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When Customers Stop Answering, Are We Still Listening?

Survey fatigue is at an all-time high. Why? 


Too many surveys. 📋😩

Poorly designed questions. ❌🤔

No visible action.🚫🎬


Even when your survey is short and thoughtful and you actually do something with the results, your customers are still being bombarded. Airlines. Hotels. Grocery stores. Software pop-ups. Junk, junk, junk.

And now? Our customers have quit surveys altogether.


📉 Recent stats paint the picture:



And when response rates plummet, bias creeps in. You're no longer hearing from a representative sample which means you could be making big bets based on flawed signals.

I still see NPS (Net Promoter System®) scores shared at executive steering committee meetings, even when the response volume doesn’t meet the threshold for statistical significance. The problem isn’t just the low numbers, it’s that the data can be misleading. When you’re only hearing from the loudest or most frustrated customers, you’re not seeing the full picture. And in that case, I’d rather see survey results pulled from the slide entirely than risk a room full of smart people making the wrong decisions based on flawed insights.


So what are we to do? Throw NPS® out with the bathwater and declare surveys dead?


Not quite. NPS® still has value, but only when it's used as one part of a broader listening strategy. The real problem isn’t the metric itself. It’s how narrowly we’ve come to rely on it. When NPS® becomes the end-all-be-all of customer insight, we miss the signals that actually drive change.


NPS® was never meant to stand alone. But somewhere along the way, it became the headline metric—the scoreboard we report up the chain. And that’s where the trouble starts.

When the number becomes the goal, we lose sight of what it was supposed to represent: a signal. A clue. A starting point for deeper listening. The score alone won’t tell you where to focus or how to fix it. I’ve seen organizations obsess over moving from 43 to 45 without ever understanding why the number is what it is. Why do our promoters love us? Why are our detractors frustrated? If you haven’t done the work of tagging your keywords, tracking sentiment over time, and connecting those comments to specific moments in the journey, you’re not ready to act. You’re reporting, not listening.


The magic happens when you roll up your sleeves. When you categorize the feedback, segment it by persona or product, and spot patterns that your frontline teams already feel in their gut. That’s where signal turns into strategy.


I’ve worked with clients who go beyond the score and dig deep into drivers. They correlate themes in the comments with operational metrics. They connect feedback with churn data, complaints, and frontline insights.


That’s when change happens. That’s when listening actually means something.


It’s Time to Broaden the Lens

NPS® can still play a role, but it can’t be the whole strategy. If your feedback program depends on a single question and a single score, it’s time to evolve.

Customer experience is too nuanced to be reduced to a number. You need a more complete picture—one that combines data, dialogue, and deeper understanding.

Here’s what that looks like in practice:


  • 📍Establish the right listening posts. Not every interaction warrants a survey, but some absolutely do. Map out the journey and be deliberate about where feedback will be most meaningful.

  • ⏰Time your touchpoint feedback requests with care. Don’t ask after every minor interaction. Ask when there’s emotional weight, after moments that matter.

  • 🧑🤝🧑Talk to customers one-on-one. You’d be amazed what people will share when you sit across from them, fully present, listening without jumping to explain or defend.

  • 🗣️Bring customers in as advisors. Take those recurring NPS® themes (especially from detractors) and invite those voices into co-creation. When customers help shape the solution, they often become your strongest advocates.

  • 💻Leverage online community tools. Platforms like Recollective help you explore themes through qualitative research, longitudinal studies, and guided discussions that go far beyond a rating.

  • 🤿Host deep-dive workshops with client-facing teams. Your sales, service, and support teams hear the raw, unscripted truth every day. Bring them into your insight process, formally and informally.

  • 👩🔧Elevate the role of employees. Your frontline teams are your early warning system. Ask them what they’re hearing. Make them part of the signal chain.

  • 📊Blend survey data with behavioral signals. What are customers doing, not just what are they saying? Pair feedback with usage data, drop-off points, or churn behavior to understand the full story.

  • 🚨Use complaints, escalations, and service logs as signal sources. These are often the most urgent, emotionally charged moments (ripe with insight!)

  • 🏷️Tag, track, and trend your feedback. Open-text feedback shouldn't sit untouched. Use it. Code it. Connect it to personas, journeys, and key metrics. Thanks to VOC/AI tools, we’re able to do this more efficiently and effectively than ever.


The best companies don’t chase scores. They chase insight and turn it into action.

So… Are We Still Listening?


When response rates are low, it’s tempting to blame the customer. “They’re too busy.” “They don’t care.”


But maybe they’re just tired of shouting into the void. It’s about asking better questions, in smarter ways, at the right moments, through the right channels. It’s about knowing when the silence is the signal—and when it’s a sign to try something different.


If your customers have stopped answering, don’t panic. Get curious. Get closer. And most importantly—start listening in ways that make it count.


Net Promoter®, NPS®, NPS Prism®, Net Promoter System®, and the NPS-related emoticons are registered trademarks of Bain & Company, Inc., NICE Systems, Inc., and Fred Reichheld. Net Promoter Score℠ is a service mark of Bain & Company, Inc., NICE Systems, Inc., and Fred Reichheld. Coro® is a service mark of Bain & Company, Inc.

 
 
 

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