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February 16, 2005
How to apologize, the Hallmark way
What would you do if you let down your customers on a day they needed you most?
For starters, you might write an instructive email like this:
Dear Friend,
We owe you an apology. First, the most important three words of this letter -- WE ARE SORRY.
This Valentine's Day, our site was up and down all day. For many of you that meant frustration and wasted time when you were simply trying to send or retrieve an e-card.
We thought we were ready to handle a huge amount of traffic on Valentine's Day. Obviously, we thought wrong. We were surprised by double the amount of traffic we expected. And we cringe at the disappointment we caused to some of you.
In short, we made promises to deliver that were not kept. And for those of you who experienced that disappointment, we are so sorry for any frustration we may have caused.
Rest assured this experience will serve as a lesson for us. We are now challenging our team to reevaluate every step we took to prepare for Valentine's day...because it wasn't enough.
With our deepest apologies,
The Hallmark.com Team
Hallmark knows a thing or two about crafting good apology notes, but it's usually in the form of cards for people who can't find the right words to say, "I forgot about our first-year anniversary. Sorry."
The only thing that would have made Hallmark's email better: a signature from an executive! After all, who sends anonymous apology cards to their families?
[Tip of hat to Jeff Anthony for the heads up.]
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Thanks for this. I've added it to my daily meanderings on marketing matters: http://muchadoaboutwhatever.blogspot.com
Best,
Mike Bawden
Brand Central Station
