When is an apology not a good apology?

The US cybersecurity firm’s software update led to a shutdown that grounded planes, affected hospitals, and crashed payment systems. Oh, and it cost US Fortune 500 companies a collective $5.4bn, according to insurers.

So how did the firm respond? Initially, by the book. Full and early fess up, tick; detail over the fix process, tick; manage expectations, tick. But this was phase one – the initial media management. Phase two attempted to recognise the significant overtime and stress the event put upon ‘teammates and partners’. A $10 takeaway voucher was offered to each and every one.

At best this came from a good place but was spectacularly badly-judged, at worst it was an insult to suggest that recognising the ordeal people experienced could be so cheap. Consensus seems to have formed that it was the latter. "I literally wanted to drive my car off a bridge this weekend and they bought me coffee. Nice," one recipient said. What’s more vendors blocked the vouchers over fraud fears, rendering them unusable for many anyway.

Approaches such as a gift voucher tend to succeed where the compensation matches, or even exceeds, the gravity of the initial offence.

We’re sorry we got your order wrong, the bill’s on us.

Oops, you received our last email by mistake, enjoy 10% off your next purchase.

The global crash caused by our software update meant your weekend nights were spent on the office sofa, enjoy a coffee! didn’t leave these recipients with quite the same warm fuzzy feeling.

There is very good science exploring the effectiveness of apologies, including the role of low-value ‘sweeteners’. A 2018 study found that compensation – in this case money off vouchers for the comparatively trivial inconvenience of ‘bad’ Uber rides – was initially popular with complainants, but when repeatedly offered saw a vastly diminishing effect on satisfaction.

The moral: people ultimately valued a meaningful apology in the longer-term. Feeling listened to was more important than being compensated - vouchers just kicked the problem down the road for a while and didn’t address the root cause.

Perhaps those partners and teammates would have valued a line of communication to openly discuss the impact of the IT crash on them personally, and even for them to have offered their informed input over preventing it in future.

In any case, this example underscores the importance of a robust approach to crisis planning and response that looks in detail at actions that would be taken in any likely, or even unlikely, scenario. Thinking about this in advance of a crisis means that a course of action can be carefully considered, while not under stress, avoiding the risk it’ll appear tone deaf and worsen the situation.

No organisation should be in doubt over how it’d cross any particular road and get to the other side. Chicken gag done…Bah dum tsss.