YouTube user goobie55 entitled his video “FedEx Guy Throwing My Computer Monitor.” The video shows a man taking a package from the back of a FedEx truck, walking up to a gate, tossing the box over the gate and then walking back to the driver’s side door.
The YouTube user wrote: “Here is a video of my monitor being “delivered”. The sad part is that I was home at the time with the front door wide open. All he would have had to do was ring the bell on the gate. Now I have to return my monitor since it is broken.”
A customer would go through the normal hassle of returning the monitor and having a company replace it. But as of Christmas night, more than 6.6 million people watched the 21-second video. Companies want videos to go viral, but this is not what they have in mind.
Having this happen, with video and during a time of year most people relate to shipping important items, is a dream for any news producer looking to fill their rundowns with stories other than that the airport is once again busy during the holidays.
FedEx delivered more than a statement. It delivered its own YouTube video, which companies often don’t do. The FedEx video, entitled “FedEx Response to Customer Video,” shows a senior vice president. He begins by saying he saw the video and he apologizes. He appears genuinely upset and angry by what happened. He tries to address what happened to the employee and says the company will learn from this. His best line is “every single package is precious cargo to you, our customers.” The senior vice president wore a tie but no jacket, which makes him look professional but not like a stuffy executive many Americans love to hate. The video response was less than two minutes … short and, to me, sincere.
If you read some of the comments under stories about this incident, you’ll realize no amount of apology will satisfy everyone. But FedEx’s goal is to limit the damage from a public relations point of view. We can nitpick FedEx’s effort to say it’s sorry, but it delivered when so many other companies would have ducked back into the delivery truck and passed a lame, jargon-laden statement through a slightly cracked window. FedEx put a face on its apology. I’ve always believed most Americans are willing to forgive big mistakes as long as someone sincerely says “I’m sorry.” And FedEx understood it’s more powerful to do it with video.