When the relationship between
brand and consumer/donor becomes stressful, there are only three things that
can happen.
Break up: This will damage not only this relationship but also
future ones with those who hear about. The other downfall is that when a break
up happens there are whole groups of people who never find out about the brand
through the word-of-mouth of the consumer/donor.
Accept it: This causes the problem to build inside the consumer/donor
until something triggers an explosion. Then there is a high likely hood of the
person speaking negatively about the brand at an accelerated rate.
Reconcile: This usually happens when problems occurs due to the
brand’s error. (I wish I had customers who said they were wrong and asked to
make it right.) The brand then decides that fixing the issues no matter the
costs is in its best interest. If it’s done once or twice this usually causes
the consumer/donor to talk highly of the brand. If errors happen on a repeated
basis it will lead to a “break up.”
The proactive approach is to build
systems to avoid error. But even the best brands will make mistakes. Plan B
should be to handle them better then anyone else.
