Despite our best efforts, sometimes bad things happen. It’s just the way of the world. But we have the power to choose our reaction to any situation. How we react usually determines how things turn out.
Recently Givelify experienced our first significant crisis: our payment processor erroneously processed a fairly large number of donations twice. This resulted in givers being double-charged and churches and nonprofits receiving duplicate deposits.
In the end, we corrected the problem and had almost no negative fallout. The vast majority of givers and organizations were grateful for our transparency and frequent communication.
Every situation is an opportunity to learn. Here are the lessons we took from our first major crisis as a company.
Communicate Early and Often
By alerting everyone affected–in many cases before they knew there was a problem—we demonstrated our commitment to earning and maintaining the trust of our members and donors. For almost a week, updates on the situation were in regular rotation in our social media feeds. We also sent daily emails to all those who were affected. No one was left wondering what was going on or when to expect a resolution. By and large we received positive feedback and even compliments on our communication despite the inconvenience suffered by our members.
Be Humans, Not a Help Desk
Givelify offers support via our trouble ticket system, social media, and phone. Rather than wait for users to call us for help, the entire team dropped everything, pitched in and personally called every single affected donor with an explanation and apology. The response we got was overwhelmingly positive, with people telling us they’d never had a company do something so personal when problems arose. We’re not an app, we’re not a brand, we’re not a logo. We are people who care deeply about what we do,
Be Sincere and Empathetic
Our members and donors rely on us for proper stewardship of their money. We make a point of putting ourselves in their shoes and treat their money as though it were our own. Everyone has been financially inconvenienced at one time or another, so our first response was to empathize and offer sincere apologies along with constant communication of the process of fixing the issue. No one should be left to wonder if a company even cares about their business.
Take Responsibility and Make Things Right
Even though the problem lay with our payment processor and not our system, we knew that was irrelevant to our members. By owning the problem and taking every measure possible to correct it quickly, we did all we could to make good on our commitment to everyone who has entrusted us with their giving. In several cases our donors were left short on funds for rent or vital prescriptions. Anyone in that situation was wired the money to cover their expenses with no request to return it. It was the least we could do to try and make up for the stresses they endured.
Be Transparent and Forthcoming
This issue was not pleasant for anyone, but you don’t solve a problem by avoiding it. There was nothing fun about calling everyone affected by the glitch, but that’s what we did because it was the right thing to do. Open and honest communication at every step of the way is what everyone deserves, whether it’s in business or personal matters.
Have a Crisis Plan In Place
It’s impossible to predict every possible snag and hiccup. That doesn’t mean you can’t plan ahead to avoid scrambling around when disaster strikes. A crisis plan ensures that everyone in the company knows their role and responsibilities in both the short and long term. Removing the guesswork speeds up communication and resolution, and helps keep our members and donors satisfied with our service.
Take Every Measure to Avoid a Repeat of the Problem
Our reputation is on the line every time someone makes a donation via Givelify. Above all else we value the safety and security of people’s personal and financial information. This glitch actually helped expose a critical issue with our payment processor’s systems, and the feedback we provided helped enable them to correct the situation. We also took steps with our internal systems to more quickly identify and put a stop to similar issues before they start.
Thank You
In light of all this, we offer our sincere gratitude to all our members and donors. Thank you for putting your trust in us. Thank you for sticking with us through this difficult time. Thank you for continuing to use Givelify to help make the world a better place.
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