Pro tip: That "viral apology" from the coffee chain last week made me miss their old PR team

I was scrolling Tuesday and saw this big coffee chain put out a whole video apology for a messed up order. The CEO looked like he was reading off a teleprompter and the lighting was terrible. Meanwhile, there's this small donut shop near me in Austin that messed up my birthday box last month. They sent me a handwritten note and a $50 gift card within a day, no cameras, no fanfare. The coffee chain's thing got 2 million views but felt fake, while the donut shop's note actually made me go back. Customer says they want transparency, but that video was just a scripted ad. Has anyone else noticed how plastic the big brand apologies feel compared to small places?

3 comments

3 Comments

jesse9941mo ago

Yeah that "reading off a teleprompter" part was so obvious lol. Big businesses just don't get it.

jessica_hall491mo ago

My friend Sarah went to this big networking thing last month and she said the same exact thing. The CEO was up there reading off a teleprompter and you could see him squinting at the screen between every sentence. Nobody in the crowd was buying any of it, they were all just checking their phones. Big companies spend all this money on these fancy events but forget people actually want to talk to a real human. @jesse994 hit the nail on the head about the teleprompter thing, it was painful to even hear about secondhand. What did the rest of them even talk about?

seth68323d ago

That whole "reading off a teleprompter" thing just kills it, I can't take anyone seriously when they're staring past the camera. @jessica_hall49 you're right that small shops like that donut place get it better, handwritten notes are way more real than a million dollar video.