Not sure if I'm a typical user here

But when I get mails like this from JCrew (or the recent NetFlix issue), it almost immediately increases my trust of the company - any company that's willing to come out and so broadly say "we made a mistake" is a company I am more likely to give my business to in the future.

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I've categorized this post under "User Experience" because the UX doesn't end with the UI. Apologizing for when we mess up should just be a part of the user experience. Having great error messages is a part of the user experience. Making it simple and easy to get an answer to your question from the community or technical support is a part of the user experience. etc etc...

Comments

  • Anonymous
    August 01, 2008
    I feel the same as well. Some months ago, I was buying computer parts from a website and waited several orders to arrive for several weeks and they failed everytime I called them to make the process go quicker. Some days later, all the customers received a similar e-mail from the company's CEO saying that the cause was platform change as well, but the nicest thing is that they added a 10% discount voucher code in the e-mail to use on the next order. Apologies are very nice but even with them, some customers may have decided to go away anyway, but few people like to disregard a 10% discount voucher that can be used against the total amount of your next order...