When you’re running a business, you’ll often hear people telling you about what a good job you’re doing; how well you are handling everything. So much so, that this praise might get to your head and unconsciously cause you to overlook certain aspects.
Even if that is not the case, there can be many blindsides in your business that can catch you off guard. Don’t think it could go wrong for you? Well, it did for these businesses. The following are a few legendary business horror stories but don’t get phased out by these mistakes. Learn from them and avoid them.
Unbending Rules
Your business has rules and regulations but they need to be flexible in certain situations. In some cases, the customers cannot be held accountable. In 2011, when the Alabama Tornado hit and decimated whole towns, Charter Communications remained unfazed by this setback and still told the victims that they would be charged a fine of $212 if the cable box wasn’t returned to them.
Many of the survivors did not even have a home anywhere, just a pile of debris. Needless to say, Charter Communications received some serious backlash from the public. They also received a lot of cable boxes back, but from their regular subscribers who didn’t want to work with the business anymore.
Thoughtless Hiring
Whether you’re hiring an intern or a permanent employee, it’s always a good idea to not only run a background check on them but to also make sure that they understand the corporate culture that they are going to be a part of.
For TechCrunch, this slight overlooking came back to hit them in a bigger way in 2010. It was found out that an intern had been accepting compensation for writing favorably about them or providing them coverage. Once this news came to light, the intern was fired.
Checking Your Software Mistakes
Software glitches can occur at any time, but they’re usually easy to handle and rectify before they get out of hand. Unfortunately, sometimes, they might cause major losses before they are corrected. The very same thing happened to United Air in 2013.
Incorrect financial data input allowed thousands of people to buy air tickets for a mere $10, regardless of the location. Despite the fact that United lost a lot of money, they still decided to honor their mistake and accept the tickets that were purchased.
Avoid Automating
Automating is the future for social media posts. However, sometimes, it is a good idea to stop the automated replies. When Tesco was embroiled in the horse meat conspiracy, they didn’t consider this factor. In fact, they ended up posting an automated tweet that made a horse related pun which only ended up exacerbating the situation and aggravating more people.
While all these businesses have been able to recover from the mistakes they made, it’s been a tough road and they’ve taken a few more hits along the way as well. All in all, you can use them as lessons for your business and avoid making them.
