Mistakes happen. We're only human.
I've had two emails over the last week or so when something has gone wrong and the brand has had to claw back and attempt to save face—with... shall we say, limited... success?
The first one—Premiership Rugby—inadvertently sent their Welcome email out to the full subscriber list. As someone who builds sequences and automations for a living, I'm not quite sure how they did it, but it happened.
No biggy.
Spun well, it's a great opportunity to remind everyone of all the great benefits they get for being subscribed.
They chose not to do that.
Instead, they issue a grovelling apology, reassuring me that my data was safe and thanked me for my continued support as part of their family:
Hi Stuart,
We would like to offer you our sincere apologies. You may have received in error an email from us which was intended for internal testing purposes only.
Please rest assured that this was an inadvertent mistake. Your privacy is of the utmost importance to us and we would like to assure you that every step will be taken to ensure an error of this kind will not happen again.
If you do have any queries regarding this error, please contact info@premiershiprugby.com and we would be happy to answer your questions.
Again, we apologise for this mistake and any frustration or inconvenience it may have caused. We value your continued support as part of the rugby family.
They may have gotten one or two complaints from a few pearl-clutchers and maybe even one or two unsubscribes. To be honest, the original email had barely registered with me so I hunted it out to see if I'd missed some heinous crime committed. Nope. It was their Welcome email.
It's rare that a brand manufactures their own outrage...
The second was just bizarre. Years ago, signed up for a free trial of Tortoise—a "slow news" app which tells longer read stories of some of the news headlines of the week. Of course, this was before I started my business, and when I had time to indulge in such frippery... not any more!
I unsubscribed by still get emails from them...which is interesting...but I've never bothered to do anything about it.
But the mistake Tortoise made, pailed into insignificence by the missed opportunities of their apology.
They inadvertently sent a paid-subscriber only email to their list—a free sample, you might say.
Did they use it to their advantage? Did they tease their audience and give them an opportunity to subscribe (and PAY THEM MONEY) if they liked what they read? Did they make the most of it and ask what I thought and gather some valuable feedback from people who'd not read this sort of content from them before?
Did they heck.
It started off fine.
"Oops! We're really sorry about that"
That's fine, Tortoise! It happens, don't worry about it!
YOU WON'T RECEIVE IT NEXT WEEK
But....but....what if I want to? Why are you being so mean, Tortoise?!
Why do I feel like I'm being punished?!
Mistakes happen—how you deal with it is what people remember.
In his book, Influence, Robert Cialdini writes of a story a hotel manager told him. A mother wanted to rent some children's tennis racquets at his property, but the only set they had was already being used by another family–it was 4th July weekend, after all.
The member of staff took it upon themselves and went out to a local sports shop and bought two new racquets.
A simple gesture and one that went down incredibly well—the woman booked her extended family into the property over the Thanksgiving weekend because of it—at considerable expense, I'm sure.
If you make a mistake, apologise, and if you can go out of your way to make up for it or if you're clever, use it to your advantage.
Your customers will remember either way...how would you like them to remember you?
The choice is yours.