This article highlights a critical issue for digital businesses: the "silent exit" of customers who, instead of complaining loudly during service failures, quietly disengage due to a damaged emotional contract. These moments of abandonment, often unseen on traditional dashboards, represent the most costly failures.

• The most expensive failures in digital businesses are moments of abandonment when customers feel exposed and alone, rather than system outages.
• In African markets, customers often adjust their behavior quietly when services fail due to cultural norms that prioritize long-term relationships over public complaints.
• The article presents an illustrative example of a senior manager whose payment card fails multiple times at a restaurant, leading to embarrassment and a dented relationship with his bank, without a proactive response from the institution.
• When customers stop believing a service will stand by them, particularly during time-sensitive moments like paying school fees or sending emergency funds, it creates fear that is not captured by management dashboards.