5 Specific Times Every Entrepreneur Must Send An Apology Email

"Never ruin an apology with an excuse." - Benjamin Franklin

Messing up is a fact of life. It happens to us all and some more than others.

I'm confident that each of you reading this might even recall the first time you messed up, and your mom or teacher looked at you and said… "what do you say now, little Ricky?"

To which little Ricky would look down, shuffle his feet and say… "I'm sorry."

Of course, the quality of the apology was also dependent on the infraction. Maybe I cut in line, could be I kicked Eddie in the shin, one time I think I cut the line, kicked a shin, and then called Eddie's mom a name. See, the apology has gotta fit the crime.

I'm not entirely sure if we truly grasped the importance of an apology way back as kids, but here we are now. All grown up and maybe sending emails to friends, colleagues, associates, clients, or perhaps even a boss.

And I bet due to so many of us working at and from home, emails are even more a part of our daily lives.

Am I right?

So the question I'm going to answer isn't so much HOW to apologize. Your parents and 3rd-grade teacher taught you that.

Nah.

I'm going to share more of the when and how to apologize using email.

Made a mistake?

Act quickly. Never let it sit because the moment will pass and leave both you and the other person wondering WTH?

So WHEN does a person need to send an apology email? Well, ask yourself these two questions first:

1. If you DON'T apologize, will the other person feel off-put or confused?

2. Did you or your company do something that upset or offended anyone?

If you are nodding your head or answered yes to one, or both of these, then yep, you better crack open that laptop and warm up your pretty little fingers for an apology email.

Not all apologies are created equal, and depending on the type and depth of error, that will determine how you "say" it. And of course, there are obvi way more reason to apologize, these are simply the top five.

1. Bad links, typos, or wrong info

Let's say you send an email to your subscribers, and one of these is plainly evident. A broken link, some God awful typos, etc… Look, these are often super simple and easily corrected errors. Don't overthink this type of apology email.

The remedy here can be easy peasy. Just write up a new email and simply say "whoops" or "My bad," and be sure to include the corrections.

The fix: Double-check EVERY email before you send them out, and when the test email arrives, click every link for accuracy.

2. Wrong list or audience

Guilty as charged.

Many folks out there have more than one list or batch of subscribers. Heck, some of you may even be managing multiple lists for clients.

Ever accidentally write up some wordly awesomeness then promptly fire it off to the wrong list?

What a bummer it must be to find out your vegan restaurant client just received a sale alert that was supposed to go to your beef jerky of the month club list. Oi vey…

Uhm, yeah. A definite apology is in order and probably sooner than later!

The fix: never, ever, rush through this process and always double-check that the right list is cued to receive the email…

3. Premature email send

I've learned this one the hard way. Maybe you have too.

I'll be furiously typing up what I believe to be one of my best emails ever. The one that's gonna drive interest, clicks, and sales, and just when I'm ready to test it out, I realize it wasn't a test.

I sent it out…LIVE.

Prematurely.

Whoops.

These are the kind of apology emails where I might poke fun at myself. Keep it light, apologize and re-send, baby!

The fix: Take. Your. Time. And also, double-check that you are in test mode and send it to your ONE designated email test address first.

4. Lousy service or broke products

It happens. Things get broke in transit, or worse, a customer is torqued about inadequate service. Act on these way sooner rather than later. I won't go into customer service lessons here; suffice it to say that one poor remark or comment can be catastrophic to a business.

Word travels fast, my friend.

The fix: You better jump on this lickety-split partner. Don't even think twice about whose fault it is. Own up to it asap…

This then leads me into the next reason, and 1st cousin to poor service, which is…

5. Serious Errors

The best thing to do in this case is to own it. Cowboy, or cowgirl up and own the darn thing and let 'em know asap. Be sure to tell them that it will never happen again and a plan to rectify future boo-boo's of this magnitude.

The fix: Seriously? If I really have to give you an example of how to fix this, you may want to re-consider being in business.

So we have covered a few of the "when" to send an apology. Let's dig into the "How".

One thing you should never forget is just because it's email doesn't mean it matters less. Sometimes we get caught up in our laptop screens, furiously hammering away, and we may gloss over the fact that when you hit "SEND," there will be a real, live human on the other end waiting to read and feel what you just sent.

In the end, the biggest lesson you should take from this is that's it's better to own the error and apologize than to hope it goes unnoticed and swept under the rug. All you're gonna end up with is a really bumpy foundation when all that dirt piles up.