Apologizing boosts sales

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📝 Intro

Your IT team informs you that due to a technical bug, your ecommerce website was down for 4 hours last night.

You check the analytics and naturally, there’s a dip in sales - some users encountered the issue. 

You’re debating whether you should send out an email to your full mailing list letting them know the website works fine now. 

Conventional wisdom might suggest moving on - it was only four hours. No point in highlighting the mistake to all customers, when most of them likely didn’t even notice it, right?

Wrong. Science says it’s a very good idea.

P.S.: People are more likely to forgive a brand that apologizes versus one that just gives financial compensation.

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Apologies for trivial mistakes boost your brand and revenue

Topics: Customer Experience | Ecommerce | Messaging & Copy
For: B2C. Can be tested for B2B
Research date: November 2024
Universities: Ghent University, IESEG School of Management

📈 Recommendation

When you make a small or trivial mistake (e.g. your website is temporarily down or loading slowly), email an apology to your entire mail list, accompanied by a benefit to thank the user's patience (e.g. 5% discount as compensation).

Your brand will seem warmer, and you will increase revenue, open rates, and CTRs without seeming any less competent. Use this ethically, and only occasionally.

🎓 Findings

• Emailing customers with an apology for a small mistake and a discount leads to increased revenues, open rates, and click-through rates (CTRs).

• As part of a series of 4 field, lab, and online experiments, researchers found that:

  • When a footwear company emailed customers with two subject lines “Sorry” (and offering a discount) and “Good News” (offering a discount) - the apology drove 126.9% more revenue (€628.74 vs €277.13), 9% higher open rates, and a 0.62% higher CTR

  • People viewed a clothing and accessory retailer 8.9% more favorably when a discount email included an apology for slow loading times, compared to when it didn’t

  • Students judging a Dutch department store had 8.3% higher positive attitudes about the company when they received an email with an apology and incentive (vs. only incentive)

• The effect:

  • Does not work for major mistakes. People had 45.9% lower opinions of a company when told about a major mistake (potential data breach)

  • Is strongest for companies that are not seen as warm and friendly (e.g. law firms, mechanic workshops). For example, a friendly family-run business would likely not benefit from this

🧠 Why it works

• When we see an apology from a company, we consider it a genuine expression of sincerity and good intentions, leading us to see it more warmly, especially if we do not perceive the company as particularly warm in general.

• If the apology is for a trivial mistake and we did not feel any consequences or inconvenience for it, we don’t start doubting the company’s competence.

• When we receive an apology for a larger mistake, we consider the company making the mistake as less competent.

• If the mistake was significant, we likely felt some inconvenience from it and the apology does not help to generate warmth or comfort.

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✋ Limitations

• The experiments focused on sending apologies as an email, allowing personalization (unlike an ad or social post) but not seeming privacy-invading (like an SMS or letter). It’s unclear, but likely, that similar apologies would work on other channels such as direct mail, social media posts, or ads.

• The research looked at trivial, technical issues (e.g. slow website speeds). It’s likely that people respond differently to other types of trivial mistakes, like those caused by human error. Other research shows people are more forgiving of service failures (e.g. bad service) from minority-owned businesses, but not moral failings (e.g. treating employees badly).

• The study looked at the trivial mistake and apology as a one-off case in isolation. If a company keeps making mistakes, people’s quality attitudes are likely to diminish. 

• The experiments were on Western European and North American audiences. Cultural context can affect how receptive customers are to apologies. For example, some studies show that Japanese and Koreans are generally more receptive to apologies and use them more frequently.

🏢 Companies using this

• Sending out apology emails is relatively common across industries:

  • Knitwear company John Smedley has apologized for website issues.

  • Photobook creating site Artifact Uprising apologized after a bug impacted their user experience

  • Department store Kohl’s apologized after bad weather caused a backlog in shipping and delivery

• Beyond general emails to their entire lists, many brands also reach out directly only to affected customers, especially for larger mistakes including delayed orders, scheduling issues, or service complaints.

Now defunct ecommerce brand Fab sent out an apology and discount to their email list after accidentally sending out an email containing pictures of cats and no text.

⚡ Steps to implement

• Keep track of small, trivial mistakes that could impact the user experience. These can include slow loading time, broken links on your website, or small restocking delays for items.

• When one of these issues occurs, send out an email to your full email list containing a short, to-the-point apology acknowledging the issue and the inconvenience it caused. 

• In the email, include details for a benefit or incentive (e.g. discount code or expedited shipping) as a recompense for the inconvenience.

• The subject line of your email should make clear that the email is an apology.

• Be careful - overusing these could backfire by highlighting a mistake that keeps on occurring and making the company seem less competent. 

• Use this ethically. Don’t make up small mistakes in order to deploy this tactic. If you do, sooner or later customers are likely to see through such practices.

🔍 Study type

Lab and online experiments and field experiment (emails to 20,640 customers of a footwear company)

📖 Research

Oops! Sorry, my bad: How apologizing for trivial mistakes in direct email campaigns leads to positive customer evaluations. International Journal of Research in Marketing (November 2024)

🏫 Researchers

• Laura De Kerpel. Ghent University, Belgium.

• Anneleen Van Kerckhove. Ghent University, Belgium

• Tina Tessitore. IESEG School of Management, France

Remember: This is a new scientific discovery. In the future it will probably be better understood and could even be proven wrong (that’s how science works). It may also not be generalizable to your situation. If it’s a risky change, always test it on a small scale before rolling it out widely.

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