New Corporate Position: Chief Apology Officer

The business world has recently seen a rising tide of mea culpas from high profile corporate executives offering apologies for egregious customer service failures. Examples include:

• New Home Depot CEO Frank Blake’s apology on MSN Money
• JetBlue CEO David Neeleman tapping into YouTube to address the customer service nightmare recently experienced by many JetBlue customers.
• Starbucks chairman Howard Schultz’s memo questioning whether Starbucks’ drive for growth and efficiency has diluted the customer experience.

The latest story of the institutionalization of the public apology apperared in a March 18 New York Times article titled “Airlines Learn to Fly on a Wing and an Apology.” This article profiles Southwest Airlines executive Fred Taylor, Jr. Although his official title is Senior Manager of Proactive Customer Communications, as the Times article suggests, this is a euphemism for “Chief Apology Officer.” In this role, Taylor spends long hours researching customer service failures at the airline, then sending personal letters of apology (usually including his direct phone number and often enclosing free travel vouchers) to Southwest Airlines customers who suffered the poor experience. Most recently, Taylor sent written apologies to 22,000 passengers who passed through a choked Las Vegas airport on Feb. 19 and 20.

This trend of public apologies bodes well for consumers because it demonstrates a hightened level of awareness and concern about the customer experience from the upper echelons of these corporations. Once relegated to mid-level executives, customer service has increasingly become a passion for senior executives, a growing number of whom have come to realize that the long-term financial performance of the company is founded on consistently satisfying customers.

An essential part of maintaining customer satisfaction is the willingness (even eagerness) of companies to admit their mistakes, offer an apology, and when appropriate to provide compensation to dissatisfied customers. An increasing body of evidence supports the concept that when companies admit mistakes and take remedial action, customer satisfaction and loyalty are enhanced.

The bottom line: If this trend continues, it may just ingrain a new phrase in the corporate lexicon: “We’re sorry.”