It Takes Time to Fill in a Hole

Once you get a reputation for something, it tends to be self-fulfilling, self-reinforcing. If you've repeatedly provided good service, or if you've repeatedly been late for appointments, or if you've repeatedly told your wife you'd take out the garbage but then repeatedly forgot, that will be the impression they have of you. Whether your reputation is "good" or "bad", whether it's your personal reputation or that of your company, once you form an impression, it tends to be durable and hard to change.

If you've always provided good service with a reputation for accuracy and completeness, and you then make a mistake on one order, your customers will tend to give you the benefit of the doubt. They will still think of you as providing good service, as doing accurate and complete work, - "they're a good company, they just made a mistake." On the other hand, it you've routinely screwed up previous orders, the new mistake will just reinforce their impression of you - "they're always making mistakes on my orders."

If you've repeatedly been late for appointments, they'll expect you to be late next time. Even if you happen to be on time or early for a couple of appointments, it'll take a long time to change their overall perception of you.

If you remembered to take the garbage out twice in the last ten opportunities, your wife will be pretty cynical the next time you say "Sure honey". She's looking at whether you usually remember or whether you usually forget, and two out of ten means you usually forget. Even if you remember perfectly the next five times, that's still only seven successes out of the last fifteen opportunities; that's still less than half; from her point of view, that's still someone who usually forgets.

You may not like it, since you've been perfect on the latest five opportunities, but that's the way reputation goes. Once you dig yourself a hole, it takes a long time to fill it in. For good reputations, this works to your benefit; that's the whole idea of branding - people tend to see you in a favorable light because you've lived up to your brand promise in the past. For bad reputations, this durability works to your disadvantage; they'll interpret everything you do in the light of your past failures, unless you finally win them over with your persistent, repeated demonstrations that you actually have changed.

Protect your reputation in every interaction. If you dig a little hole, it may only take a short while to fill it in. If you dig a deep pit, it'll take forever.