Mark Price

Best Buy Overpromises on Online Delivery

January 5, 2012

FROM RETAILWIRE:
Hit by overwhelming demand over Black Friday weekend, Best Buy alerted some customers just before Christmas that it would not be able to fill their online orders. On Best Buy's online forum, some customers said their Christmas had been ruined. Generally, how forgiving do you think customers are of online cancellations?      [more...]

I believe that customers can be forgiving of online cancellations, if the customer experience is right. What you find from Best Buy is a combination of poor follow through, arrogance and a shirking of responsibility that has cost the company in reputation, if not in actual performance.

Even Best Buy's response was poorly worded and seemed to avoid them taking responsibility for their actions. The words "unavoidable situation" and highlighting the large volume of orders seems to be shirking the key message, which was "we made a mistake in our inventory, and then we made a mistake in not following up with customers fast enough."

In social media, one key success factor is authenticity. Best Buy, for all their experience in participating in social media, seem to be trying to manage the information, rather than being bold, upfront and personal, which could have turned this situation into a social media success rather than such a challenge as it is.