Customer Service: Graceful, Productive Apologies

A client who offers a Web-based service asked my advice on a message they wanted to send to their customers after a system upgrade proved more disruptive than expected. "What tone should we take?" he wondered. "We'd like to say that we're sorry, but we're not sure how apologetic we should be."

Apologies are a powerful communication tool. Apologies acknowledge a problem, express regret and either implicitly or explicitly promise that the problem won't happen again. Tone makes a difference in the effect of an apology - we've all encountered a formulaic or perfunctory apology that doesn't cancel the offense. A defensive or blaming apology ("I'm sorry, but you know, if you'd only...") doesn't soothe animosity, either. Taking the proper tack with unhappy customers means having the opportunity to serve them again instead of losing them to competitors.

As I think back over two recent instances where vendors responded to a problem I voiced, I suspect that the sincerity of regret might have a bigger influence than reassurances that the difficulty won't recur, at least with me. In the first case, a seminar center where I held an event on a Saturday turned out to be freezing, with no way to adjust the temperature.

The next business day, the person in charge explained that because it was an old building, the temperature was hard to regulate during the changing of the seasons and that they couldn't have someone available to adjust it for me on a weekend. Although she appeared sincerely sorry about the problem, had a logical explanation and tried to reassure me that it happened rarely, I remained uneasy because I felt the problem might happen again.

In the second case, a tele-class I had offered couldn't take place as scheduled because the password we'd been given for the conference- call line didn't work. I'd rate the emotional tone of that vendor's apology as much more mollifying than the seminar center's, and the reassurance with respect to a possible recurrence about equal. The effusive apology managed to overpower my worries that we might get shut out of our appointed time again in the future. Because she was so nice about it, I was willing to give her another chance.

The case of my Web services client introduces another element into the equation, because he wanted to send a message out to all of his customers, some of whom hadn't experienced any disruptions at all. Too fervent an apology would undermine those customers' confidence. Nevertheless, it was important to say something to keep on board the silent sufferers who hadn't expressed complaints but could be thinking about switching suppliers.

So I ended up recommending a cheery, forward-looking tone: "Our upgrade is now complete! We've worked out almost all the kinks that came up during the transition, and want to thank you for your patience." Without over-emoting, this conveys all the ingredients of a successful apology: acknowledging the problem, ruing what occurred and pledging better performance for the future.