What would you do if a technical problem on your e-commerce website meant that wrong pricing information was posted for some time; customers took advantage of the low prices and, by the time you spotted it, the mistake added up to $1.6 million?

Here’s what Zappos did in relation to their 6pm.com online store:

[…] While we’re sure this was a great deal for customers, it was inadvertent, and we took a big loss (over $1.6 million – ouch) selling so many items so far under cost.  However, it was our mistake.  We will be honoring all purchases that took place on 6pm.com during our mess up.  We apologize to anyone that was confused and/or frustrated during out little hiccup and thank you all for being such great customers.  We hope you continue to Shop. Save. Smile. at 6pm.com.

An entirely different outcome springs to my mind that some companies would adopt – think of those champions of customer engagement Ryanair, for instance. Thank goodness so few are like Ryanair.

Nice one, Zappos. You’re the model. Such an apt tag line to your logo.

(Via Tony Molloy)

[Update] I posted some further thoughts about this on the WCG Common Sense blog.