When the HSBC branch on London Road North in Lowestoft re-opened after extensive refurbishment on Thursday April 1st 2010 it sported an incorrect spelling of the town name. Ironic for a bank whose catchphrase is "world's local bank".
Locals soon spotted the error, and to the credit of the shamefaced bank the sign was covered with tape by Saturday and replaced with a correct one by Tuesday.
“We have to hold up our hands and say we made a mistake. We are sorry and hope the people of Lowestoft realise this was simply a genuine mistake," said the HSBC spokesman. “Lowestoft is a very important town to us and that is why so many improvements have been carried out in the branch. As soon as the mistake was realised we made arrangements to have it corrected so that the town’s name was correctly spelt.”
A good spokesman, that— at once leaping in, apologising, and limiting the damage by distracting the attention from the cock-up, but nevertheless one whose good work would have been quite unnecessary if someone had thought to check the spelling of the town they were in.
The fact is, such mistakes are a serious business in business. They are not just embarrassing. They can undermine trust and respect in a brand. They prompt the idea: if they can't even spell our town name right, what else are they careless over?
—Thanks to Jo Perry of Lowestoft for alerting me to this example of corporate carelessness
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