{"id":70220,"date":"2015-08-12T15:35:26","date_gmt":"2015-08-12T15:35:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.strattoncraig.com\/insight\/how-to-say-sorry-in-business\/"},"modified":"2015-08-12T15:35:26","modified_gmt":"2015-08-12T15:35:26","slug":"how-to-say-sorry-in-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.strattoncraig.com\/us\/insight\/how-to-say-sorry-in-business\/","title":{"rendered":"How to say sorry in business"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Knowing how to apologise properly is a must for even the best-behaved business. The nature of social media means that if a brand messes up these days, a whole lot of people will hear about it quite quickly. So what makes an effective corporate apology? Read on for a few pointers should you ever need to make one.<br \/>\n<strong>Use the right tone<\/strong><br \/>\nThe tone of your apology is almost as important as the words you use. Consider the tone of voice your brand usually speaks to its audience in and whether it\u2019s appropriate for this type of message. If you have an informal and light-hearted voice, it would be wise to make the apology a little more \u2018corporate\u2019 so it\u2019s taken seriously.<br \/>\nThis also means avoiding jokes and trying to laugh off the matter \u2013 your stakeholders probably won\u2019t see the funny side. It\u2019s what The Sun\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/i100.independent.co.uk\/article\/suns-head-of-pr-in-contender-for-worst-apology-ever--xJRh8dvrje\">Dylan Sharpe attempted<\/a>after he was criticised for gloating on Twitter that the red-top would continue to publish pictures of topless women earlier this year.<br \/>\n<strong>Take responsibility; use \u2018we\u2019<\/strong><br \/>\nWhen writing to sell, one way to engage the reader directly is by using \u2018you\u2019, and you should do the same with an apology. However, it\u2019s important to take responsibility too, and that\u2019s where \u2018we\u2019 comes in. It puts the spotlight on the brand, and shows you aren\u2019t trying to pass the buck.<br \/>\n<strong>Don\u2019t make excuses<\/strong><br \/>\nSimilarly, making excuses rather than taking full responsibility will make it look like you\u2019re trying to wriggle out of some negative press. Even if a supplier or partner firm\u2019s actions are the reason for the apology, you\u2019re associated with them and are therefore in it together. You should also be wary of making someone a scapegoat. This may appease some of your harshest detractors but it might not deal with the cause of the issue, so what good has really been done?<br \/>\n<strong>Resist the urge to sell<\/strong><br \/>\nAs tempting as it may be, dropping in even a subtle promotional message won\u2019t be looked on favourably by the reader. Apple did it in <a href=\"http:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2012\/09\/28\/tim-cook-apologizes-for-apple-maps-points-to-competitive-alternatives\/\">Tim Cook\u2019s open letter <\/a>apologising for its sub-standard Maps app back in 2012, and the passage sticks out in an otherwise adequate apology.<br \/>\n<strong>State your own call to action<\/strong><br \/>\nFinally, your customers will want to know how you plan on making things right, so include your own call to action. Just as you would when directing a site visitor to take action, state the next steps clearly. It goes without saying, but you\u2019ll need to follow through with this or risk another Twitter backlash in the future.<br \/>\nWhich corporate apology sticks in your mind for the right or wrong reasons? Share it with us in the comments below or tweet @strattoncraig.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Knowing how to apologise properly is a must for even the best-behaved business. The nature of social media means that if a brand messes up these days, a whole lot of people will hear about it quite quickly. So what makes an effective corporate apology? Read on for a few pointers should you ever need [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[305,314],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-70220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-content-strategy-us","category-copywriting-us"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>How to say sorry in business - Stratton Craig - Global Copywriting &amp; Content Marketing Agency<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.strattoncraig.com\/us\/insight\/how-to-say-sorry-in-business\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How to say sorry in business - Stratton Craig - Global Copywriting &amp; Content Marketing Agency\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Knowing how to apologise properly is a must for even the best-behaved business. 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