That viral burger chain apology from 2022 actually taught me a lesson about owning mistakes

I used to write these long, lawyer-y responses whenever my side hustle messaged wrong orders, thinking it covered us. After seeing how Shake Shack handled that whole wrong order blowup back in March by just saying 'we messed up' with a $5 coupon, I switched to short and honest replies. Has anyone else noticed customers respond better when you skip the excuses?

3 comments

3 Comments

wilson.sam16d ago

Got a buddy who runs a small coffee cart downtown. He used to write these three paragraph emails whenever he burned a batch of beans or forgot someone's oat milk. Telling people about supply chain issues and supplier problems. One day he just typed "screwed up your drink, next one's on me" and stuck it on Instagram. People started tagging him in posts saying how much they appreciated the honesty. He says his refund requests actually went down after he stopped trying to explain himself.

alicecooper16d ago

Why do we think people prefer a simple "my bad" over a detailed explanation?

murphy.linda16d ago

Read something similar in a business book recently actually.