market researchers drowning in a sea of rating scales. Our opinions are harvested like crops, feeding insatiable marketing machines. The question is: to what end? So that brand managers can justify their strategies with colourful graphs and yet more outdated, unpopular, action-killing PowerPoint slides?

Let's be clear: most of us don't spend time pondering our relationship with products and services. We have more pressing concerns. Yet brands persist in demanding our attention and time and thoughts on the most trivial matters.

This feedback frenzy is symptomatic of a deeper issue. Brands, fearing irrelevance, cling to every customer interaction, pleading for validation. It seems to be a strategy born of insecurity, not genuine customer care.

Here's a radical proposition: Create products and experiences that speak for themselves. Stop pestering us for our opinions and start earning our attention through creativity, quality and innovation.

Imagine a world where you can make a purchase without being pursued across digital platforms for your thoughts on the transaction. It sounds like a return to simpler days, doesn't it?

It's time for a quiet rebellion against this tyranny of endless feedback loops. When the next survey pops up asking you to rate your satisfaction with a mundane product, consider this: You have no obligation to respond.

To the brands of the world: If you want our opinions, earn them. Create something worthy of discussion and post-purchase interaction. Until then, perhaps it's time to reevaluate.

We're not here to constantly validate corporate strategies. It's time to reclaim our right to simply exist in the marketplace without being perpetually prompted for feedback.

After all, not every interaction needs to be quantified, analysed, and fed into an algorithm. Sometimes, a purchase can just be a purchase.

Tim Daukes, Obsession Content.