Interactive Media Consulting, LLC has assembled a team of professionals ready to help you with any project. On staff, in our Saratoga Springs office, you will find designers, programmers, front-end developers, and customer support representatives. All projects are handled in-house, with minimal outsourcing and no off-shoring.
Turning Around an Oops
Whether your brand has sent out a blast email with a typo or broken link, or perhaps you have forgotten to activate a retail coupon code and customers are upset- panic and headache mode ensue. We have seen companies migrate customer data to a new eCommerce platform and then unintentionally the new platform alerts customers over a several year span that their order has “shipped”. “Sure, it shipped 3 years ago so why are we being alerted now? You Idiots!” Learning to take these “oops” moments and turn them around is the key.
What you do when the “oops” happens is your choice. Remember it can make or break your brand- so handle with care.
Here are some proven tips that we suggest:
- Do not approach the “fix” from a knee-jerk reaction point of view. Take a breather.
- Put yourself in your customer’s shoes for a moment and think about how they have received the “oops” and what YOU would expect to take place as a solution.
- Fix the “oops” with a promotional offering and an honest apology. Honesty shows integrity and as humans we understand that tech is not fail proof. This approach has proven to result in unexpected sales and communication with customers you may not have engaged in quite a while.
- Re-sending a correct customer communications email is not death to your brand. Remember, if you are hosting an image that is incorrect and included in your e-mail newsletter, you can likely serve up a new image to replace the old. However if you are not able to fix the e-mail blast without resending, then it is okay to re-send a thoroughly checked, edited version. Don’t even acknowledge the mistake in the subject. Just resend it as if the first round never existed.
- Social media typos can be edited on certain platforms. If not, the post can be deleted, just make sure you follow up and do the same to cover your tracks on any of the platforms where your original post may have been automatically shared. Such as Facebook to Twitter, Instagram to Facebook and so on.
Most of all remember that we are in a fast paced world where something that was tweeted or emailed out at 8am is likely old news by 5pm. Everyone is struggling to keep up, and for the most part an “oops” is harmless in the grand scheme.
Should you find yourself with a larger, more damaging “oops” a seasoned publicist can put a spin on it so fast that it may result in even more sales and opportunity than the originally planned communication.