A Sample Business Apology Letter
This sample business apology letter is used by a major airline and sent
out PRIOR to any complaints received by the company. (Thank
you to Mary S. who received this perfect apology and sent it to us.
If you've received a great apology like this one (or even a bad one) we want
to hear about it. Please contact us.)
This pro-active approach not only helps to retain their customers but
also builds on their existing loyalty program. This is a great example
of how to take a 'negative' situation in business and turn it into a
'positive'.
Dear______,
I am writing in reference to X-Airlines flight
XA123 of December 15th 2006, on which you were scheduled to travel from
Point A to Point B.
As you know, due to a mechanical problem with the aircraft
scheduled to operate flight XA123, the flight was cancelled. We understand
that these irregularities can be very disturbing to our customers, but our
first priority must always be to provide you with safe travel.
Please accept our most sincere apologies for any
disruption which our cancellation may have caused your schedule. We hope
that the arrangements we made in providing you a seat on the next available
flight were satisfactory.
As a member of our loyalty program, on-time performance is
critical, and we truly regret that we were unable to provide you with the
level of service we consistently strive to provide each and every one of our
passengers. We would like to take this opportunity to provide your account
with 4,000 complimentary points as a gesture of our concern for your
inconvenience.
Our apologies, again, for your unfavorable experience.
We hope to have the pleasure of welcoming you back onboard X-Airlines
to replace the negative impression with a more positive one.
Sincerely,
There are obviously hundreds of other situations where a
business
apology may be appropriate—don't avoid them, seek
them out and USE them. Learn from this
sample business apology and create your own pro-active customer retention
program tailored to your business and situation.
In business, we often pat ourselves on the back when
mistakes happen and customers don't complain. The truth is, we may be making
a bigger mistake by overlooking valuable opportunities to build our businesses,
as illustrated in the sample business apology letter above.
Return from,
A Sample Business Apology to
Business Apologies
Or go to... The Perfect Apology Home
Page
|
