Assessing whether or not to apologise, organisational leaders must focus on the extent to which they are willing to change the company’s behaviour. Photo hivisasa.com
In a move designed to mend relationships with its agents, the CEO of Kenyan low-cost airline Jambojet issued an apology last week for its numerous recent flight delays, in a marketing tactic that research has found to be better than financial compensation.“We at Jambojet strive to deliver smooth and reliable services to all our passengers at all times, but unfortunately things have not gone according to plan in the past couple of months.‘‘We are truly sorry that we let you and your customers down and deeply regret the frustration and inconvenience this may have caused,” read the apology sent to its agents.In this, the brand acknowledged its mistakes and sought to mend its relationship with consumers by simply saying sorry, in a costless act that research has found fares better than offering money.“Disgruntled consumers are more than twice as likely to forgive a company that says sorry than one that instead offers them money. Our research shows apologies really do influence customers’ behaviour — surprisingly, more than a cash sweetener,” reported Dr Johannes Abeler, a research fellow at the University of Nottingham in a study on the Effects of Apology to Consumers.“It might be that saying sorry triggers in the customer an instinct to forgive — an instinct that is hard to overcome rationally.” The University of Nottingham researchers conducted a month’s study on a firm that dealt with about 10,000 sales on e-commerce platform eBay.They monitored the company’s customer online feedback after purchases. For the negative feedback, they offered some of the consumers an apology and others were offered financial compensation, if they would withdraw their comments.The apology read: ‘‘We are very sorry and want to apologise for this’’, while customers that were offered money compensation were told: ‘‘As a goodwill gesture, we can offer you €5 if you would consider withdrawing your evaluation.’’“Because customers had no idea they were taking part in the experiment, their behaviour was completely natural and unaffected. Some 45 per cent of participants withdrew their evaluation in light of the apology, while only 23 per cent of those offered financial compensation agreed to withdraw their evaluation,” said Dr Johannes Abeler in the study’s report.“The study also discovered that a higher purchase price further reduced the number of customers willing to forgive for money. Yet the size of the initial outlay had no effect on the willingness of participants to settle for the simple apology: I am sorry.”In deciding to apologise to its customers, a company commits to a psychological contract in which the expectations by those affected is that it will uphold its new changes and offer better services going forward.