NOTE: This post isn't intended to poke fun at or "bad talk" the artist who wrote this note. They make lovely work and I wish them a successful recovery from their current troubles. I am sure they were very upset at the time it was written. It is shared purely in the spirit of everyone learning from this.

In my in box was this newsletter from another handmade artisan. (I've removed the identifying information.) I share it with you to illustrate a very important point in handmade marketing - DAMAGE CONTROL and how to handle a disaster.
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(name removed) & I are closing our online doors!

We have gotten behind and had too many negative feedbacks, subsequently Ebay has suspended our account and we can no longer get our order information.

If you have placed an order with us within 45 days, PLEASE got to paypal and open a dispute, it will be decided in your favor and you will get your money back.

If you paid by check please contact us through our web site within the next 48 hours so we can get your information and get your (item we make) to you.

If you placed an order and it has been OVER 45 days, you will not be able to get your money back so PLEASE contact us through our web site - we have orders written down just not the shipping addresses, so we can still get your (items we make)to you, but will need you to give us your shipping info.


We are so sorry! We may open our web site up again someday for custom work once we have made all of our (item we make) in waiting and paid off paypal (you will get your refunds regardless, just wait the obligatory 7 days I believe).


Best to all and thanks for your support through the years- (names removed, business name removed)
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Now, compare it to the following rewrite which says the same thing, but phrases it very differently:

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Dear Customers,

(Name and I) have decided we need to take a breather from our online store. It has become clear that we need to focus on filling our current backlog of orders, so we are regretfully closing our store for the time being. Thank you for all your business and faith in us.

PLEASE NOTE: If you have placed an order with us that has not been delivered, we cannot access your customer information and may not have a shipping address for you. We intend to either issue a prompt refund or fill your order as requested, but in order to do that, we need to hear from you right away. Please contact us at (email address) so we can make individual arrangements.

If you wish to be contacted when our store reopens, please drop us a line at ( email address).

Best Wishes,
Names
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The first is a stunning example of how NOT to talk to your customers. Let's face it, life happens and we all screw up in business at some point or another. The order gets misplaced and we forget about it or we get unmotivated and we miss the deadline on a custom order. How you recover from these kinds of mistakes is a measure of not only your integrity, but also your commitment to customer service.

Remember, if you do a good job, people might tell their friends. If you do a BAD JOB, people will tell EVERYONE!

While the content of this email is glaringly honest, the phrasing leaves a TERRIBLE taste in my mouth as a potential customer of this business. When I got this, I was forcefully reminded of my mother's propensity when I was growing up to blissfully ignore the pointed nasty looks from us kids and go on happily telling to the grocery checker or waitress every embarrassing personal detail of our lives. (Thankfully, she has gotten much better about this as we have gotten older!) It was like watching a train wreck in slow motion and having NO POWER to stop it. From a customer standpoint, I'd never trust these people with my money ever again. They just admitted they are incompetent slackers who can't manage to fill orders or ship goods in a timely fashion. Not only that, they just told us they couldn't be proactive and tell their customers what was going on. I don't know about you, but I can forgive a screw up if someone apologizes and makes it right. But if I got stone silence followed by this? HELLO, keep your items and give me a REFUND!!

The lesson here is: there is such a thing as too much honesty! There are many ways to say the same thing, and while you should always be honest in any communication to your customers, you don't have to make yourself look irresponsible and untrustworthy by baring your mistakes like this. It is not necessary (not to mention, deeply harmful) to share with them with information they SHOULD NOT know about your internal operations.

Now, if I had gotten the message the rewritten message instead, I would feel a lot differently about this business. I would be much more understanding and probably be willing to take the personal gesture of apology and contact them to work out my order (had I placed one). Even if I didn't have an order pending, I'd be much more likely not to write them off completely, as the first email has caused me to do.

If the worst happens, you don't need to go into your whole tragic story and frankly, do you really want your customers to know that you have screwed up on such a massive scale that Ebay suspended your account? People don't want to hear excuses, they want to know what's going to happen now. Just address their concerns and remain professional and polite.

What do you think? How would you have written this kind of message? How have you handled a similar faux-paus in your business? Please comment below so we can all learn from each others mistakes.

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Portions of this article have been republished at Handmademarketing.org. Thanks guys!