If you speak with companies or organizations who have faced a social media crisis, many of them will tell you that one of the biggest lessons they’ve learned was that saying they’re sorry and being honest about the mistakes they’d made allowed them to reach a turning point within the crisis.
When I interviewed Frederic Gonzalo, VP of marketing for Le Massif, he said that one of the biggest things Le Massif learned from their social media crisis back in 2011 was:
“The power of an apology – we realized it, and we also realized that it should have come earlier.”
The “it should have come earlier” part is a lesson that many brands learn the hard way. Too often it takes brands much too long to realize this simple truth.
So what’s stopping them?
If apologizing and owning up to the mistake has a track record of helping brands overcome a social media crisis, why wait so long and resist so hard in so many cases?
The lawyer’s point of view:
Many lawyers will tell you that flat out saying you’re sorry is a legal risk. Instead, they’ll advice you to say something more along the lines of “it’s regrettable”, allowing you to sound sincere while not putting you at legal risk.
However, saying the situation is “regrettable” is in no way apologizing for whatever circumstances launched your brand into the crisis in the first place. The fact is that your customers and fans want to feel as though you sincerely care and acknowledge what they’ve been put through. Replacing “I’m sorry” with “it’s regrettable” will not give them that reassurance.
The blow to the ego
Many simply have a hard time admitting that they’re human and have made a mistake. This is regrettable since the longer it takes you to acknowledge and admit to your mistake, the more repercussions your brand will see as an outcome of the crisis.
One of the great things about social media is that it allows you to humanize your brand, no matter its size. In fact, your customers want to meet the humans behind your brand, and they understand that humans make mistakes. All they want is to know that you’re sincerely sorry for the mistake you’ve made and that you’ve learned from it. The sooner you’re able to show them this, the better it is for your company or organization.
Not convinced? Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of each strategy
Saying “It’s regrettable”
Pros:
- It puts your lawyers at ease knowing that you aren’t directly admitting your guilt.
- It may make you feel as though you’re in control.
Cons:
- It is not an apology and your upset customers and fans will not see it as one.
- It will not help you regain control of the social media crisis (which is at risk of going viral)
- It does not connect you closer to your customers and fans, so as to say that it is not allowing you to focus on building a lasting relationship with them.
Saying “I’m sorry”
Pros:
- It acknowledges that you realize you’ve made a mistake and will hopefully learn from it.
- It makes your customers and fans feel cared about – connecting you closer to them for the long term.
- It leads to forgiveness.
- Best case scenario: it can help you stop a social media crisis in its tracks.
- It humanizes your brand and connects you closer to your customers and fans.
Cons:
- It acknowledges that you’ve done something wrong.
- It will make your lawyers feel uneasy.
- It puts you at risk of a lawsuit (because you weren’t already there to begin with!)
The bottom line
Basically you have two options: you can choose to say you’re sorry, mean it and learn from the incident or mistake; or you can choose to play it safe, attempt to not incriminate yourself and put your brand at even more risk.
Next time you make a mistake (because let’s face it, your brand is run by humans so it’s bound to happen), and you’re faced with this decision, decide whether it’s more important to please your lawyers or to please your customers and fans. What are the possibilities that a false apology offers you? What are the opportunities that a sincere apology offers you? What does your pro/con list look like?
The fact of the matter is that your customers and fans want to connect with you and forgive you more than they want to run off and press charges against you. Dave Carroll says it beautifully in his new book, United Breaks Guitars, The Power of One Voice in the Age of Social Media:
“Sometimes saying you’re sorry is not only the right thing to do, but also the least expensive.”
Have you prepared your key message-points for a crisis?
If you find yourself in an online crisis situation and are having trouble developing your key messaging – or if you’d like to (do the smart thing and) develop your key-messaging/holding statements before you find yourself faced with a crisis, Agnes + Day can help you. Learn more.
Author of Crisis Ready: Building an Invincible Brand in an Uncertain World, Melissa Agnes is a leading authority on crisis preparedness, reputation management, and brand protection. Agnes is a coveted keynote speaker, commentator, and advisor to some of today’s leading organizations faced with the greatest risks. Learn more about Melissa and her work here.
I mostly agree, but as always, it depends on the situation. I am aware of situations where plaintiff lawyers would prompt a dialogue through online channels specifically to get a company to say "sorry" because it would help them as an exhibit in court.
I'll repeat my belief — it takes 5/7 years to learn all of the "rules" of crisis management…and the rest of your career to dispute every one of those rules. That's why so many of us love this profession.
Keep up the good posts…I enjoy reading them.
– J.D.
Absolutely, It always depends on the situation. My point with this post is to open up eyes and help companies and organizations understand the general expectations of their audience and the real value behind being human and making strong connections with their market.
Haha! I love your belief and whole heartedly agree!
Thank you for the great comment, J.D, and I'm glad you enjoy my posts! It's comments like yours that keep me going! 🙂
Have a great rest of your day,
Melissa
I'm been doing this kind of work for more than 30 years, with the last 20+ focused almost entirely on crisis and issue management. I've found that attorneys have evolved over the years. While I still run into those who would prefer "no comment," far more – and the number grows every year – are somewhat enlightened by the power that public opinion and perception has on their clients. The biggest challenge, I find, often isn't the attorney, but the CEO. This is especially true for smaller companies where the CEO is a self-made man or woman. It's hard, at times, for them to get all the way to "I'm sorry."
I enjoy your posts every day.
Wiley
You're absolutely right, Wiley! I should have written it as lawyers and CEO's – they very often offer the same challenges in situations such as these.
Thanks so much for the comment – and for reading my posts everyday! I'm so glad to hear that I write content that you enjoy regularly! Thank you for that 🙂
Have yourself a wonderful evening,
Melissa
Melissa and everybody — what a great dialogue. As many have posted, you shouldn't apologize without the facts. In nearly every crisis situation, I always assume a law suit or suits will be filed by someone. However, and i wish i could directly reference the specific research, there is substantial literature to suggest that an honest and heartfelt apology MAY reduce damages in law suits. So, if done in an honest, forthright, ethical and credible way an apology can positively influence the court of public opinion and may mitigate results in the court of law.
Hi David,
Yes the facts before an apology – otherwise what are you apologizing for?!
I wish you had the reference to that research, it would have made for an interesting follow up to this post! But it definitely does make sense, so long as the apology is truly sincere and followed by positive and constructive action.
Thanks so much for adding to the dialogue down here! It's definitely a collection of some great advice and strategies!
Have a great day, David!
Melissa
Melissa, in the early minutes or hours of an incident / crisis, what teh public needs most is for your organization to establish the facts. The idea that we may have done something wrong or not is far less important then the actions we are taking to immediately correct the situation. Regretting the loss of life, expressing your condolences, etc..is absolutely a “must” but …apologizing too quickly without having all the details is dangerous. What I have found over the years is that in crisis comm you the early information may be wrong, numbers of casualties may be over or under inflated and we may still be speculating on the real cause surrounding the situation.
I always recomend to first publicly acknowledge the situation, express your condolence (if needed) and then imediately explain the actions you are/willbe taking to fix the situation either by pulling out your product from the shelves, by closing your restaurant until the cause of the illness is found or by explaining what you are immediately doing to assist the victims and relocate their families to cope with the situation. Investigators will figure out in due time what was really the cause and who was really responsible. Then all the facts will be fully known and then if you are really the cause, it will be time to apologize and say you are sorry. Untill all the facts are known and the circumstances surrounding the incident have been clarified, I would not recommand to apologize.