When Your Company Has to Say Sorry, Here’s How to Do It Right

It’s lockdown redux, so companies are again apologizing to customers for delays, closures, and unavailable services. Most do it terribly. A much-utilized apology fail is “We missed the mark,” used by Pepsi, Dove, and Avon in the past few years while retracting ads insensitive to women and minorities. The political version is the exquisitely passive “Mistakes were made,” uttered by presidents Nixon, H.W. Bush, Reagan, and Clinton after various scandals.

Researchers and communications pros say companies and politicians need to raise their game when it comes to apologizing. Far too often they resort to blame, clichés, and platitudes, such as “We’re sorry for the inconvenience,” while failing to offer adequate compensation for the trouble clients have had. “An apology helps repair the bond between the business and the customer,” says Amy Ebesu Hubbard, a professor of communications at the University of Hawaii. “If there’s no clearly stated apology, that communicates that the company doesn’t care about the customer, or that there’s no longer even a relationship.” Ouch.