A recent event in my community was a memory that most companies (and people) do not know how to apologize – and that has consequences. A restaurant was opened nearby with the aim of serving the vegan community. Shortly after the opening, various customers found out that the restaurant did not use it -vegan ingredients in some of its recipes. The owners promised to solve the situation, closed for ‘renovations’ for a few days and then reopened. No report was made of one of their social media channels of the incident that led to the closure.
This approach created a violation of trust and social media groups for vegans in this city, and it would not surprise me if this new establishment would be closed earlier. That would be a shame, because it is difficult to open a restaurant aimed at a specific community and to succeed.
I understand why the owners acted as they did. Only a small number of people initially discovered the problem, and I am sure they did not want to scare the entire community by admitting that they had done something wrong. As a result, they hid the reason for their closure, quickly solved the problem and opened them again.
Unfortunately it is difficult nowadays to keep something secret for today. News flies via e -mail, social media and even a good old mouth -to -mouth advertising. Moreover, the restaurant served a small close -knit community cares well About the food it eats. The reaction of the owners created a violation of trust.
So, what else should they have done? Here is a framework to make a good apology:
- You must accept the responsibility for the error – which also means that you state what the error is.
- You really have to regret what happened.
- You must prepare the plan to ensure that this does not happen again.
Everything that deviates from this structure will probably reduce trust (perhaps in catastrophic ways).
The first of these steps helps your audience to recognize that you know what went wrong and is therefore able to take steps to repair it. In the case of a company this is important, because there are often times when something goes wrong, but nobody is completely sure why. Was there a rogue actor? Were there awkward or poorly trained employees? Was it an attempt to maximize the profit at the expense of service and quality? Without a clear explanation of what went wrong, people will wonder if the problem can even be solved.
Expressing repentance, because it suggests that your values are tailored to those of your customers. That statement will not solve the problem – customers will be worried until you can rebuild trust. Expressing that you are sorry is simply the entrance fee to rebuild trust.
Discussing the steps you take to solve the problem is a second step in the direction of building trust. It suggests a way of acting that will ultimately solve the problem. It also offers a few tangible steps that you can possibly verify customers to know that you really work better in the future.
Good apologies by companies (or people) are especially important when the costs of the error are high. Those costs can be high when the consequences of the error are really serious or when the customer base ensures the result that a violation of their confidence can cause them to run away from the company permanently.
#good #apology