Last week, Nordstrom experienced a crisis.

On the first morning of their early access anniversary sale, the biggest event of the year for Nordstrom credit card holders, the website crashed, rendering it useless, and sent shoppers into an outrage and panic. Shoppers could see products and put them into their carts, but thousands were unable to physically complete their purchases. By the time the issue was spotted and resolved, many customers were left disappointed as their treasured selections were already sold out.

But we want to talk about how the social media team handled the situation. After long, sometimes unsuccessful phone calls to the customer service department, frustrated customers took to social media. Their pages were quickly flooded with negative comments.  

Shortly after customers started experiencing issues, the Nordstrom social media team took charge of the situation by posting about it and keeping their customers informed. They answered nearly every single customer, providing customer service help, notes of apology, and general reassuring messages while the site was down.

We are so sorry for the inconvenience you may have experienced today on Nordstrom.com. We constantly strive to create the best experience for you our customers in store and online. The site issues have been resolved and we want to thank you for your patience. #nordstrom

A post shared by Nordstrom (@nordstrom) on Jul 13, 2017 at 1:40pm PDT

 

We apologize for the site issues many of you are experiencing. Our teams are working hard to restore. Thank you for your patience.

— Nordstrom (@Nordstrom) July 13, 2017

This incident is a valuable lesson in online crisis management. Instead of running away and hiding from the issue and ignoring their fans’ concerns, Nordstrom owned up to it by posting a photo apologizing about the mishap. They took the time to respond to nearly every comment – the good, the bad, and the ugly. They took immediate control of their message and the situation and worked hard to ensure their customers were, at the very least, informed, and ultimately, satisfied.

We applaud Nordstrom for their swift action. In the digital age, if you mess up, everybody will know about, thanks to social media. It’s important to own up to it (unlike United earlier this year) and take responsibility. The more honest and transparent you are with your fans on social media, the better off you will be. By not sweeping it under the rug, Nordstrom saved face and was able to turn angry commenters into happy customers at the end of the day.