J.Crew Apologizes For 'Too Many' Mistakes During Launch, Then Redesigns Its Apology
By Eric Athas and Evan Schuman
August 1, 2008
J.Crew said Wednesday (July 30) that it had made "too many" mistakes after it launched its new site a month earlier, amid complaints of crashes and frequent slowdowns. Apparently, one of those mistakes included precisely how the retailer said it made too many mistakes, as the company made more than a half-dozen changes to its homepage apology from Wednesday to Thursday.
The original apology, posted early Wednesday morning, said: "We've made some mistakes (too many in our mind). We want to say that we're sorry for any issues you have experienced while shopping J.Crew online or over the phone over the last few weeks—we know we've let you down. We are in the midst of making some enhancements to our web site and call center (and, unfortunately, encountered some bumps along the way). Please bear with us as we work through these issues—we know it's not perfect." 
The message dominated the homepage of jcrew.com and was signed by J.Crew President Tracy Gardner and Chairman/CEO Millard Drexler. By Thursday morning, the apology had sharply shrunk—to less than one-fourth of Wednesday's size—and it appears that Gardner and/or Drexler had reconsidered being personally tied to the glitches; their names were magically erased. Wednesday's apology told customers, "We know we've let you down." That knowledge was apparently erased overnight, as Thursday morning had J.Crew knowing no such thing. The chain had apparently decided that, on second thought, it hadn't let its customers down after all. Maybe the company discovered, through customer complaints, that its customers think less of the chain than it thought? (After almost 20 years of marriage, I have discovered that it's almost impossible for me to now disappoint my wife. Floor-level expectations can be a wonderful thing.)
A more nitpicky change: On Wednesday, the retailer said: "We want to say that we're sorry for any issues you have experienced." On Thursday, the J.Crew team thought about it and decided to be more honest, having concluded that they really did not want to say any such thing. Thursday's version became "We are truly sorry for any issues you have experienced." ...
I like to thank again one of the authors of this article, Eric, for being thoughtful and letting us know about this news. We appreciate it!
What do you think of the article? Do you agree/disagree with J.Crew's move? What do you think of the apologies (or versions of) that J.Crew has offered?
0 comments:
Post a Comment