The Moral Imperative of Feeback

Originally published on Tumblr.

Feedback matters to everyone. It matters to children, it matters to parents, it matters to spouses, it matters to co-workers, it matters to companies. We all have a moral imperative to give people and organizations feedback.

When I say feedback I don’t mean praise. I mean both praise and criticism. No one who knows me will be surprised to learn that I think it’s immoral to give children nothing but positive reinforcement. Negative feedback is just as essential. If the criticism isn’t deserved, they have to learn to cope with it. If it is, they need to learn to deal with it.

But at least children tend to get some feedback. Most people and companies get none.

A “Like” is not feedback.

I’m going to skip parents and spouses and co-workers. The reason I’m writing this post is because the lack of feedback given in the corporate world astounds me.

I’d like to address all of you silent customers.

Why don’t you give feedback when you get good service, or feedback when you get bad service? Putting up with bad service, or “voting with your feet” isn’t helpful. What’s wrong with giving people the opportunity to correct a problem? If your hamburger is overcooked, tell your waiter! The chef will be thankful for the opportunity to teach the line cook how to cook it properly. And if the line cook will appreciate being given a chance to correct the mistake, unless he grew up being told he was perfect and brilliant, in which case he might get angry and learn nothing.

In my world, in the software world, you aren’t helping either. You don’t report bugs. You almost never complain about a stupid feature. And you never tell us what you’d really like our product to do. I don’t know why. Software is the most malleable product on the planet, and those of us who write it want it to be great. We want you to love it. In fact we want you to love it so much that you’ll pay for it.

As a consumer, you’re an important part of the product ecosystem. You are arguably the most important part, more important that the product itself. Why do you value your opinion so little that you don’t even think it’s worth engaging with the creators of a product?

I don’t understand.

Are you worried that we’ll take offense? You shouldn’t be. We have thick skins. If you tell me that something I’ve made sucks, I’m far more likely to send you a t-shirt than send you a nasty reply. I love feedback. I love knowing what I’m doing wrong, because I like to do things right. I love knowing what’s broken, because I like to fix things. I love knowing what you want, because I want to make things you’ll buy.

It’s that simple.

Stop worrying about offending people. Engage. Give feedback. You might be surprised by the outcome.

P.S. I realize the irony of publishing this at a site that doesn’t allow feedback. I have to fix that. In the mean time, feel free to send me feedback directly at murphy@op3nvoice.com.