Stop Asking for Feedback. Why It Can Really Hurt

When I worked in large corporate environments, I often sought feedback. Sometimes, the feedback really hurt. But did it make me a better leader? Looking back, I'm not sure. Experience, experimentation, and learning from numerous mistakes were, in my opinion, far more influential.

However, this article isn't about how feedback can sting personally with questionable upsides. I'm actually proposing that companies reconsider relying on consumer feedback altogether.

Why self-reported behavior rarely matches reality

Because, while it's commonly assumed that feedback offers valuable insights, time after time, reality often paints a different picture. Consider this: in a large Royal Automobile Club (RAC) survey conducted in the United Kingdom (U.K.) in 2017, a staggering 91% of drivers self-identified as law-abiding. However, when comparing this self-assessment to concrete data from traffic cameras, 48% of drivers exceed the speed limits on highways.

Fortunately, the U.K. government chose to ignore driver feedback and spent billions of dollars trying to find ways to discourage speeding and improve road safety.

So why do we often see huge discrepancies between self-reported beliefs and observed behaviors?

Social desirability bias, where we try to present ourselves in a positive light, is one possible explanation. Selective memory is another. In fact, there are many, many reasons why our opinions don't align to reality.

What New Coke's failure really proves about stated preferences

But it's not just governments that need to be aware of the risk of making decisions based on people's opinions. Companies do, too.

For example, one of the most widely reported new product failures ever was New Coke, a slightly sweeter drink that Coca-Cola introduced. Despite the fact they had feedback from hundreds of thousands of people that they preferred the new flavor, when it was introduced onto supermarket shelves, no one bought it.

It just didn't sell. And people complained in their thousands, which ultimately led to the original version being reintroduced.

What's different from the RAC survey though, is that this was a blind taste test, so bias should not have been a factor.

So why didn't people run out and buy New Coke in droves when those same people had said it tasted so good?

Poor marketing? A deep-rooted love for an iconic American brand? The fact that taste tests obviously do not align to how people actually consume drinks?

Why Five Guys never ran a single focus group

There are many theories, but it's my view that business leaders shouldn't waste time trying to unpack the differences between stated preferences and observed realities. Instead, they should focus on understanding what people will do in real-world scenarios by designing and running experiments that test actual behaviors in real-world settings.

The story of Five Guys showcases what I mean perfectly. If you have never had a Five Guys burger, I thoroughly recommend it, although you may need a second mortgage as they are expensive.

Jerry Murrell started the burger chain back in 1986 in America by "finding a place where the store is out of the way, and where nobody can see it". He didn't advertise, and he only used premium ingredients. No market research. No focus groups. No consumer surveys.

His view was: "If we can put it where it's hard to find, but we still get people coming, then we know we've got something."

Later on, as they were considering franchising, they tested market demand by placing a sign outside one of their stores, which read: "If you are in a hurry, there are a lot of really good burger places nearby."

Crazy? No, it was genius.

Instead of trying to encourage people to eat their product, they actively dissuaded them.

Yet the queues still stretched out the door. And from that simple set of tests, Murrell knew he had a product that could be rolled out everywhere.

Would You Trust a Survey Over Watching Customers Queue?

Compare and contrast to the likely outcome if he'd taken the more orthodox route and asked people whether they would be happy to pay inflated prices for a product that was similar to others on the market, just with longer wait times?

Instead, by testing his ideas in the wild, observing behaviors, and adapting as necessary, Murrell was able to create a multi-billion-dollar franchise and develop a new market sector with premium stores in pretty much every major city around the world.

So, stop asking consumers what they think. Feedback really does hurt. Start finding ways to watch what they do instead.

P.S: When the original Coke was reintroduced, sales rocketed, and it quickly regained its position as the world's top-selling sugar cola.