Social Media Oops – Post #2

Recently Shutterfly, a large online card business, sent out a mass email congratulating new parents. Unfortunately, many of those recipients were not parents, or worse, were dealing with infertility, miscarriage, or even a child’s death. To make matters even worse, this happened not too long after Mother’s Day. Did Shutterfly make a huge mistake by sending out that email? Absolutely. But like in many PR crisis situations, it can sometimes make all the difference if the offender responds with an apology quickly and sincerely. Personally, I think Shutterfly handled the situation very well, or at least the best they could have handled it. They hardly waited till the next day to send out an apology email stating what happened and  were very sincere when doing so. Also, they tweeted about the mistake. The tweet stated, “This morning, an email was sent unintentionally to some customers. We deeply apologize for any offense this may have caused.” Shutterfly at first received extremely negative feedback and attention, but after the apology was released many seemed to forgive. Another tweet stated, “I appreciate when a company admits a mistake and apologizes promptly. Apology accepted, @Shutterfly.”

It is obvious that the company made a mistake, but it happens sometimes. The important thing in this situation is how the company chose to handle the problem. They obviously had good intentions, and there could have been many worse emails that could have been sent out. In my opinion, they handled the situation very well. If Shutterfuly wanted to step the apology up another notch they could offer some kind of discount or free gift, such as one free card of the customer’s choice.