１．社長から従業員への対応指示メールをオープンにした

まず、さすがザッポス流のやり方だなあ、と唸らされたのがこれ。社長が記者会見して頭を下げたり、顧客に対してお詫びのプレスリリースを打つのではなく、社長のトニー・シェイ自ら社員に対してこういう指示をして対応させているよという社内向け指示文書を、一言一句漏らさずコーポレートサイトに貼りつけて、社長自身がtwitterでつぶやいて告知するというこの“ワザ”。少し長いですが、引用させていただきます。

▼SECURITY EMAIL

The following email was sent to our employees today:


Date: Sun, 15 Jan 2012
From: Tony Hsieh (CEO - Zappos.com)
To: Zappos Employees
Subject: Important - Security
Dear Zappos Employees -

Please set aside 20 minutes to carefully read this entire email.

We were recently the victim of a cyber attack by a criminal who gained access to parts of our internal network and systems through one of our servers in Kentucky. We are cooperating with law enforcement to undergo an exhaustive investigation.

Because of the nature of the investigation, the information in this email is being sent a bit more formally, and unfortunately we are not able to provide any more details about specifics of the attack beyond what is in this email and the link at the end of this email, but we can say that THE DATABASE THAT STORES OUR CUSTOMERS’ CRITICAL CREDIT CARD AND OTHER PAYMENT DATA WAS NOT AFFECTED OR ACCESSED.

The most important focus for us right now is the safety and security of our customers’ information. Within the next hour, we will begin the process of notifying the 24+ million customer accounts in our database about the incident and help step them through the process of choosing a new password for their accounts. (We’ve already reset and expired their existing passwords.)

Here is the email that our customers will be receiving:

————————————————————————————————————-

Subject: Information on the Zappos.com site - please create a new password

First, the bad news:

We are writing to let you know that there may have been illegal and unauthorized access to some of your customer account information on Zappos.com, including one or more of the following: your name, e-mail address, billing and shipping addresses, phone number, the last four digits of your credit card number (the standard information you find on receipts), and/or your cryptographically scrambled password (but not your actual password).

THE BETTER NEWS:

The database that stores your critical credit card and other payment data was NOT affected or accessed.

SECURITY PRECAUTIONS:

For your protection and to prevent unauthorized access, we have expired and reset your password so you can create a new password. Please follow the instructions below to create a new password. （以下略）

こういう事故が起こったときに、被害者が会社にぶつけてくる様々な質問は、
「どうしてこういう事故が起こったんだ？」
「問題の解決に向けて、責任者と従業員はどう対応しているんだ？」
「責任はどう取るのか？」
という３点にほぼ集約されます。

このうちの前者２つについて極めてクリアに言及しつつ、全力を尽くして対応するように従業員に指示した社長発信のEメールと、全顧客に送信したお詫び＆状況説明メール文を社外にもオープンにしてしまうことで、被害者だけでなく世の中が「そうか、従業員にこういう指示をだしたというなら（しかもそれに裏表がなさそうだし）、後は従業員の対応を見守るしかないか」という比較的落ち着いたモードになりやすいものと思います。