Your Call Is Important to Us
Just ran across this brilliant Seth Godin post, “Taking Responsibility,” and had to share it. Excerpt:
One of the best ways to enrage a customer is to duck responsibility.
Airlines do it, accountants do it, lawyers do it. Doctors, too. Frontline service workers are always in the awkward position of having to deal with angry customers about something that’s not their fault.
Often, the very act of evasion is what the customer is angry about. All we want is someone to look us in the eye and take responsibility…
The problem with accepting responsibility, though, is that you can be too glib about it. A lot of responsibility taking in today’s newspaper for example,
“It was not Harry’s fault,” Cheney said Wednesday on Fox News. “You can’t blame anybody else. I’m the guy who pulled the trigger and shot my friend.”
“I am responsible for the Department of Homeland Security,” said Michael Chertoff before Congress, explaining away the loss of life and property. “I’m accountable and accept responsibility for the performance of the entire department.”
David J. Edmondson, CEO of Radio Shack [pictured], after being caught faking his academic background, “I clearly misstated my academic record and the responsibility for these misstatements is mine alone.”
Is “I accept responsibility” the new “Your call is very important to us”? Probably.
Enough with the non-apology apologies. How about just saying “I’m sorry,” and really meaning it?
Technorati tags: Advertising, PR, Public Relations, Marketing
Often, if someone mis-reads the tone of an “I accept the responsibility” comment, it still won’t be taken as genuine.
Much of how well an apology is taken depends on who is hearing it, and his/her perception of the person apologizing. If you’re already skeptical of the Bush Administration, nothing Cheney will say is good enough.
If you are skeptical of business (including PR folks), even a sincere apology may not sound sincere enough.
Skepticism and mistrust of public officials and figures seems to be awfully high right now — no matter what they say.
Mike
That’s true, Mike. But “I accept responsibility” falls short of an apology. You can accept responsility without ever admitting you did something wrong. How about just saying: “I did wrong. I’m sorry”?
But, Scott, that would be too simple and too easy.
I don’t mean to cut public figures & officials any slack . . . but with lawsuits and vicious campaign ads, anything resembling pure honesty will get you in trouble.
AGH! The cynic in me is coming out.
Mike
Well, that’s the battle that lawyers and PR people always have, isn’t it? Usually though, saying you’re wrong — when you actually are wrong — doesn’t hurt anything more than your ego.
check out what people are saying in Radio Shack’s hometown.
http://pod01.prospero.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?msg=72&nav=messages&webtag=kr-fortworthtm