Contrition and Customers

I’m sorry.

It is often difficult for us to say this to a family member or close friend we have wounded and to whom we owe an apology. Our pride, inclination toward sin, and plain old stubbornness, can make the path to owning up to something we did wrong feel like climbing Mount Everest. As Catholics, we know that expressing contrition for our wrongs is required by our faith, and is  spiritually and emotionally cathartic. We are in communion with one another. When we offend someone, we must apologize. The same is true in the business world.

When reading a recent article in the Harvard Business Review, How to Apologize to a Customer When Something Goes Wrong, I was reminded that we have to apologize to anyone we offend, not just family and friends. When we let down a customer, we have to apologize as well. For Catholics, it is an issue of justice: an aggrieved party deserves it. For business people, it is also good for business. From the article:

The service recovery paradox is a phenomenon in which a customer who experiences a problem with a product or service, but has that problem effectively resolved, is more likely to have a positive impression of the company than a customer who never experienced any problems. Essentially, when a company is able to effectively recover from a service failure, the customer’s satisfaction can actually increase beyond what it would have been if the failure had never happened.

Owning up to our acts and omissions with offended customers can strengthen our relationships with them. Similarly, we know from personal experience, that when we apologize to friends and families, the result is often more healthy relationships.

How do we go about making amends with customers? The article suggests five steps that businesses can take when apologizing to customers:

1. Restore lost value;
2. Acknowledge responsibility;
3. Explain the problem;
4. Describe how you will fix the issue; and
5. Express your regret.

I am struck by how this list parallels an examination of conscience. We need to examine our consciences in our private lives and our professional lives. These five steps are a way to make sure we are being accountable to customers. Consider it a customer experience version of an examination of conscience!

In his encyclical letter, Rich in Mercy Pope Saint John Paul II explained,

Society can become ‘ever more human’ only when we introduce into all the mutual relationships which form its moral aspect the moment of forgiveness, which is so much of the essence of the Gospel. Forgiveness demonstrates the presence in the world of the love which is more powerful than sin. Forgiveness is also the fundamental condition for reconciliation, not only in the relationship of God with man, but also in relationships between people.

Forgiveness has a place in the business world. Let’s be more confident in apologizing to customers when they deserve an apology. It can help evangelize our faith, strengthen trust, and deepen our relationship with God.

What is good for the soul is inherently good for business!