‘CX Pulse: Reviews and Surveys Between Emotion, Ethics, and Response Rates’ by Dr. Yazmín Michelle Rodríguez Benítez
A common belief at the heart of many feedback programmes is that if we deliver a strong customer experience and send a survey, the responses will follow.
It sounds simple on paper, yet in reality, customer participation is far less predictable.
In this insightful piece, WiCX Inner Circle member and Author, Dr. Yazmín Michelle Rodríguez Benítez, explores the deeper forces that influence whether customers choose to share their voice at all.
Drawing on her doctoral research and extensive industry experience, Yazmín unpacks how emotion drives responses, why satisfied customers often stay silent, and how cultural expectations around incentives influence behaviour in Puerto Rico. She also explores the challenge of increasing response rates without compromising trust, while highlighting the pressure placed on frontline teams measured by outcomes they cannot fully control.
This article is a timely reminder that surveys never exist in isolation. They are shaped by psychology, culture, trust, and experience design. Organisations that recognise this can move beyond chasing scores and start building feedback strategies that customers genuinely want to engage with.
From a doctoral research perspective on customer experience, there is a consistent behavioural pattern that organisations across industries continue to observe:
Customers organically complete surveys for two primary reasons — when they are deeply dissatisfied or when they are exceptionally delighted.
Everything in between is, more often than not, silence.
This reality presents a fundamental challenge for organisations that rely on customer feedback to measure performance, improve service delivery, and drive strategic decisions. While surveys and reviews are designed to capture the voice of the customer, the factors influencing response rates are far more complex than simply asking for feedback. This perspective is supported by doctoral research conducted in Puerto Rico, which demonstrates that customer experience directly influences satisfaction, and satisfaction drives customer loyalty (Rodríguez Benítez, 2025).
The Cultural Context of Feedback in Puerto Rico
In Puerto Rico, there is an important cultural dimension that organisations must acknowledge. Many customers expect something in return for their time and participation when completing a survey.
This expectation is not necessarily rooted in opportunistic behaviour. Instead, it reflects years of exposure to market practices where participation is incentivised. Across retail and service industries, customers are frequently offered points, discounts, or small rewards in exchange for completing surveys. Over time, this has shaped a behavioural norm: feedback is associated with value exchange.
Ignoring this cultural reality creates a disconnect between organisational expectations and customer behaviour. Companies may request feedback without offering any perceived value, while customers, conditioned by other industries, question why they should participate at all.
“This has shaped a behavioural norm: feedback is associated with value exchange. Ignoring this cultural reality creates a disconnect between organisational expectations and customer behaviour.”
— Dr. Yazmín Michelle Rodríguez Benítez
The Ethical Dilemma Organisations Face
Despite this behavioural context, many organisations — particularly in highly regulated industries — avoid offering incentives for survey completion.
The concern is valid. Providing something in exchange for feedback can be perceived as influencing responses, compromising data integrity, or violating brand and manufacturer guidelines. In sectors such as automotive, where customer satisfaction metrics directly impact performance evaluations, incentives can introduce ethical ambiguity.
However, this creates a contradiction. Organisations avoid incentives to protect the integrity of their data, yet still expect high response rates from customers who have been conditioned to associate feedback with some form of return.
The result is a persistent gap between the desire for data and the reality of participation.
The Frontline Employee Experience
Caught in the middle of this dynamic are frontline employees.
They are measured by survey outcomes such as Customer Satisfaction (CSAT), Net Promoter Score (NPS), or Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI). They are trained to encourage customers to complete surveys, yet they do not fully control the variables that influence whether a customer will respond.
As a result, employees rely heavily on emotional connection as their primary strategy. They explain the importance of the survey, attempt to build rapport, and position feedback as a meaningful contribution.
While emotional connection is a powerful driver, it is not always enough to overcome broader behavioural patterns.
Why Good Service Is Not Enough
A common assumption in many organisations is that good service will naturally lead to survey participation. In practice, this is not always the case.
Customers may receive excellent service and still choose not to respond. The absence of dissatisfaction removes urgency, and the absence of extraordinary delight reduces motivation. Without a compelling reason to act, even satisfied customers remain silent.
This highlights a critical insight: service quality and survey participation are related, but they are not directly proportional.
Rethinking the Survey Participation Model
If organisations aim to improve response rates while maintaining ethical standards, a more strategic approach is required.
First, it is essential to separate participation incentives from score influence. Offering value in exchange for completing a survey — regardless of the rating — can preserve ethical integrity while aligning with existing consumer behaviour. The focus should be on encouraging participation, not shaping outcomes.
Second, organisations must build a feedback culture rather than treating surveys purely as performance metrics. Customers are more likely to respond when they believe their input leads to tangible improvements. Communicating how feedback is used can significantly increase engagement.
Third, the ‘emotional close’ of the customer journey must be strengthened. Employees should clearly explain why the survey matters, how it impacts service quality, and how the customer’s voice contributes to change. This transforms the survey from a transactional request into a meaningful extension of the experience.
Finally, organisations operating in Puerto Rico must acknowledge and adapt to the local behavioural context. The expectation of value exchange is already embedded in the market. The question is not whether it exists, but how to address it strategically and ethically.
“Customers are more likely to respond when they believe their input leads to tangible improvements. Communicating how feedback is used can significantly increase engagement.”
— Dr. Yazmín Michelle Rodríguez Benítez
Final Insight
Increasing survey response rates is not simply an operational challenge. It is behavioural, cultural, and strategic.
Customers do not complete surveys just because they are asked. They respond because they feel something, or because they perceive value in doing so.
The organisations that succeed in this space will be those that design their feedback strategies with this reality in mind — balancing ethics, experience design, and cultural understanding.
Because ultimately, feedback is not just collected.
It is earned.
Reference:
Rodríguez Benítez, Y. M. (2025). Customer experience management and its impact on customer loyalty in automotive dealerships in Puerto Rico (Doctoral dissertation, Universidad Ana G. Méndez).
Keep the Conversation Going
Yazmín’s insights remind us that customer feedback is never just about surveys or scores – it’s about understanding the human behaviour behind every response.
Inside the WiCX Inner Circle, we create spaces for exactly these kinds of conversations. From member-led discussions and expert sessions to webinars and live podcasts, our community brings together women shaping customer experience across industries to explore the challenges that matter most.
If you’d like to keep exploring how to build smarter feedback strategies, strengthen customer trust, and turn insight into meaningful action, you can join the WiCX Inner Circle waitlist today.