How to write an apology letter to customers that wins back loyalty

But when your company makes a mistake, that has an impact on the future of your business. Here’s the interesting thing, though: that impact can actually be positive.

Some of today’s biggest brands have gone through bad times. They’ve made mistakes that affected thousands of people.

Think about Volkswagen's emissions scandal or Samsung's exploding phones.

After these serious mistakes, how are companies like these still thriving? It's largely due to the way they handled themselves in response to the crisis with a sincere apology.

Writing an apology letter to customers is never easy. It takes a certain amount of skill, both with words and with people.

And while there’s no exact formula to writing a successful apology letter, there are several things you can do to improve your letters — right now.

So, if your company needs to send an apology letter to customers, keep reading. We’re going to learn from good and bad examples of apology letters, plus dig into some useful templates that you can adapt and use for your customers.

1. Wait until you’re calm to write a response.

Hearing someone complain about you or your business is enough to get anyone riled up.

But we all know what happens when we respond in the heat of the moment to an angry customer’s scathing complaint.

That’s what happened to Jeremy, a district manager for Wendy’s. A customer submitted a less-than-glowing comment on a survey—which he responded to with an irate phone call. The customer shared her experience on TikTok in a video that’s since been viewed 200,000+ times.

Obviously, this response didn’t make Wendy’s look good, and it didn’t make anyone want to give Wendy’s their business, either.

The moral of the story is this: angry responses (even if they're justified) will only have a negative impact on your business.

Instead, make it a rule to never respond to a complaint while you’re upset. Remember that your response doesn’t just reflect on you as an individual. It's a representation of the personality and integrity of your brand.

Before sending your response, think. Would you rather potential customers see your brand as rude and defensive, or as patient and accommodating?

2. Put yourself in their shoes to write a more genuine apology letter.

We’re all familiar with bland non-apologies, instead of a sincere apology, that many companies fall back on when they don’t feel like they were actually in the wrong.

A classic example of this is Facebook’s non-apology (and generally bad response) to the October 2021 whistleblower incident.

Zuckerberg himself shared a post that read:

“I’m sure many of you have found the recent coverage hard to read because it just doesn’t reflect the company we know. The argument that we deliberately push content that makes people angry for profit is deeply illogical. . . . The moral, business and product incentives all point in the opposite direction.”

Facebook definitely showed no remorse for the incident, and actually dug in their heels and denied that they did anything wrong.

There was obviously a ton of backlash, and it likely contributed to Facebook’s first-ever loss of users.

So, how can you avoid making the same mistake?

Before you write your apology letter and ask for forgiveness, put yourself in the customer’s shoes. Try to understand their point of view, and how your business made them feel.

Understanding the emotional side of what happened will help you craft a more genuine apology letter. (And actually saying you’re sorry in your business apology letter helps — you’d be surprised at the lengths that many companies will go to in order to avoid saying those two little words.)

E.ON Next, a British energy company, did its best to sympathize with customers after sending out a tone-deaf marketing campaign.

The brand sent socks to its customers, suggesting that using less heat would cut CO2 emissions. That might not sound like a bad thing, but the problem is that they sent the socks out during plummeting temperatures and energy rate hikes.

Customers were… less than thrilled.

But the brand realized its error and tried to make things right.

While the campaign wasn’t a good look, E.ON managed to sympathize with its customers and apologize for its mistake.

Throughout the professional apology letter on Twitter, E.ON does an excellent job of putting itself in the shoes of its customers.

3. Own up to your mistakes in your business apology letter and explain what went wrong.

It’s easy for us to shift blame to others for our mistakes.

But that’s a cheap way to get out of an apology — and it isn’t a satisfactory response to your customers.

Instead, own up to your mistakes. That will show your brand is honest, which gives customers reason to trust you, in spite of your mistakes.

One way to do this is to give customers the explanation they deserve.

When The Daily Carnage (a major marketing newsletter) sent out a Woody Allen quote to its subscribers, readers weren’t thrilled:

The Daily Carnage released a statement where it owned up to its mistake while giving a clear explanation:

It might seem like a silly mistake, but the brand does a great job of explaining the situation, writing a formal apology letter and owning up to its mistake.

4. Offer to repair or repay.

When your business makes a mistake, your customers could lose out on money, time and more.

So, your apology letter to customers needs to clearly explain how you plan to remedy the situation.

Essentially, you need to find a way to replace what was lost when crafting a professional apology letter. Did your customers lose money because their purchase didn’t get fulfilled? Offer a refund. Did they waste time because of an issue with your software? Give them options to reach their goals on time.

Amazon did this for some customers who experienced delayed deliveries:

In this email, Amazon acknowledges its mistake, and gives customers freebies to make up for the error — in this case, a free month of Amazon Prime.

