{"id":574,"date":"2016-02-02T19:15:53","date_gmt":"2016-02-02T19:15:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/danielvlopes238992071.wordpress.com\/2016\/02\/02\/what-kind-of-company-are-you-our-biggest-business-mistake-and-why-im-glad-we-made-it\/"},"modified":"2024-10-11T12:33:54","modified_gmt":"2024-10-11T19:33:54","slug":"what-kind-of-company-are-you-our-biggest-business-mistake-and-why-im-glad-we-made-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canopy.is\/blog\/2016\/02\/02\/what-kind-of-company-are-you-our-biggest-business-mistake-and-why-im-glad-we-made-it\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cWhat kind of company are you?\u201d: Our biggest business mistake and why I\u2019m glad we made it"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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If they say you learn from your biggest leadership mistakes, this one takes the cake.<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We made a huge mistake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019d built a new feature in Canopy<\/a> a while back. During that process, we\u2019d accidentally written a bit of code that caused private responses to be revealed to new employees in a company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This means that for the past six months, when new employees were added to Canopy, they were able to view responses that only their CEO was supposed to have access to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ugh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a horrible mistake\u2026 and we were just<\/em> finding out about it now. It affected about 80 companies, and hundreds of employees. My stomach still feels sick when I think about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of our customers noticed the error, and was kind enough to tell us. Aside from that, our other customers hadn\u2019t noticed the problem (or, at least hadn\u2019t told us).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now I was faced with a big decision\u2026 Should I tell our other customers about it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One could argue that, if customers hadn\u2019t noticed, why say anything? Why rustle feathers, especially when the damage had already been done. There wasn\u2019t anything that our customers could do about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saying something could cause our business harm. Customers might be angry. Some of them might even leave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or, we could come clean. I could be upfront about what happened, own up to our mistake, and say how terribly sorry we were. Sure, we risk losing business. But what about the risk of losing the trust of our customers?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trust, after all, is everything. If you don\u2019t have the trust of your customers, what do you have? If your customers don\u2019t trust you, they won\u2019t be your customers for much longer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I also thought: If I were a customer, wouldn\u2019t I want to know? As a CEO myself, I would want to know that those private responses had been accessible to my new employees. Even if I couldn\u2019t do anything about those private responses going out, I would want to know that it happened in the first place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To gut-check myself, I called up Jason Fried<\/a>, the CEO of Basecamp<\/a>. I wanted to get his two cents, and make sure I was thinking about this right. (Basecamp originally built Canopy, formerly Know Your Team<\/a>, and is a co-owner and advisor to our business).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s what Jason said to me: \u201cI like moments like this. Moments like this are an opportunity to show what kind of company you are. You get to show your customers what you stand for.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those words were all I needed to hear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I knew what kind of company we were. I knew what we stood for<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I decided to personally email the eighty-some CEOs affected by our mistake. In a short note, I explained what we messed up, and how sorry we were.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I offered a small credit as a token of how bad we felt, knowing of course that it wouldn\u2019t make up for it. I gave folks my personal cell phone number and told them to call me anytime if they had questions, concerns, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then I braced myself for the reaction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I got a flood of replies from customers. Not a single one was negative. A few folks were concerned (as they ought to be!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But no one was angry. No one left.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, the response from customers was overwhelmingly positive. People said, \u201cThank you for letting me know\u201d and, \u201cNo biggie, these things happen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of our Dutch customers emailed me saying, \u201cWe have a saying in Dutch: waar gewerkt wordt, worden fouten gemaakt<\/em> that translates to \u2018mistakes are made if you\u2019re doing work\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another person replied to me, \u201cWe all screw up from time to time. Go have a cocktail ;)\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I even had one customer who said he was so impressed with the email I\u2019d sent, he\u2019d forwarded it to his entire company as an example for how to handle a mistake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our mistake became a positive moment for our company. It solidified who we were, what we stood for, and showed our customers that too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We proved that \u201cputting our customers\u2019 best interest first\u201d isn\u2019t just something we say\u200a\u2014\u200ait\u2019s something we do. We gained our customers\u2019 trust and confidence as a result.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mistakes are bound to happen. You\u2019ll never entirely avoid them. So your customers aren\u2019t going to judge you on whether or not you\u2019ve made a mistake\u200a\u2014\u200athey\u2019ll judge you on how you handle it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you come clean immediately? Do you say how sorry you are? Are you genuine about it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a hard thing to remember when you\u2019re in the middle of a fire. You\u2019re faced with the prospect that admitting a mistake could cost you customers, your reputation, and a lot of money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you\u2019re in that moment, simply ask yourself: \u201cWhat kind of company are you?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019ll know what to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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