As we’ve been saying in this blog series, brands are like people. Unfortunately, sometimes people break up. It’s a sad reality of both our business and personal relationships. Everyone goes into it with the best intentions. Things click. Profits are made. But then…something changes.
Breakups don’t happen overnight. Rarely does one catastrophic event kill an otherwise perfect union. Usually it’s something small that turns into a million something smalls that build up over time until your customer “just can’t take another three-day wait on finding out if you can do one simple upgrade to your standard package, Paul! I mean, it shouldn’t be hard to answer that very simple question. It’s like you don’t even want to try anymore!”
The best way to prevent the breakup is to understand what causes business to break up in the first place. That way you may be able to fix things before they’re too far gone.
Here are the Top 10 things that lead to a breakup in business:
Anyone who has ever had any kind of relationship has experienced a breakup at some point. When you do find yourself in that situation, recover with grace. Take an honest look at what lead to the breakup and how you can improve. Look at each dissolution as an opportunity to learn from your mistakes so you can be a better partner to future customers.
Previous in the series: Brands Are Like People: Partners