The art of the graceful loss
One of the most valuable skills in life is learning how to make the most of any situation.
A few months ago, ThinkGeek experienced a server glitch that caused orders to shipped to customers free of charge. An unfortunate incident by any stretch of the imagination (for the site, not its customers), this may have foreseeably played out as anything from retroactive charges to a legal circus.
Instead, the site gracefully attributed the incident to the swine flu, declaring that this was the "first-ever biological virus to make the leap to computer hardware." Despite not having paid for them, customers were allowed to keep the orders. With some good humor and forward-looking leadership, the site averted a PR disaster and the unimaginable enforcement costs had they tried to recuperate their losses.
Even if ThinkGeek would have preferred for the glitch to never have happened, they successfully made the most of the loss by delighting their customers. Good for them, and a good lesson for businesses everywhere.
via Consumerist
