Decline in buyer returns and loyalty, rising skepticism in direction of AI

Brands today are faced with increased consumer expectations and a decline in consumer feedback. In other words, negative experiences have a huge impact on customer loyalty, but – despite the ready availability of feedback channels – consumers don’t tell brands about bad interactions, or good ones either.

These are the key takeaways from experience management platform Qualtrics’ “2025 Consumer Trends Report,” based on insights from nearly 24,000 consumers across 23 countries.

Consumers are the least likely to give feedback on social media. Whether their experiences are good or bad, consumers are least likely to talk about it on social media, and most likely to tell friends and family (if they tell anyone). We reached out to Isabelle Zdatny, Head of Thought Leadership at Qualtrics’ XM Institute, for comment.

“Consumers remain silent about their experiences, whether good or bad,” she said. “This is a huge problem for companies trying to understand and calibrate experiences. This is a trend we’ve wondered about every year since the study began in 2021 and it’s been decreasing every year. He lost seven points after a good experience, eight points after a bad experience. The only thing that has increased is consumers reporting that they haven’t told anyone about their experience. When consumers tell someone, they are more likely to tell friends and family. Only about 20% post anything about it on social media; this has decreased considerably.

Zdatny thinks consumers really can’t be bothered. “If you think I will never interact with this company again, you are not going to take your valuable time to write a speech or provide them with feedback. This reflects a general erosion of trust. There is a lot of survey fatigue. What is the benefit for me in giving my feedback to an organization? »

Only about a quarter of consumers trust brands’ use of AI. Twenty-six percent of consumers trust brands to use AI responsibly – and this as consumers become increasingly familiar with AI.

Zdatny again: “The headline is: ‘AI hype gives way to AI skepticism.’ We asked how comfortable consumers were performing activities using AI – like booking a plane ticket, getting medical advice, checking the status of an order – and the decline The average consumer’s comfort level is 11 percentage points per year. Even though AI has been around longer and consumers are likely using it more, they are actually less comfortable using it to complete tasks.

The full report is here (registration required). The main data points are here.

Why we care. Two things stand out from this report. First, this is a healthy sample. Second, contrary to many reports, this is not just a business boost for the sponsor. After all, one of the core elements of Qualtrics’ offering is survey-based quality of experience assessment. What this reflects is an interest in facing the facts about the decline in feedback and loyalty as a basis for doing something about it.

Seeing consumers turn their backs on social media discourse will, for many of us, be a surprise. Of course, it’s difficult to disentangle disillusionment with brands from disillusionment with social media as a channel.

Dig Deeper: What is Customer Experience and Why is it Important?