Quantum Metric Finds Customer and Marketing Listening Gap

Quantum Metric has released its 2026 Customer Voice Benchmark, revealing a customer listening gap between the effort marketing teams put into collecting feedback and whether consumers believe that feedback will lead to meaningful action.

The report finds that half of consumers have not given a brand direct feedback in the last six months. 

This comes even as 45% of digital brands say they have increased investment in feedback channels over the last year and 56% of consumers have already left a brand that continued to ignore the feedback they provided.

Failing feedback channels

Consumers often lack trust in the traditional channels that have been built to hear them. Less than one in five consumers say that they see surveys as an effective way to get feedback heard, while a third say they do not feel heard by digital brands at all.

Digital marketing teams also struggle to move from listening to action. Just a quarter of digital leaders have daily access to recent customer feedback, and 52% have no formal process for acting on the feedback they collect.

This dynamic directly impacts retention and revenue. 

Alongside the 56% of consumers who have left a brand over ignored feedback, 31% say they would skip a brand entirely if an AI assistant flagged known site or app issues before their visit.

This is even having an impact on internal teams. Just over half (51%) of digital employees have stayed silent about a broken internal tool because they did not think it would change anything, and 45% say broken tools get in the way of helping customers at least weekly.

“Customers don't stop giving feedback because they're impatient. They stop because they've learned that nothing changes when they do,” Michelle Brigman, Contact Center Principal at Quantum Metric, tells Marketing Chief.

“That then trickles directly into loyalty, retention and ultimately revenue. Once someone speaks up and hears nothing back, they don't ask twice, they just leave. 

“Our research found that 56% of consumers have left a brand because they felt their feedback was ignored, showing just how detrimental a poor consumer experience can be. 

“Building trust means proving there's actually someone on the other end of that feedback, and that speaking up changed something. Customers don't expect perfection. They expect to be heard, and to see proof of that.”

Moving past surveys

With survey response rates declining and less than half of leaders having a formal process for acting on the feedback they collect, closing the gap, according to Quantum Metric, requires businesses to move past treating customer listening as a survey-first programme. 

This involves combining qualitative feedback with the behavioural data teams already have, while also creating opportunities to expand access to Voice of Customer (VoC) insights across a business.

However, the report also suggests that speed is just as important as the process. 

As more customers turn to AI to discover and evaluate brands, the cost of a slow or absent response can add up fast. 

Marketing teams who are able to act on customer signals in days will be better positioned to retain the customers being directed to them by AI, says Quantum Metric. 

Who are Quantum Metric’s key partners? 

• Google Cloud: Quantum Metric’s partnership with Google Cloud integrates real-time digital analytics and customer experience data with Google's cloud infrastructure and AI ecosystem.
• ServiceNow: The Quantum Metric and ServiceNow partnership integrates Quantum Metric Embedded Replay directly into the ServiceNow platform to streamline contact centre workflows.
• Adobe: The Quantum Metric and Adobe Solution Partner Directory partnership connects real-time behavioural analytics with Adobe Experience Cloud to explain the ‘why’ behind customer actions. 
• Optimizely: This partnership integrates customer behavioural analytics with digital experimentation and feature-flagging.