I saw a founder post about why something went wrong with their launch. Noted "human error". Noted "we are not upset at this person internally."
Ari noted BULL SHIT.
Because I've seen this founder give interviews on how ruthless they are.
Can't be both! Can't be 'honey bun lovey bear we are not upset internally' and 'vicious cutthroat bo$$ I win because I'm perfect'.
Have to pick who you are to the world because for the last time, our customers aren't stupid, they see through, and they do not forget.
But also, let's talk about the pointed fingers.
The fall guy
When something goes wrong, and you've hurt your customers or even inconvenienced them (the HBO example, slight baby inconvenience), there are so many choices you can make.
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You can decide to draw attention. (Tweet, post, give a quote).
- You can decide to offer a make-good that makes it go away. (Email customers a generous discount code, double-up their order, give them a password to shop the next drop early and a discount code, etc.)
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You can have your CEO or owner own the mistake full-out, as in they can apologize and take responsibility as it's their org.
- You can make it worse by picking a fall guy and make that worse yet by pretending that fall guy is going to be okay.
In the HBO example, we all know that intern is going to be okay. We know that the mistake was relatively harmless (an email was sent that said "test" or something if I'm remembering correctly). We know that if HBO says the intern is okay, the intern is going to be okay because A) that's what's right and B) not the place for them to lie. Especially after the amazing response to their heartfelt and hilarious tweet.
BUT in the example from this week on the "human error" I don't think that person is going to be okay. I don't think we can have confidence in that, and I don't think the message was actually nice at all. I think it was damage-control to make it super clear that the founder had no responsibility in the error, and that the fall guy was named to separate the founder from the problem.
Which doesn't work for me because that's not how business works. But mostly, this rubs me wrong left right and sideways because had the drop gone well, the team would never have been mentioned.
On lived experience
What is experience, really? For me, I'm pretty good at what I do because of the lessons I've learned along the way. Because of the mistakes I've made, what they've taught me, and because of the mistakes I've witnessed all around me over the many years of my career. I'll give you 3.
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I've lived through recalls. Do you know what Gluten Free Watchdogs is? I do.
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I've personally mistakenly set a limited-edition product live 5 minutes early (to place a test order) and it sold out before the launch email went out.
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I've personally mistakenly not marked the email field in Shopify mandatory when selling an e-ticket online.
These moments are horrible. 2/3 of these were my fault. The 1st wasn't but it was the worst thing I've ever seen. But I remember what caused it, I remember how it impacted customers, and I remember how our company reacted. They reacted beautifully, by the way.
There's a reason we all hire people who have worked at brands as big as ours. From agency's with clients that are at the same level. People who have also managed millions in ad spend a month. People who have sent emails to millions of customers per send.
They are seasoned. They have made mistakes before, and at scale. They know the risk.
Back to the PSAs
Knowing that nobody is perfect, and knowing that a team wins and loses together, the art of the PSA is pretty important. The art of not making it worse.
For what it's worth, I bet that person who is having a tough week at work for that company that pointed at them, will never make that mistake again.
For what it's worth, I think this company should have spent less time spinning this mistake and separating their founder from the problem and more time strategizing on what to give their customers who expected more from them. (I only found out about this problem from the founder's post - absolute backfire/ ick created unnecessarily).
For what it's worth, I've broken Shopify's launch records since I made that launch mistake where I set the limited-edition launch live too early and it sold out. I've become the perfect person to call in a high-pressure-launch situation. Because I've seen some things, and I know some things, because I have made mistakes that have changed me.
Like that intern and that person from this week.
And, remind me not to shop the brand that did that finger pointing. Gross.
