You’ve likely seen one. The ubiquitous unboxing videos on YouTube, documenting every step as someone carefully opens a box to reveal their latest purchase. If the product meets and hopefully exceeds the customer’s expectations, it’s a triumphal moment for the brand being featured.
Imagine the horror, then, of an influencer unboxing your product, only to discover a critical element is missing. Not a great look for the brand. It actually happened to one of our clients. Rather than respond with a coupon for replacement, the brand worked with Arrowhead to correct the mistake in a way that gave the influencer a solution, and engaging content for their audience. More on that in a bit.
In industry terms, this is an example of customer appeasement. A better way to think about it is an example of a human-centered approach designed to bring trust back to your brand after a customer believes they’ve been wronged or at the very least, disappointed.
Not paying careful attention to customer appeasement is costly. A 2025 PwC Customer Loyalty Survey found 55% of consumers said they would stop doing business with a company after several bad experiences. Another 32% said “inconsistent” experiences would prompt them to walk.
Finding the balance between automation and humanity
The types of issues consumers might bring to a brand are endless, but the common denominator in solving them is to make sure customers feel seen and heard. Sometimes offering a replacement or refund is the correct response when a customer reports a broken, damaged, or missing product. In cases that aren’t so black and white, a coupon or refund might not be enough. Human empathy can take a moment where your brand power is at its lowest and turn that into an opportunity to win the greatest amount of brand loyalty possible from your customer.
How best to do that? First, tackle the low-hanging fruit. The easier it is to solve simple issues, the happier your customers will be. We work with clients to optimize their platforms, so shoppers see clear terms of conditions, and that the artwork they see on the site matches descriptions, so they can make the best choice to ensure they get what they want. If something does go wrong, that shopper should see easy to follow steps to be made whole, whether that’s through reimbursement or a replacement. We help our clients see around corners and identify any ambiguity that can cause friction or confusion, which can turn a disappointed customer into an angry consumer.
What about consumer fraud?
We recognize there can be fraudulent claims among the volume of complaints that make their way to customer service departments. It’s important to have a partner who can protect your bottom line from fraudulent activity and bad actors. Because we work with our clients to provide services centered around coupons, rebates, and sweepstakes, we understand how to use machine learning along with our own expertise to parse through mountains of data and digital fingerprints to validate real humans for real incentives.
Appeasement often doesn’t need to dig that deep. One of our core abilities is to see through the claim and recognize the humanity in why a person would spend time away from their busy lives to call a support line. The call center services we provide include real humans who provide empathy and individualized problem-solving that shoppers value, knowing they are being heard. On the back end, our teams are closely aligned and in communication with our clients so we can work creatively together to ensure better solutions for their customers. We’ve helped our clients create truly individualized solutions that rise to the occasion.
How customer appeasement becomes an opportunity
Remember that influencer who was disappointed by a critical piece of their product missing? Working with the brand, Arrowhead sent a team member out to a store to buy an entire case of the product the influencer had purchased. And, yes, our team made sure every single box contained the critical element that was missing from the one the influencer had purchased, and then showcased on social media. We sent the influencer the case of new product, and an apology acknowledging their initial experience didn’t hit the mark.
The result? The influencer did another unboxing on social media. And they were delighted to report not only had the brand delivered on expectations, they exceeded them, which made for a fun experience for the influencer’s audience as well. We’re pretty confident the brand made a positive impression that will stick with the influencer, and their audience.
Appeasement should be on a case-by-case basis. Simple issues can be resolved by architecting great platforms to reduce friction for your customer and offering them clear steps to a resolution if something goes wrong. And while a brand can only control what it is directly responsible for, there are cases in which it makes sense to go beyond expectations to earn back the trust of your customer. Customer appeasement centered in humanity and empathy can help retain customers and generate loyalty that ensures a lasting and strong customer base.
