{"id":1252,"slug":"hubspot-88pct-bad-experience-stat","title":"\"88% of online consumers are less likely to return after a bad experience\" — originates with HubSpot, often laundered through web-maintenance vendors","kind":"reference","scope":"business","status":"current","audiences":["kevin","smb-owner","candid-team"],"topics":["editorial-discipline","citation-practices"],"reference_body":"**Claim:** The widely-cited \"88% of online consumers are less likely to return to a site after a bad experience\" (commonly paired with \"89% shop with a competitor after a poor experience\") originates with **HubSpot**, not with the maintenance vendors who repeat it.\n\n**Source:** HubSpot original; repeated by e.g. Hyperping https://hyperping.com/blog/website-maintenance-plans\n\n**Confidence:** Single-source — HubSpot original.\n\n**Why this matters for Candid:** A common laundering pattern — a single vendor figure becomes \"the industry says…\" through repetition. Same pattern as the Demand Metric 2× claim ([[demand-metric-2014-interactive-content-survey]]). When using this stat in client conversations, cite HubSpot explicitly and note it is a vendor figure.","rationale_body":null,"metadata":null,"links":{"outgoing":[{"slug":"cmi-2x-interactive-content-misattribution","title":"The \"2× engagement / conversion\" interactive-content stat is widely (mis)attributed to \"Content Marketing Institute\" — no original CMI dataset producing it exists","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"}],"incoming":[{"slug":"research-brief-customer-facing-calculators-smb-june-2026","title":"Research brief: customer-facing calculators & tools for SMBs — the honest case (June 2026)","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"},{"slug":"caveats-customer-facing-calculators-vendor-marketing-base","title":"Caveats for the customer-facing-calculators brief: every conversion-lift figure is unproven; nearly all are vendor-self-reported","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"}]},"created_at":"2026-06-20T16:50:09.640Z","updated_at":"2026-06-20T16:50:09.640Z"}