Will the constant asking for feedback ever end?
It seems every interaction I have with the economy results in a request for my feedback.
Every company wants to know "How did we do?".
Sometimes quite persistent and nagging, asking multiple times.
Is this a fad that will pass? Will it ever end?
It's definitely not a fad. That sort of thing has been around as long as I can remember – yes, even before the internet was on computers. Businesses had How did we do? or Rate our service type cards that you filled out the analog way.
Nowadays, it's harder to avoid or ignore those kinds of entreaties. They literally pop up in your face online. I doubt businesses of any size will stop nagging people for that kind of feedback. Well, they might when everyone gives them a one-star rating and complains about the annoying demands for feedback. Even then ...
Whenever AMZN asks my opinion about something (say AMZN music) I put in a few words to the extent that "I hear you don't treat the help very well."
AMZN being so solicitous is ironic since AMZN is now the only online store that doesn't see fast shipping as a way to impress me. I guess they figure that being subscribed to AMZN prime for 10 years means I've gotten into a habit that's hard to break. That's not true.
Well... feedback is a really big deal. Knowing what you're doing well and what you're doing badly. (If you don't have the data, how are you going to make good decisions?)
So I can see why they want it. And I can see that it gets annoying to keep being asked.
Maybe the feedback they need is "You did all right, except for repeatedly asking me for feedback. That was really annoying."
They're usually just outsourcing their internal review to you. Some counter goes up or down by a few points, and some manager can pretend they're data driven by adding these up without context and making decisions based on it. It's a classic case of goodhart's law: when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a useful measure.
Feedback is hard to come by, and above all, reviews are a signal to other users that greatly help sales. It's easier to sell a product that has lots of reviews.
No, it's not a fad, it has been pervasive for at least 10-20 years, although like everything it gets worse as companies get better at harvesting contact information.
I always ignore/unsubscribe from such things on principle. No, I will not help you with market research for free. My time is valuable, I will not interact with your automated nonsense. Pay your employees to do that, set up some focus groups, whatever.
Think of it as a jobs program for PM types. The chance of getting useful feedback, and then caring about it, is approaching zero.
Much easier to not pay attention to any of this than to wonder if/when it will end.
The funny thing is they never listen to your feedback :)