In business, ignorance is not bliss

“Are you satisfied with our services?”, followed by two options: “Yes”or “No”. Let us truly ask ourselves: is this question enough, as a business owner, to give you the data required to understand where exactly the problem lies? Who is benefiting from this question: is it your customer, or is it you?

According to the Qualtrics XM Institute’s 2025 Global Study on Consumer Satisfaction and Loyalty, Consumers provided a satisfaction rating of 4 or 5- stars after 76% of recent experiences. However, their likelihood to perform key loyalty behaviors is somewhat lower; after recent interactions:

• Stats dropped down to 70% when they were asked if they would recommend the organization to friends and family
• And further down to 69% when they were asked about their likelihood of purchasing more from the organization in the future.

This growing gap reveals a clear truth: surface-level satisfaction is no longer enough. Having assumptions about your customers’ needs and satisfaction based on such surface level data is similar to releasing a product without checking its market fit.

As a founder, when you get so deeply invested in your product or service, it becomes easy to develop a tunnel vision. And that is the real test of you as a business owner. It tests whether you can stay practical and open up to feedback or whether you choose to stay in denial and begin treating your most critical customers as people working against you and your vision.

Another thing about value proposition is that it is subjective. What you think is creating value for your customers might be different from what customers feel will create value for them. The CSAT scores and questions at this point are serving merely as due diligence for feedback. If all your scores: CSAT, NPS, and CES, look great on paper, but the growth is not reflected in your revenue pipeline; they aren’t playing the role they are meant to.

A great example is the age-old NPS!

“How likely are you to recommend us to your friends and family?” This is the question asked by almost every brand on the planet. But have you ever wondered why this single question became the industry standard? The answer lies in the words themselves: the psychology behind them, and what these very specific words are trying to gauge from the reviewers.

1. “Likely”- this word tests the intention, not necessarily what the action will be.
2. “Recommend us” - checking if customers will actively promote the brand through word of mouth.
3. “Friends and family” - these are the networks people care about; They will never recommend something that could compromise their peace of mind or risk having their own reputation associated with a brand that does not have a strong customer service image.

Does this question test “satisfaction”? No, but for some brands it is still placed at a point in the customer journey where brands try to determine whether customers liked the product or service enough as a first time user.

Can this question be asked after a customer’s first interaction or immediately after a purchase? Yes, but it is useless. Customers might rate your brand a solid “10”, but would they actually recommend it? No, not necessarily.

For someone to actively promote your brand without being prompted, it takes a strong impression sustained over time. So, asking this question too early doesn’t really gain you anything, except perhaps some inflated scores. And it certainly won’t show in your revenue pipeline.

So, the point is not to stop collecting these scores, you absolutely must. It is about :

• How you are collecting them, what is your channel?
• At what point in the customer journey?
• How often?
• How the survey is being designed? Is it too boring? Is it too long? Is it like a homework?
• What follow-up questions are being asked for further data?
• How the data is changing your policies and processes?

In business, ignorance is not bliss, it often means overlooking insights that could quietly guide better decisions and sustainable growth. Your customers are your strongest allies, your toughest critics, and your most reliable data points. And the most important data you will ever have is simple: what your customers are saying about you.

So next time you place an NPS question where you should ideally have a CSAT, think again- are you doing it just for optics, or do you really want to know why your revenue pipeline is performing worse than the numbers suggest?