Everyone makes mistakes. Except for businesses.

Businesses have a terrible time admitting they messed up, saying they’re sorry and making amends. I’m not sure how they came to believe that doing so was a sign of weakness. Maybe most businesses worry it opens them up to liability. Which is silly. Either they messed up or they didn’t, and the first step to rebuilding brand trust is admitting their mistake and saying they’re sorry.

A Good Example

I’m not quite sure how I came to be subscribed to Anne Holland’s WhichTestWon newsletter (the result of some “free” information, no doubt), but a few weeks ago, Anne started emailing me. I didn’t pay much attention until I received an email with the subject line “Webinar from H-II … So sorry guys”. Everybody looks at a train wreck…

Anne wrote:

Everyone who's ever done webinars has their war stories.  
 The one where the slides got stuck.  The one where the
 presenter failed to show.  The one with the broken poll.

 This afternoon we plummeted to new depths, and wound up
 presenting our Awards Webinar of the Year ... entirely
 without sound.

 Natalie and I were going crazy behind the scenes trying to
 fix things.  Between us, we've done something like 2,000
 webinars in our time.  But this time we failed.

 Finally I moved the slides along in what our co-presenter
 the gallant Len Shneyder of Unica called a "Charlie Chaplin
 Silent Film" mainly so the nominees could see what they'd
 won.

 So, here's the deal. If you were signed up for the webinar,
 you should have just now gotten an all-new invite with link
 for a repeat performance -- ONLY WITH SOUND THIS TIME --
 next Tuesday at 2pm ET/11am PT.  You do not have to sign
 up again, you're all set.

 PLUS - we are going to post a Case Study with creative
 samples and results data for each winning test (all 36 of them)
 on WhichTestWon.com in a "hall of fame" by this Wednesday.

 So, next week, instead of our regular "Test of the Week"
 you will be getting 36 Case Studies of award-winning tests!

 Mea culpa. I fall on my sword.  This no-sound thing has
 never happened before to us.  Thanks for sticking with us
 while we sort it out and try to make amends.

 Anne

 Anne Holland
 Publisher & Culprit - WhichTestWon.com

An excellent email

Frank, sincere, personal. She admitted her mistake, righted the wrong (rescheduled the webinar) and helped make it up to her subscribers by sending them extra material. A class act.

I wasn’t paying attention to Anne before, but now I am.

Businesses take note: a real apology can be the best sales letter you ever write.