The Art of the Apology

Dear readers: be absolutely certain never to fail to stop at a railroad track in this town! The apology she received – a small correction buried in a later edition – was woefully inadequate.

Recently, my husband, son and I stayed at a hotel (and I will restrain myself from naming this hotel) where we had a confirmed reservation for a full-sized bed for me and my husband, and a pullout couch for our son. When getting ready for bed, we took the cushions off the couch and discovered it was not a pullout. The hotel’s remedy was to send in sheets for the very short couch. Since my husband and son are both well over 6 feet tall, and I’m short, guess who slept on the tiny couch?

When I wrote to the hotel’s general manager, and complained our reservation wasn’t honored, I received this response:

Good Evening Ms Cullen (No punctuation, and I received his message in the morning, not when he wrote it in the evening, creating disjoint.)

We were very booked that night and didn’t have any rooms with a pullout couch. I know you had a reservation but we didn’t have any. (So, you were busy and couldn’t do what you committed to do. This does not make me feel better.)

I really appreciate your taking the time to share your feedback with your recent stay.   We value you as a guest, and I do want you to know that your concerns are our concerns!  Please stay with us again soon so that we can demonstrate our commitment to your comfort. (Obvious copy/pasted boilerplate)

How to Apologize When You Have Erred.
Every business and business person falls short on occasion, and the best course of action is always to name the error, accept responsibility, apologize, and ideally, offer remuneration if it is warranted.

Looking at the “apology” letter I received, the writer clearly wrote the first paragraph and used a template for the remainder. This template didn’t reflect the situation, so it added further insult.

To write a customer letter of apology, the tone must be authentic, and you must be honest and own up to the error:

1. Lead with an apology. It puts the reader at ease, letting him or her know up front that the letter is not going to be a stonewalling exercise.

2. Keep it simple and brief. Apologize for exactly what happened to your client. The tone and fervor of your apology should match the offense and empathize with your reader. In the case of the hotel, a single sentence, “Certainly, you must have been uncomfortable that night, and I am sorry for your experience,” would disarm even the most irate customer.

3. Explain corrective actions that will prevent repetition of the problem, offer compensation (when applicable), and apologize again. Briefly.

Do not be defensive or argumentative or dismissive when composing a letter of apology. If that tone seeps into your letter, you will succeed only in further inflaming your customer. Far better to write your apology in this frame of mind: An error occurred which we acknowledge, we are very sorry it happened to you, we value you and your business, and we want to correct the problem as best we can.