In the business world, your brand serves as your identity. It is your business passport to the market. It’s the moment you introduce your company and create a positive impression. Unfortunately, your brand doesn’t exist as a separate entity. It is deeply linked to your activities as a business so that your choices and actions will inevitably impact on your brand reputation. Think of Facebook 10 years ago and compare it to now post data scandal. The social media platform probably doesn’t appear as trendy and fun as it once used to. This is precisely the result of business mishaps. Ultimately, the market opinion is improving again about Facebook as the data issues are being addressed. But this leaves an essential question. Namely, what kind of mishaps can damage your brand?

Overworked staff put your brand at risk

A brief branding reminder

Firstly, it’s crucial to remind ourselves what a brand consists of and how it is defined. Your brand is the combination of your logo, your overall look and presence as a business, your expertise and your professional consistency. There is a mixture of visual and content elements that are part of your identity. They create the context in which your business actions can be judged.

Your customers don’t feel safe

There’s nothing worse for a customer than organising a delivery and never receiving the item. Imagine the same person getting in touch with your customer service to hear that the item has already been delivered and signed for. But no, your customer claims, I don’t have the item. Oh but you have, the agent insists, you signed for it. Here’s the deal: sometimes, both interlocutors can be right at the same time. And if your customer is not lying to you, and the delivery had been indeed documented, then there’s only one other solution. Someone intercepted the delivery and impersonated your customer. You need to find a way to deter and reduce fraud if you want to avoid this kind of situations. Indeed, unhappy customers who feel unsafe with your company are likely to complain publicly and take their business elsewhere.

Your staff is overstretched

Are you overworking your team? You may not be aware of it, but if your staff has been under constant heavy workload for more than a handful of day, the fatigue will start to build up and lead to a drop in productivity. Additionally, overworked employees are prone to mistakes – by no fault of their own – and mood swings, which can impact not only on your results as a company but also on your customers. Besides, you might struggle with staff rebellion and experience sharing on social media, which will affect your business reputation.

You’re trying to be ironic

Nowadays, more and more companies are using ironic advertising in an attempt to attract more customers. There is so far very little evidence of success for ironic campaigns. However, it’s fair to say that irony can sometimes miss the target or irritates, leading to negative results. In fact, if your ad annoys people, your business is likely to be perceived negatively.

In conclusion, you need to keep the interest of your customers, employees and the market at heart if you want to maintain a positive brand reputation. From customers who are struggling with frauds to overstretched staff, the path of a successful and reputable brand is paved with many risks!