How a Positive Customer Experience Erased a Mistake

I don't know about you, but I receive tons of emails from companies. Some I've purchased from, others I have not. The bottom line is that I get too many emails, so when I receive some in error, I get annoyed.

This past week, I received two emails from a company that I purchased items from. Based on the content of the emails, I realized that they were order confirmations from last year. Since I had purchased the items last year, I knew that the emails were not spam, but of course, you can never be too sure.

Since there were two emails, I decided to call the company. As I was preparing myself for what might be an upsetting situation - what if the company was in a state of flux and had charged me again for the same items I purchased last year? - I heard this message:

"Thank you for calling. If you are calling because of some odd emails you received, please accept our sincere apologies. We have upgraded our systems, and some customers received email confirmations of previous orders in error. Again, this was done in error as we upgrade, and we are very sorry. Please ignore the emails. If you are calling for another matter, please hold for a customer service rep."

All I can say is WOW. While this company was unable to stop the emails from being sent in error, someone had the good sense to record a voice message that would IMMEDIATELY address the situation when a customer called to inquire about the emails.

Crisis averted, and averted in the best way possible.

Of course, to add a little extra goodwill to this situation would be to send all customers a coupon for a 10 percent off a future purchase. That might result is some unexpected sales.

How would you have handled this situation?


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