Amazon wins back customer loyalty by apologizing and making amends for its error. You can do the same by going above and beyond to repair the damage from your mistake.

5. Show how you plan to resolve the problem, and keep customers informed.

Another essential part of your apology letter to customers involves telling them how you plan to move forward.

When it comes to serious issues that affect many customers, people will only stay with your brand if they trust that you’ll resolve the issue, and it won’t happen again.

In light of Covid-related shortages, Starbucks had a brilliant response to its rewards members:

While Starbucks can’t guarantee that shortages won’t happen (and it’s not like they can control them, anyway), this email primes customers’ expectations. This gives shoppers more confidence in the company, maintaining trust in a time when brand confidence is hard to come by.

You can do the same by transparently explaining what your company will do to resolve the problems that affected your customers.

Once you’ve followed through with your plan, keep your customers informed. Send another letter to let them know what you’ve been doing, and the results of your work. This shows that what you said in your apology letter wasn’t just talk: you’ve put that talk into action.

6. Use a little bit of humor to lighten the mood, when appropriate.

If the issue isn’t very serious, using a bit of humor can diffuse a tense situation and calm an angry customer.

But you need to be careful and read the room: when emotions are running too hot, humor can be a bad thing.

Simple annoyances like delayed shipping or a damaged product are frustrating, but a humorous response that validates the customer’s feelings can calm the situation.

On the other hand, when a serious mistake has been made (such as a data breach), that’s not the time to send funny memes.

To see how humor can be used appropriately, check out how the pet brand Fab responded to an email glitch:

This apology letter is short, genuine and it makes you laugh. Fab was able to read the room perfectly, and knew that adding a couple of funny lines would work to lighten the mood.

Of course, be careful to judge your audience. Humor can be a powerful tool to diffuse a tense situation, but should be used with caution.

When done right, getting a laugh from your apology letter is a great way to win back some love from your customers.

7. Build apology letter templates that your customer service team can use.

It’s true that more serious or widespread issues may need unique, personalized responses. Other times, though, the issue is a somewhat common, minor problem.

In those cases, you can save time for your team by creating apology letter templates that your reps can build off of.

With well-thought-out apology letter templates, you’ll:

• Ensure a consistent voice and tone in each letter
• Minimize defensiveness
• Help your team stay cordial and friendly

With that said, creating templates doesn’t mean your team will respond the same way to each complaint. So, set ground rules that ensure each apology letter is customized.

Using a CRM, you can create email templates for your customer support team to use. Each template includes customizable fields, allowing you to adapt them for a specific purpose.

Here’s how it looks in Copper:

Once you create your templates, the team can send them using the web app, or Copper’s Chrome extension.

Now, you might need some ideas to create your own templates. Here are a few.

Now, you might need some ideas to create your own apology letter templates. Here are a few to get you started.

Example 1: An order is damaged or the product isn’t working properly.

Whether it’s a physical product that was damaged in transit or software that just isn’t cooperating, the customer obviously isn’t getting what they paid for.

In these situations, it’s especially important to acknowledge the frustration that your customer feels, and explain how you plan to remedy the situation.

• For a physical product that was damaged, try this template:

• If the problem is with a digital product, likesoftware, you can try using this template:
  
  

Example 2: There’s an issue with the bill.

Mistakes happen, and sometimes a customer can get charged too much by accident. Obviously, this is a delicate situation that could breed distrust. That’s why it’s important to remedy the situation as quickly as possible with this type of apology letter template.

• Here’s a sample apology letter to give you an idea of what you could say if a customer gets overcharged:

Example 3: A customer complained about a bad experience.

We all have our moments, and unfortunately, our customers sometimes bear the brunt of an employee’s bad day.

Other times, though, the customer is overreacting and exaggerating the situation.

• Whether or not it’s your company’s fault, when a customer complains about a bad experience, it’s essential to respond quickly and politely using a message like this sample apology letter.

Example 4: There’s a widespread issue.

Product recalls, data breaches and outages: these are some of the widespread issues that even large companies have had to apologize for in recent years.

• Obviously, your company will need to customize a mass apology letter to customers in this situation, but here’s a template that can help you get started:

When we’ve been wronged, we lose confidence in the one who wronged us. It can take time to regain that trust, but it’s not impossible.

How you word your apology letters to customers has a huge impact on whether or not those customers will come back.

When done correctly, and with skill and grace similar to each sample letter here, you can turn a negative situation into a win for your brand and regain the trust of your customers.

Not all mistakes have to end in tragedy, as shown with every sample letter example. Use these best practices and templates to craft genuine apology letters that satisfy the needs of your customers. If you're on the search for a tool that helps automate and scale your customer communications, try Copper CRM free for 14 days.