As sometimes happens, I was yammering with some compatriots about how no one ever posts a story around these here dusty corners of the interwebs and then BLAMMO, I listened to a podcast and actually learned something. (foreshadowing)
One of the (actually very large number of great) podcasts that are put out by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (at http://cbc.ca/podcasting) is the follow-on to the extremely good “Age of Persuasion” called “Under the Influence”. This past week’s podcast was entitled “When Brands Apologize: Sorry Seems To Be The Smartest Word.”
Go and listen to it now – trust me, you’ll learn so much so fast you’ll feel like a kid again.
The main thrust of the podcast is that people (actual real people) PREFER honesty, even brutal honesty, when a corporate screws up. People do not like couched terms, apologies for negative outcomes rather than the event itself and more than anything, want to hear NO prevarication or slimy lawyer-speak/marketing-speak.
If you are responsible for Incident Management or advising executives on what to do after the breach and don’t get 27:33 worth of insight out of listening to this one then you might just be dead… and so might your corporation be after the bad day.