Ever make a mistake so big and visible that your stomach knots up? We did that.

We were supposed to send a Japanese language marketing email to customers in, well, Japan…

So what did we actually do? We sent that Japanese email to customers NOT in Japan. 9,000 of them.

We didn’t know we made this mistake until customers started writing back. A few were snarky, but most just factually pointed that we made a mistake.

So now we had the dilemma of what to do. Do we say to ourselves “oops” and quietly move on? Do we issue a “corporate” response?

We ended up doing two things…

First, we changed our process. We already had written sign-offs before any email went out and we have always been meticulous about checking the content, graphics, and links. But, we realized that no one double checks the distribution list. Now, checking the list query is part of our email sign-off process.

Second, and more importantly, we sent an apology. It was not corporate. Rather, I wrote it, it came from my email account, and had my name on it. I owned it.

I said “sorry,” 9,000 times.

So what happened?

People were actually nice about it! Several people who received the apology wrote back and said things like “no problem, don’t worry about it” or “thanks for stepping up and taking responsibility.”

I was pleasantly surprised at how decent people were. No one reacted poorly.  It strengthened my faith in humanity, and it strengthened my resolve to more quickly step up when bad things happen.

I also think we made our corporate brand stronger by how we handled this.

It hurt to say “sorry” 9,000 times, but we are better people, and a better company, because we did!