15
10 Comments

Made a giant mistake, don't do the same.

I accidentally emailed a list of our customers without putting them in the BCC field. As you can imagine, that was a massive violation of privacy with the appropriate backlash.

Sometimes I think we need to stop working so that when we do work we're focused and not sloppy. Hopefully none of you make the same mistake!

All I can do now is profusely apologize and promise it won't happen again. Still feels terrible, worked so hard to make the customers happy only to antagonize everyone in one fell swoop.

, Founder of Icon for Scoops
Scoops
on June 5, 2019
  1. 3

    I once emailed 333,000 people "Hi {{ first_name}}". You can't put the toothpaste back in the tube but it sounds like you are reflecting and seeking to improve in the future. What more can your customers ask for at this point?

  2. 2

    It happens. We have all done it. I wrote up a little checklist of what I go through before I send emails.

    https://medium.com/@joshdance/email-send-checklist-4f24bc119553

    What else would you check?

  3. 2

    Stuff happens Chris

    Apologizing to customers and users is good..

    Perhaps you can think of a small gift to give your users as a way of showing your gratitude and appreciation .

  4. 2

    All make mistakes. We are not robots. Same happens even with big corporations with a lot of staff working on every small project. I think most of the clients should understand and let it go. Others you probably don't need

  5. 2

    Great advice! Thanks man.

  6. 2

    oh man I can't even imagine how you felt after you realised of what happened.. I'm sorry that happened to you. No worries though this is only a bump in the road and a valuable lesson that you'll definitely always pay close attention to. You know, better now than much later when the stakes are much higher :)
    And yes I agree with the need for rest, as I sometimes tell myself that I'd rather keep working than take a break, when in fact 1 hour of work after good rest can be worth 5 hours of work when exhausted.

  7. 2

    As someone else hinted at now would probably be a great time to implement a tool that prevents future you (who is nearly as stupid as past you) from making that mistake again :)

  8. 2

    Hi @Chkrlee! I'm curious to know what tool do you use to send emails? This should never happen with online services like Mailchimp, Sendinblue, etc.

    Thanks and good luck!

  9. 2

    Sorry @Chkrlee, that's no fun.

    Mistakes happen, just learn from them so they don't happen again. Most people understand that, as long as you apologize they won't think twice about it.

  10. 1

    That’s not a giant mistake. Giant mistakes are existential. This one isn’t. You’re going to be fine.

Trending on Indie Hackers
I shipped a productivity SaaS in 30 days as a solo dev — here's what AI actually changed (and what it didn't) User Avatar 282 comments I built a tool that shows what a contract could cost you before signing User Avatar 74 comments 85% of visitors leave our pricing page without buying. sharing our raw funnel data User Avatar 49 comments Are indie makers actually bad customers? User Avatar 42 comments I Found Blue Ocean in the Most Crowded Market on the Internet User Avatar 39 comments The coordination tax: six years watching a one-day feature take four months User Avatar 32 comments