Demand Satisfaction!

Joel Spolsky recently outlined seven steps to “remarkable customer service.” Two of his seven points were about apologizing, nicely summed up in this bit:

It’s completely natural to have trouble saying “It’s my fault.” That’s human. But those three words are going to make your angry customers much happier. So you’re going to have to say them. And you’re going to have to sound like you mean it.

Now the New York Times reports that the airlines are increasingly institutionalizing the apology, led by the lead innovator of the airline industry, Southwest Airlines. We all watched recently as JetBlue turned a shocking PR debacle into a moving reaffirmation of core values via an apology, and another, and still another. Some suggested they apologized to the point of absurdity. But it’s still amazing to discover that Southwest has what the Times dubs a “chief apology officer” (officially, sr. manager of proactive customer communications). It’s Fred Taylor’s job to turn people’s annoyance and anger about “a tragicomic mix of broken planes, sick passengers and scary landings” into peace and understanding. It’s a trend: letters of apology from the airlines are running at double the rates over last year.

Taylor is something of an apology savant. Check out the artfulness at which he applies his craft to addressing one particular flight from hell:

“During the return, a customer became ill and apparently ‘decorated’ three rows of seats — and perhaps a few customers,” he wrote. “No word on how Linda Blair is doing.”

It’s not just that there are more unfortunate issues this year than last (there are). It’s also that the industry is embracing the S word like never before. They’ve experienced the marketing power of regret, and they’re hooked. To hear the Times tell it, we may be witnessing the rise of the Apology Industrial Complex, a brave new world where instead of avoiding “sorry” like the plague an industry invokes it with such regularity as to turn it into a rote catchphrase.

I actually don’t think we’re anywhere near such a fate. I think we could all stomach a dramatic uptick in the number and quality of the apologies from the companies we work with. Yes, including the airlines, who still don’t apologize to me for their stale peanuts or cramped seating. As far as I’m concerned they’re just warming up (Taylor’s brilliance aside). With practice they may actually get the hang of it.