Transparent Is the New Black

Get over to amazon.com quickly if you want to see transparency in action. Jeff Bezos is fessin’ up to a rough spot for some customers on the homepage. [Update 24 Mar 2008: Their homepage no longer shows the apology. Use the link in the third paragraph to read it.]

We had high hopes for the Kindle before its launch, but we didn’t expect the demand that actually materialized…. many customers have had to wait as long as six weeks after ordering….”

If they take down the mea culpa too quickly, get out your reading glasses and check this link, which hopefully they’ll leave up a bit longer.

You can do this, too. If you’re not Roger Clemens or Eliot Spitzer, you’ve got nothing to lose, and everything to gain. Build trust by being transparent. Transparency is one of the biggest “trends” in business. Studies show that customers who’ve had a bad experience resolved to their satisfaction are actually more loyal than customers who’ve never had anything go wrong.

Ever had to admit to dishing out bad Customer Experience? How did the customer react?

Grow and be well,

Kelly Erickson

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