Every business wants your review. What's with the feedback frenzy?

NPR News · Feb 26, 2026 · Collected from RSS

Full Article

The constant need for reviews has left many customers worn out by a vortex of star ratings and surveys. Alicia Zheng/NPR hide caption toggle caption Alicia Zheng/NPR At Good Company Doughnuts in Arlington, Va., Audrey Morris was picking up a BLT. A QR code near the register invited her to rate her experience. But, to her, the idea of leaving a review was unappetizing. "They are excessive," she said. "I get tired of them." It's not just doughnut shops who are crazy about feedback. Doctors and dentists now want you to rate your experience. The car dealership wants to know how the oil change went. How are the sweatpants you bought online? How was the concert you bought tickets for? Customers want to read reviews and businesses need reviews to attract customers. But the constant demand for reviews could be creating a feedback backlash, experts say. What began as an innovative way to benefit consumers is increasingly an obligatory burden for shoppers and sellers alike. Here's how we got into this frenzy of feedback. Blame (or thank) Amazon Amazon — where better review stats give sellers a competitive edge — played a big part in popularizing the online customer review system we now take for granted, according to Prasad Vana, an associate professor of marketing at the University of Oxford. Going back to the company's early days as an online bookstore that featured reader reviews, he says, "they were one of the first ones to prominently do it and stick to it." Amazon implemented a standardized five-star rating system, and Vana says the company didn't curate reviews — a book could receive all single stars and still be displayed on the site. Although the inclusion of low ratings could potentially drive down sales, it was introduced to help customers make better decisions, he says. But as Amazon's marketplace scaled up — to a point that shoppers are now often faced with a dizzying number of options for any given product — sellers had to amass reviews to stay competitive. Amazon told NPR it doesn't comment on how its algorithm works. But according to Vana, Amazon determines the order of search results using a formula that considers many factors, including the number of reviews and the average rating — suggesting that more reviews and higher ratings help get a seller's products placed higher in search results. Amazon is now just one of several platforms potential customers use to look up reviews for products and services, including Google Maps, Facebook, Yelp and Tripadvisor — and business owners who want to get frequent and favorable ratings wherever they can have staked their presence on these sites. "We may have typically looked for reviews or ratings or customer feedback on products — anything from a sweater to a toaster — 10 years ago. Now we're looking for ratings on doctors and dentists and banks and financial service providers and airlines," says Andrea Flynn, a professor of marketing at the University of San Diego. Hooked on reviews A QR code at Good Company Doughnuts in Arlington, Va., invites customers to provide feedback. The store's co-founder says reviews are just part of running a business now. James Doubek/NPR hide caption toggle caption James Doubek/NPR Vana, the University of Oxford professor, says the growth of online shopping over the last two decades or so has reset our expectations for how we buy pretty much everything. He describes a "flow" that people follow when they browse and collect information about products. We look for reviews to make decisions. "Whether you're buying a diaper or you're sending your parents to an old age home, what ends up happening is that that's the process that the mind is attuned towards," he says. "Now, with whatever decision we're trying to make, we're like, 'OK, let's read some reviews.' " Flynn at the University of San Diego says there's a psychological phenomenon fueling the demand for feedback. Reviews are a way for people to "social proof" their decision — the idea that people tend to copy the behavior of those around them. People are also aware that many online reviews are fake, she says, but buyers still heavily rely on ratings — 97% of consumers read reviews when considering purchases, according to a recent survey by BrightLocal, a search engine optimization and marketing company. Potential customers are judging by the number of reviews; they're considering the average score, Vana says. To maximize the number of reviews, sellers can't just hope and wait — they have to ask. And Amazon and other websites have now made that easier than ever. Vana says an automated email can be scheduled with just a couple clicks: "Will you rate your transaction at Amazon.com?" Now, virtually every business — online and brick-and-mortar, from bakers to bankers — can quickly ask for input, using QR codes, email, online pop-up surveys and of course, the many, many text messages. "You can reach people very easily and inexpensively any time 24/7 now to make these requests," says Flynn. "It makes it quick and easy, both for the companies to ask for the feedback, it makes it quick and easy for the customer to provide the feedback." Charles Kachadoorian, Good Company's co-founder, said reviews are "a game you have to play" as a business owner. "The reviews really matter," he says. Especially for a locally owned small business like theirs, "more than likely, the owners are reading every single review." The online review system offers them a way to "get the word out" about their business, Kachadoorian says, but he adds that it misses a valuable part of the business-customer relationship that in-person feedback provides. It's a "love-hate relationship," he says of their drive for reviews. The limits of feedback fever There are some signs people are getting tired of it. A small survey of customers at Good Company Doughnuts revealed people are less than enthusiastic about business surveys. "There's just too many," said Sara Emhof, who ordered an Americano. "It starts to feel like another thing to do." Customers said they were more likely to review when they've had a particularly positive or particularly negative experience. Maria Zumer was picking up an order to go. "I think if it was, like, really, really bad or really, really good. Like one extreme or the other. But otherwise, I almost never do," she said. This is one of the limitations in the value of customer feedback, both Vana and Flynn say. People who say "it was acceptable" are less common in responses, so online reviews aren't giving the full picture. Reviews "tend to skew towards the ends of the spectrum," Flynn says. "The folks in the middle that had a perfectly fine experience, we don't hear as much from them and so it can tip the scales in one direction or another." What businesses can do to fend off review fatigue To weather the fixation on feedback, businesses have to toe a fine line: Flynn says her research "shows that there is a tipping point," where customers may purchase less frequently "because they know every time they make a purchase or every time there's an interaction, they're going to get that request for feedback." Flynn isn't sure that a widespread backlash has begun yet, but she says sellers should be proactive. Instead of asking for a review after every purchase, she says, try after every third one or just for big-ticket items. Especially for brick-and-mortar businesses, timing of the ask is key, according to Vana. If a customer was especially satisfied, that's a good time to mention the importance of a review. "Humans are altruistic by nature and would find it hard to turn down the review request that was placed at the opportune moment," he says. That human connection — a pushback against the faceless nature of a streamlined, online system — is what motivates Emhof to leave positive reviews. She said that if she does leave feedback with a business, it's usually when she's "connected with the employee" and "I want to do something for them." Wendy Smith, a senior manager of research science at SurveyMonkey, says most people don't mind taking surveys if they feel it's relevant to them and that their feedback is actually being used. "Deep down, everybody wants to be heard," she says. "And that's not an exception in surveys." Her advice for businesses? "Only ask the questions that you are going to act on. Be very clear. Be very respectful of your respondents. They're giving you something valuable to drive your business." Amazon is among NPR's financial supporters and pays to distribute some NPR content. Google is also a financial supporter of NPR.