Aug 10
The Power of corporate apologies
Have you ever been running through an airport to catch a flight and then got up to the gate agent only to find out that your flight has been canceled? If so, then you know firsthand how important a simple apology might have felt at the time.
Instead, however, most of us get to the gate agent – often angry and upset – only to be told that the agent has (1.) no control over the problem, (2.) that it was an Air Traffic Control problem, (3.) that they’ll book you on the next flight out sometime next week, or (4.) good luck finding a hotel room at this time of night.
A little less excuses and a little more empathy and yes, even an apology, would go over real nice about now.
Perhaps it’s the potential legal repercussions or they just don’t feel responsible, but much of corporate America seems to have a problem with saying they’re sorry.
Years ago, we were working with a corporation that had been accused of wrongdoing that impacted the nation’s school lunch program. It was if, one news organization said, they were stealing the change out of little kids’ pockets. When we started looking into the problem, we found out that some of the company’s executive’s had indeed been involved in some shady behavior. In addition to trying to make the situation right, we went on network TV with a statement from the company’s second-highest ranking official.
His message: What happened was wrong. We will take actions to see that it never happens again and – oh yes – he apologized to anyone – particularly the school children – who were in any way impacted by his company’s actions.
A few years later, we were involved with a hospital where a nurse was involved in a scenario in which she was believed to have stolen powerful pain medications from post operative patients. When the hospital’s president went on television to talk to reporters, the message was once again: What happened was wrong. We will take actions to see that it never happens again, and – once again – he apologized to anyone – particularly the patients and their families – who in anyway may have suffered as a result of the nurse’s actions.
A similar statement has been incorporated in our consulting work for many years now, ranging from incidents of racial discrimination to people being evacuated from their homes due to chemical spills.
It was never said because it might help reduce the number of lawsuits (which it has in some cases), but because it was the right thing to do.
Today, more and more hospitals are inclined to take responsibility for their actions when someone does something wrong and patients are negatively impacted. The same thing seems to be happening to some extent with other industries.
Still, there are those who maintain that apologizing for an inconvenience or upsetting someone is not the way to go, even though ultimately it might work very much in their favor.
Although I’ve been a firm believer in the power or apologizing for some time, I was even more convinced when I heard a student in one of my media training classes tell the story of his brother who was involved in a car-truck accident.
He said while his brother was in the hospital hoping to recover from his injuries, the officials with the company that owned the truck went out of their way to make sure he got everything he needed and that the family was taken care of. All of this, he said, was done very quietly, without any fanfare whatsoever.
Following his brother’s death, the student said some members of his family wanted to sue the truck company for what they had done to his brother. But the victim’s mother spoke up. She asked, “How could we possibly sue them after all they’ve done for us?”
The bottom line was that she didn’t have to. The company could do absolutely nothing to bring back her son, but they did about everything that could have been accomplished in a lawsuit without ever having to go through the time and turmoil.
For more that two decades, I have been preaching that crisis management often can be defined as just “doing the right thing.” You don’t do it to avoid lawsuits. You don’t do it to save money. You just do it because it is the right thing to do.
That includes apologizing once in a while in times of crisis. Sometimes, it is just the right thing to do.
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8:47 PM Sep 3