Sorry CEO
Netflix is an inspirational company. A true distrupter. They brought Blockbuster to it’s knees with their DVD delivery, and streaming tv and movies into the homes of millions around the world.
But last week, something big happened to Netflix. They decided to separate their DVD delivery services and their streaming service. They created Qwikster, the new brand to take care of all their DVD delivery, and kept Netflix and the brand to house all the streaming services.
For us Australians, we don’t really get how much a part of people live’s this brand is. People were genuinely outraged and how Netflix had done this, and were perplexed as to why they wanted these services separated, and then furious at an increase in prices to boot.
Then, something very interesting happened. The CEO, Reed Hastings jumped on YouTube and made an apology to its customers for not giving them an explanation for making the changes, and gave a rationale as to why the changes are being made and introduced the guy who is leading Qwikster.
This is how brands need to behave when the screw up. No hiding behind PR agencies. No bullshit. Just an apology and an explanation from the leader.
There is clearly more to the story here, but the key here is making the brand feel human when they need to win back trust from their customers.