Never ruin an apology with an excuse.

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Has the art of the apology been lost?  Maria Miller's stint as Culture Secretary came to a crashing end last week with a 30-second apology.  It was so clearly a box-ticking exercise, without even a hint of remorse, that it made the situation worse not better.
Elton John got it wrong - sorry’s not the hardest word any more, in fact it seems to be the easiest.  We’ve perfected the 'admit no blame' apology - 'I'm sorry this upset you' instead of 'I'm sorry I got this wrong.'  Many people now seem to believe that an apology alone is enough – that they don’t need to do anything about it.  But if you don’t mean it, don’t say it; otherwise it’s just empty words when actions are needed.
As anyone in the Kuoni Leadership Team (and my family) knows, the five most important words in the English language are ‘I’m sorry I was wrong’.  So important (and rare) is this phrase that I like to draw special attention to it by preceding it with a hand slap drum roll on the table.
So if something has gone wrong with a booking or on a holiday, an apology to your customer is merely the start.  It has to mean something and lead on to a tangible solution.  'I'm sorry everything was not as it should have been. What can we do to help?’  Think of it as an ABC apology.  A is for ‘Acknowledge’ – accept that there was a problem and that the complaint is justified.  B means ‘Bridge the Gap’ between you and the customer by asking them how you can resolve their issue, and C is ‘Communication’ – listen hard to their ideas, empathise and suggest ideas of your own.   Make the customer feel that they are appreciated rather than an irritant to be fobbed off.
Benjamin Franklin’s advice was to never ruin an apology with an excuse and it’s amazing how often you see this in action. The response to a customer complaint that goes like this: We’re really sorry but it was a problem with the airline… or the hotel… or the car hire company… anyone in fact except us.  You can’t apologise sincerely unless you take ownership of the problem.  It might not be your fault, but the customer doesn’t care.  You took their money, you promised a service and you failed.  Own it. When you get it wrong say sorry quickly and mean it.  Don’t waste your energy shifting the blame – use it to find a solution.

Even if you follow all of these tips you also have to accept that people no longer simply take well intentioned apologies with good grace, as Nick Clegg found when he said sorry for breaking his election promise on tuition fees.  Within hours his televised apology had been remixed, auto tuned and posted on YouTube where it’s now been seen by two and a half million people.  If you’ve not seen it, you really should look it up.  Sorry Nick.

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