I received an email a couple days ago from a notable organization letting me know of a service that was soon going to be available.
A few minutes later I received another email from the same organization saying they had made a mistake, the service was not yet available, and they apologized for the extra email and inconvenience.
Did I immediately distrust the organization?
No. On the contrary. I immediately trusted the organization more for quickly recognizing their mistake, owning it, and apologizing.
They didn’t try to cover it up with a “What we meant was…” email.
They didn’t wait to see if anyone would notice.
They didn’t try to spin it with a “No, you must have read it wrong. The misunderstanding is on your end…” email.
They recognized it, owned it, apologized for it, and now I trust them more because of it.
***
Avoid mistakes, absolutely.
But mistakes are going to happen. And like all matters of value, decide ahead of time how you’ll respond when a mistake is made.
