If you ever worked in a large company and had the opportunity to speak to the press, you probably went thru some PR training (even if your day job was not PR). I remember two things from my training: Don’t disparage the competition (risk of libel lawsuit) and Don’t apologize (admitting guilt – could be used against the company). All of this sounds rationale, but from that training and ongoing posture; many companies adopted the approach to never say sorry or admit error – pretty arrogant since companies are made up of humans and humans make mistakes.
So it is refreshing to see a company apologize (and say “sorry”) if they made a mistake. I mean really apologize versus explain or justify the mistake.
boingo (a mobile Wi-Fi service for airports, coffee shops) made a mistake and communicated to me and others in an email.
The most human reaction occurs when you apologize and the dust settles. People move forward and respond with similar tone to how you communicated your apology. A few samples of customer responses to the boingo blog post admitting the mistake:
What examples have you witnessed of a company saying “sorry” the right way?