Not many things feel less sincere than an apology from a corporation. It’s true in PR, and it’s true in customer care. It can be tempting to hide behind the safety of your company with a lot of “we” language — placing the blame on the impersonal behemoth. It’s especially tempting in customer care because whatever has gone wrong for the customer probably is not your fault, and may not even be in your control to fix. But, part of making that connection with the customer is apologizing to and sympathizing with them.
This doesn’t mean you should only ever use “I” instead of “we” in your communications to customers. In fact, there are a lot of times when you’ll be speaking as the company, and that’s totally fine. The key is to pinpoint those moments when you can build a personal connection with the customer. It seems like a little thing, but it can have a huge effect on how a customer perceives their treatment.
For example, take a look at these two delayed shipping emails:
Email 1: Unfortunately, we will be unable to ship your order until next week due to inclement weather in our area. We anticipate shipping your order by Wednesday, January 17th. You will receive an email with tracking information when your order has shipped. Please accept our sincerest apologies for the inconvenience.
Pretty cold, right? And why can’t this big “we” ship my stuff out on time, anyhow? Amazon always ships my stuff the day I order it!
Email 2: I’m so sorry! We’re having a bit of weather here and as a result our shipping schedule has gotten backed up, but we should be back on track early next week. I took a look at your order and it should be going out Wednesday (January 17th). We’ll send you an email with tracking information when it ships. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if there’s anything else I can help you with, and again, I am so sorry for the delay!
It’s still the corporate “we” who has made the decision to shut down shipping, and who will be sending the package and tracking info…but now I have a buddy there who is looking out for me, who actually feels bad that I’m not getting my package on time. I mean, I totally understand that things happen. We’re all only human, right?
Putting a human face on when a screw up or delay happens not only helps the customer feel like someone at the company is looking out for them, but also reminds them that the company is made up of people just like them, who have their back and will do their best to make their customers happy.
