Chapter 8, Additional Case 2: Writing an Apology

Chapter 8, Additional Case 2: Writing an Apology

This case is best for individuals.

Background

Every once in a while something goes wrong with a company's product or service, prompting the company to apologize to its customers. Recently, a problem that occurred at an online brokerage service led the company to publish an apology on its website. Tom Summerfield, the director of public relations at the company, wants some feedback on the effectiveness of the apology.

Your Assignment

To complete this case, perform the following tasks:

  1. Study Chapter 8 in your text.
  2. Study the apology presented below. Identify the function of each paragraph and how it contributes to the argument. Consider the audience. In what ways does the writer address the needs and attitudes of the audience? How successful is the writer’s apology?
  3. Think about the ways in which the writer projects a professional image throughout the article. Does the writer appear to be a professional, according to the criteria presented in this chapter? What might the writer have done differently?
  4. Write a 500-word memo to Tom Summerfield presenting your findings.

Responding to the Recent Denial-of-Service Attack

Since our founding in 1999, RapidTrade has taken pride in its position of leadership in the online brokerage industry. We offer the lowest rates in the industry, along with highly secure, near-instantaneous transactions, and a wealth of other investment information services that enable you to stay current with up-to-the-minute financial news. For these reasons, RapidTrade has received the highest evaluations by independent consumer groups for the quality of its overall services to its valued customers.

As you are no doubt aware, last week RapidTrade was victimized by an as-yet-unknown hacker or hackers, who caused a denial-of-service event that lasted for over fourteen hours. "Denial of service" is a term that refers to a computer problem that prevents an online organization, such as an Internet service provider or a business, from offering its customary services to its customers. This denial of service occurred at an especially unfortunate time, when market volatility was extremely high due to provocative statements made earlier in the day by the chairman of the Federal Reserve Board and the publication the previous day of discouraging inflation reports.

An additional hacker-related problem occurred. The hacker or hackers who caused the denial-of-service event also managed to breach the security of our customer database. While we are confident that no significant harm was done, it appears that unauthorized people somehow gained access to our customer information and the log of all transactions made by the customers.

A number of our valued customers have expressed their concern that they were unable to carry out transactions during the period of the denial of service. Of course, we sincerely regret that this problem occurred, but, unfortunately, RapidTrade can take no legal responsibility for the denial-of-service event. As stated in our Terms of Agreement, section 4, paragraph 19c, "RapidTrade shall under no circumstances be held liable for consequential damages resulting from denial of service caused by technical malfunctions." Clearly, the denial of service falls under this category.

RapidTrade has now completed a thorough investigation of the situation. We want to point out, initially, that this investigation has been undertaken voluntarily and carried out according to the highest standards of professionalism. RapidTrade has not been required to perform this investigation by any federal, state, or industry oversight agency.

Our principal conclusion is that while there was no apparent negligence by the vendor of our security systems, the denial-of-service event and the related compromising of our customer information were clearly unsatisfactory. As a result, RapidTrade has taken swift action to resolve the situation.

We have met with the vendors of our security system in intensive sessions to determine whether we can determine what factors contributed to the denial-of-service event and the related situation with the customer database. At the time of this writing, it is unclear how the two events are related. We will of course take all necessary steps to prevent future events of this sort.

Once again, we regret and apologize for any inconvenience caused by the denial-of-service event and the related situation with the customer database. We remain deeply committed to offering the highest-quality service, and we are deeply committed to the privacy concerns of our valued customers. We encourage you to contact us with your comments and suggestions at feedback@rapidtrade.com.