Entrepreneur Column Says Marketing Can't Fix a Broken Experience

A contributor column published by Entrepreneur on October 13, 2026, argued that companies facing repeated customer complaints often turn to marketing for a reputation fix when the underlying service or product failure is the real issue.

The piece cited PwC's 2025 Customer Experience Survey, which found that 52% of consumers had stopped buying from a brand after a bad experience with its products or services. It also pointed to research from Idea Grove, which surveyed 1,000 US consumers and found 2% would purchase from a brand they did not know based on an artificial intelligence recommendation alone, without checking further. Reviews ranked as the leading trust signal in that survey.

The column warned that scaling demand before fixing a known defect simply produces more dissatisfied buyers and more negative reviews. It added that customers increasingly leave without explanation, citing 2026 consumer research from the Qualtrics XM Institute showing roughly three in 10 say directly why they are departing.

As an example of a gap between claims and delivery, the author cited a 2026 survey by property technology company Rently, in which 11% of 800 US renters said they fully trusted security claims in apartment listings and 56% said they had lived somewhere a security feature did not work.

This story was first reported by Entrepreneur.