The news: Brands may be flying blind on reputation tracking as 93% of adults in Asia-Pacific will take some form of silent action after losing trust in a brand. Only 10% will ever post about a bad brand experience online, per Ogilvy’s Believability Index report.

• 42% stopped engaging with a brand in the past year because its product or service failed to deliver on promises.
• Over one-quarter walked away over “poor business ethics” (29%), mishandling of an issue or mistake (28%), exaggerated or misleading brand communications (27%), or lack of responsiveness (26%).
• 18% left due to “greenwashing” or misleading sustainability claims.

Digging in: Metrics that brands use to monitor reputation, such as negative customer reviews, may not tell the whole story about actual consumer behavior. As users quietly churn rather than publicly complain, social listening and online sentiment will be weaker proxies for brand health.

With business ethics only 13 percentage points behind product failure as a reason to abandon a brand, consumers are demonstrating that brand values are still important. In addition, the relatively equal ranking between ethics, communications, and handling of issues shows that brands need to focus on setting up realistic goals for sustainability, transparent company identity information, and strong social teams that can respond quickly to user queries or issues.

Recommendations for brands: Silent churn, alongside signal losses from privacy changes, are reducing brands’ ability to track user sentiment and satisfaction.

Brands need to look at active KPIs like repeat purchase rates, email and product subscription churn, and loyalty program engagement. Make an effort to directly contact users who are engaging with brands less often and open up clear communication channels where consumers can quickly and easily give feedback on what isn’t working.

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