Michelle Rodger: You’ll be sorry if you handle your apology wrongly

HOW many songs can you think of about saying sorry? I know a few. Elton John’s Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word, Madonna’s Sorry, Chicago’s Hard To Say I’m Sorry, and golden oldie Connie Francis’s Who’s Sorry Now?

I bet you can name more. You probably know all the words. You can sing “sorry” quite easily but can you say it? Out loud? And mean it?

Saying sorry in business is one of the hardest things to do, and for that reason we tend to avoid it. We manage it badly when we’re backed into a corner and forced to apologise.

We fall down on two counts: first, actually recognising when an apology is required; and, second, failing to say sorry in the right way, at the right time, to the right people.

One high-profile example last week was when Blackberry went down over four days, affecting millions of customers around the world.

It took Research in Motion (RIM) days to apologise for the outage, culminating in the firm’s founder and co-chief executive Mike Lazaridis releasing a video apology for the service disruption and admitting that customers expected better from Blackberry.

Lazaridis said on a YouTube video: “It’s been my goal to provide reliable real-time communications around the world. We did not deliver on that goal this week. Not even close.”

RIM now has a huge amount of work to do to restore faith and loyalty among its customer base.

But what could it have done differently to avoid the mass upset? It’s simple: communicate openly, honestly and often, and apologise as soon as possible.

In a world of real-time social media conversations, you just can’t take a night to sleep on a possible apology, says Scott Douglas, director of PR and social media agency Holyrood Partnership.

“Like it or loathe it, we are living in a real-time, always-on society. The news cycle has contracted to the point where ‘now’ isn’t soon enough. If you think you can still take a night to sleep on a possible apology, think again. You’re either sorry or you’re not. If you are genuinely in the wrong, then say so immediately.

“Honesty is absolutely crucial. We’ve all got an innate ability to sniff out an insincere or grudged apology. If you’re not sorry, then don’t say you are.

“Have the courage of your convictions to defend your actions. At the very least, that’ll earn you a bit of respect for owning a spine.”

Not everybody gets it wrong, however. Douglas cites Vodafone as an example of a company that turned a crisis around through communicating and apologising.

In February 2010, a rogue Vodafone employee issued an obscene and offensive Tweet via Vodafone UK’s well-respected Twitter account.

At that point the company had more than 8,000 followers and the foul-mouthed message was quickly reported across online and mainstream media.

Staff reacted immediately, sending individual apologies to all followers. They worked beyond their hours to ensure customers received an apology and an explanation in real time.

In the hours that followed the apologies, Vodafone was widely credited for its speed and honesty – and the number of followers leapt to 9,000 in 24 hours.

Now the account has almost 30,000 followers and is a poster child for excellence in customer relations via Twitter.

So what are the key elements of a successful crisis management campaign?

First, have a policy, even if it’s as simple as: “We’ll do everything in our power to avoid mistakes. When they do happen, we’ll own them, apologise for them, learn from them and move on.” That should just about cover it, says Douglas.

Make sure all employees know exactly what to do when a mistake occurs. They need to know who to contact to escalate the issue, and how to reach them, especially out of hours.

It might be outwith your company’s working day, but social media is 365 days, 52 weeks a year and 24/7.

And the best way to apologise? Just mean it. Be sincere and honest, explain what you are going to do to make sure nothing like this happens again, and commit to the changes.