Despite half of consumers (50%) being frustrated by the experiences they receive online, 43% say they will never share any feedback so brands can address their shortcomings. That’s according to a new report from FullStory, a market and technology leader in Digital Experience Intelligence (DXI).
The Quiet Critics report, based on a survey of 7,000 consumers across Asia, Europe and North America, also found that two-thirds (65%) of consumers will simply abandon a website or app when confronted with a digital frustration – and only 16% are ‘very likely’ to give a brand a second chance.
This influential group of silent but dissatisfied customers – ‘quiet critics’ – mirror the workplace trend ‘quiet quitting’, where disgruntled or ambivalent employees do not inform their bosses of their dissatisfaction and instead do the bare minimum work required to not get fired.
The findings highlight the importance of flawless first-time digital experiences, while also demonstrating the incompleteness of traditional customer feedback mechanisms. Brands across all industries have spent millions in recent years to elicit feedback through customer surveys, reviews, CSAT and Voice of the Customer programmes, but these fail to capture the opinions of millions of consumers who abandon websites and apps without saying anything.
Author and expert in customer complaints, Helen Dewdney, said: “Consumers often lack the confidence to complain. They worry what will happen if they complain. Will they be banned? Will they be told they are wrong? Will they feel worse? Will they get a staff member into trouble?”