Five Customer Signals You’re Probably Ignoring

Hello friends,

Fourteen years after moving out of New Jersey, I’m officially back in one of the most expensive tax states in the country. Hate it.

A few years in NYC. Four years in Israel. A year in Queens. Two years in Brooklyn. Four years in Philly. Now I’m back in Central Jersey.

We moved this week. Unpacking. Trying to stay sane.

Speaking of staying sane, today’s topic is about catching what your customers are trying to tell you before it becomes a full-blown fire.

Five ways to catch small messes before they turn into big ones.

Let’s dive in?

This week’s spotlight is brought to you by Syncly — the fastest way to make sense of customer feedback across social, ecomm, and CX platforms.

Your customers aren’t just leaving comments on your site anymore. They’re venting on Reddit, filming hot takes on TikTok, and quietly dropping 3-star reviews on ecomm.

Syncly Social helps modern brands stay ahead by turning messy social chatter and scattered reviews into clear, actionable insights.

No more drowning in noise or tinkering with keyword filters. Syncly's AI cuts through the noise and gives you a clean, comprehensive view of what customers are really saying — and feeling — about your brand.

Trusted by leading brands like:

• LG Electronics

• Neurogum

• Everydaydose

• Belif Skincare

Here’s why they love Syncly:

• Cut through the noise – Forget building messy queries to filter noise. Syncly’s AI filters the irrelevant chatter automatically.

• Insights in Days, Not Months – AI-powered, fast, and lean.

• All Your Channels, One View – Combine chat, reviews, and social in one view for comprehensive insights.

• Sentiment Analysis at Scale – Find out exactly why customers love (or hate) your product.

LG Electronics switched to Syncly for faster and more accurate analysis.
Belif Skincare used Syncly to replace traditional market research.
Neurogum and Everydaydose synced up all their CX, social, and review data for better customer visibility. 

“Gaining clear visibility into our support drivers and truly understanding what customers were saying was a struggle. Feedback was fragmented, and we lacked a way to cluster it into digestible and actionable insights. With Syncly, we can now confidently harvest meaningful insights across all channels.”
 – Beatriz Lopes, Head of Customer Experience at Everyday Dose

“We’re finally tapping into customer feedback we couldn’t access before. Syncly makes sense of messy, fast-moving social data and turns it into usable insights.”
 – Brinna Dochniak, Customer Experience Manager at Neurogum

Want a taste of what Syncly can uncover?
📊 Check out their Sephora Face Serum Review Insights Report

Or book a call with the founders and get a free trial. 

The 3-Star Review With No Text

At first glance, it doesn’t seem like much. 

Not a complaint. Not a fan either. Just kinda sitting there.

A three-star review with no text usually means the customer didn’t hate the product but didn’t like it enough to say anything.

What it often points to:

• Mild disappointment that they didn’t feel like writing out

• A good experience was knocked down by something small (packaging, shipping, smell)

• Expectations were set too high by the marketing team

What to do:

Don’t overthink one or two of them. Start looking at patterns. Which products are pulling these reviews? What campaigns are driving them?

If you can, pair review scores with support tickets or session data to find where the friction is.

Tools like Syncly can help if you need to automate pulling from multiple places. Otherwise, simple tagging inside your review platform is a good start.

Quiet signals like these usually show up first, long before the loud complaints.

Back in Stock Notifications That Don’t Convert

Someone said they wanted it. You restocked. You emailed them. Sent a couple of texts.  And nothing happened.

When back-in-stock notifications don’t convert, it usually means a shift happened somewhere between interest and action.

What it often points to:

• They found a better option while they were waiting

• The hype wore off, and the urgency disappeared

• The checkout process wasn’t clean enough, especially on mobile

What to do:

• Shorten your restock windows. The longer people wait, the colder they get.

• Create urgency with simple copy, but don’t fake it.

• Check the mobile experience closely. Most back-in-stock clicks happen on a phone, not a desktop.

Restocking isn’t enough. The gap between “I wanted it once” and “I still want it now” closes faster than most think.

High Session Time, Low Conversion

When people spend time on a product page but don’t buy, it’s usually just plain old hesitation. They’re stuck somewhere. Trying to convince themselves and trying to find something that tips them one way or the other.

What it usually points to:

• Pricing anxiety

• Confusing product options or unclear value props

Reviews that don't back up the claims you’re making

What to do:

• Start by watching session recordings. Look at where people hesitate, scroll back up, or bounce.

• A/B test new versions of the page. Reorder the content. Add a few sentences where you think the hesitation lives.

• Sometimes it's one confusing detail or missing reassurance that drags an entire page down.

High session time without action isn’t a win. It’s a customer looking for a reason not to buy… and staying long enough to find it.

Subreddit Mentions That Aren’t Tagged Under Your Brand Name

Not every customer talks about your brand by name. Sometimes they just describe the product. Or complain about it. Or recommend it to someone else without mentioning where it came from.

It’s easy to miss these conversations if you only track brand mentions. But in a lot of categories, the real feedback lives in the comments, not in the headlines.

Where to look:

• Niche subreddits like r/ecommerce, r/BuyItForLife, r/HomeImprovement, or whatever community fits your space

• Keyword combinations like “[product type] + disappointing” or “[category] alternatives”

• Threads about competitors where your product gets pulled into the discussion

What to do:

Set up social listening queries that go beyond your brand name. 

Track the product type, ingredient, use case, even slang your customers use. I find lots of fun stuff about Yotpo this way… 

If you don’t have the time or team to do this manually, AI tools like Syncly can help pull broader mentions and filter out the noise.

Customers don’t think in brand names the way marketers do. They think in categories, needs, and problems.

A Surge in “Just Wondering” Support Tickets

Not every early warning sign shows up as a complaint. Sometimes it shows up as a flood of polite questions.

The same “quick question" or "just wondering" over and over might sound harmless. But when you start seeing a lot of them, it usually means something isn't clear enough.

What it usually points to:

• Missing or confusing product information

• Customers looking for extra reassurance before buying

• A UX gap where people can’t find what they need without asking

What to do:

• Tag these tickets and group them by topic.

• If you’re seeing the same question a few times, fix it at the source.

• Clarify the product copy. Tighten the FAQ. Make it easier for people to find answers without writing in.

It’s always easier to answer questions before they get asked.

That’s it for this week!

Any topics you'd like to see me cover in the future?

Just shoot me a DM or an email!

Cheers, 

Eli 💛

P.S. Looking for inspo on your next email/sms campaign?

I know you will love this.