When the relationship between brand and consumer/donor becomes stressful, only three things can happen:
Break up: This will damage not only the individual relationship, but also future ones with those who hear about the breakup. The other downfall is that when a breakup happens, whole groups of people 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 likelihood of the person speaking negatively about the brand at an accelerated rate.
Reconcile: This usually happens when the brand makes a mistake and takes responsibility for it. (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 what the costs, is in its best interest. If the brand errs once or twice, it usually causes the consumer/donor to talk highly of the brand. If errors happen on a repeated basis, it will lead to a “breakup.”
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 than anyone else.
