Too many companies brag about how customer-friendly they are. But that’s often all we experience. So it’s refreshing to see a big, well-known company being genuine with their customers.
Adobe, the well-known maker of many popular software applications, has been delivering lousy service lately. But rather than ignore it or hide behind empty press releases, they faced it head-on. Lambert Walsh, their VP of Technical Services sent an open letter to their customers with an apology, a promise to do better and an easy an convenient way to communicate with them while they fix the problem.
They nailed it.
Walsh did not justify or defend their poor service. He did not hide behind corporate-speak. He said, in effect, “we messed up, we’re sorry, we’re fixing it”.
This will help repair some of the damage to Adobe’s reputation. And it will help spur some positive buzz to counter the tidal wave of bad mouthing they’re been getting. It’s already getting play on Twitter and in the blogosphere.
Now if they fix the problem and keep their customers in the loop they should fare well. No doubt they have learned from this. I hope it becomes a useful lesson for other big companies too.
Other articles you might like:
- Never explain defend or justify (part 1)
- Always close the loop
- Do the right thing right away
- Don’t Interrupt Your Customer
- United Airlines provides today’s (unfortunate) customer service example
