Gothenburg, Sweden – June 19, 2025

In today’s competitive market, consumer experiences play a pivotal role in shaping a brand’s reputation and success. Negative consumer experiences can have profound and lasting impact on a brand service activation, leading to a cascade of bad effects that can be challenging to handle.

The Ripple effect of negative experiences

When consumers encounter poor service or product quality, their dissatisfaction often extends beyond the immediate experience. Negative feedback can quickly spread through social media, online communities and UGC-platforms, amplifying the damage to the brand’s image. This phenomenon, known as negative consumer engagement, can lead to public complaints, switching of brand, and even brand revenge.

Impact on Brand trust and loyalty

Trust is a cornerstone of brand loyalty. Negative experiences erode consumer trust, making it difficult for brands to retain existing customers and attract new ones. Studies have shown that negative digital customer experiences can significantly decrease digital brand attachment, further harming the brand’s reputation across various touchpoints.

Consequences for Brand Activations

Brand activation efforts aim to create memorable and positive interactions with consumers, often in the form of sales driving campaigns, loyalty solutions, advocacy and learning plans or gamification & engagement activations. However, when a brand is tainted by negative experiences, these efforts can be undermined. Consumers are less likely to engage with brand activation campaigns if they have previously encountered poor service or product quality. This can result in lower participation rates, higher drop out, reduced effectiveness of marketing & sales strategies, and ultimately, diminished returns on investment or loss of sales.

Challenges with Activation Mechanics

Most activations today are bound to fail due to poor activation mechanics and outdated legacy systems. Often, support is not planned for from the start, leading to inefficiencies and consumer dissatisfaction. The future demands for activations will be far greater, requiring brands to innovate and adapt. If these issues are not addressed, even activations with good intentions can quickly turn into costly affairs, both economically and in terms of brand reputation.

 Lost Sales Opportunities

Research indicates that poor customer experiences are costing brands billions of dollars in revenue. For instance, a report by Qualtrics highlights that poor customer service costs businesses more than $75 billion annually, with 67% of consumers claiming they would switch brands because of a bad experience. Another survey by Replicant found that 91% of consumers reported experiencing poor customer service in the last six months, significantly impacting their perception of the brand.

“Poor customer service costs businesses more than $75 billion annually, with 67% of consumers claiming they would switch brands because of a bad experience.” – Forbes

“91% of consumers reported experiencing poor customer service in the last six months, significantly impacting their perception of the brand.” – Replicant

Moreover, businesses worldwide risk nearly $3.8 trillion in sales due to bad customer experiences. This staggering figure underscores the critical importance of delivering exceptional customer experiences to maintain and grow sales.

“Businesses around the world risk $3.8 trillion in sales due to bad customer experiences.” – Qualtrics

Strategies to avoid the problem

To counteract the effects of negative consumer experiences, brands must adopt proactive measures:

1. Smooth Consumer Journey: Create a mechanic for any campaign or activation that ensures a smooth consumer journey from the start. This involves planning and designing the activation to be user-friendly and intuitive, minimizing friction points that could lead to dissatisfaction. Be mindful that impromptu changes on a whim to any running activation can alter the planned journey for the consumer and make it a horrible experience.
2. Enhanced Customer Support and Advanced AI: Providing timely and effective customer support can help resolve issues before they escalate. A help desk or consumer support team needs the backing of experts who thoroughly understand the activation process and can provide immediate assistance. Additionally, AI chatbots and smart FAQs must be up-to-date and capable of providing timely and accurate assistance to consumers. This can prevent bad experiences and reduce dropout rates, ultimately preserving sales opportunities.
3. Transparent Communication: Open and honest communication about problems and solutions can rebuild trust. Proactively communicating a problem before the consumer becomes annoyed or even finds it as a problem can mitigate a whole situation.
4. Continuous Improvement: Regularly updating and improving activations, products, services and consumer flows based on consumer feedback ensures that issues are addressed promptly.
5. Community Engagement: Building strong online communities where consumers feel heard and valued can mitigate negative experiences.

Conclusion

Negative consumer experiences are detrimental to brand service activation, affecting trust, loyalty, and overall brand perception. By understanding the consequences and implementing strategic measures, brands can navigate these challenges and foster positive consumer relationships. A good start for every company that wants to engage in activations, whether sales-driving, loyalty-building, advocacy-creating, or any other type, is to invest in a platform and activation solution that allows real-time adjustments, supports your own help desk, and actively works to minimizes bad consumer experiences. This serves as an insurance for your brand activation services 

1: Research shows poor customer experiences are costing brands billions of dollars in revenue, with more than half of consumers reporting they won’t do business with a company after a single negative experience. 

2: Survey: The Effects of Bad Customer Service and How Brands Can Fix It – Replicant. 

3 Bad Customer Experiences Put Nearly $4 Trillion at Risk in Global Sales – Qualtrics.

About Enginio: Enginio is an advanced platform for activations, serving as a comprehensive tool and activation engine for brands to build, customize, manage, and analyze their activations. Our platform provides creative and robust solutions designed to enhance engagement, loyalty, awareness, and advocacy, ultimately driving increased conversion rates. Additionally, Enginio offers world-first functionalities, including automated cashback (Reversed Payment Solutions), incentivizing User Generated Content (UGC), re-commerce capabilities, and automated promotions and campaign functionality that operates seamlessly across any global market, with any reseller, and in any channel. Enginio empowers brands to foster meaningful interactions with consumers, enhancing their overall experience. For further information, please contact:

Martin Sohtell at Sohtell@enginio.io.