Seven-year-old Bri wanted to apologize to Santa Claus. Rather than put pencil to paper, she put fingers to keyboard, posting her note on emailsanta.com. The note read, “I’m sorry for putting all that Ex-Lax in your milk last year, but I wasn’t sure if you were real. My dad was really mad.”
Since first coming across this tale, I’ve heard it in enough versions to convince me “Bri” might actually be short for “Brian,” that mischievous CPA who loves to post prank messages on all the good websites. Even so, the story lets me introduce the topics of “I’m sorry” and misunderstandings.
Researchers at University of Southern California, Northwestern University, and Nagoya City University point out important cultural differences in the understood meaning of “I’m sorry.” Specifically, consumers who identify with an American culture understand “I’m sorry” from a merchant to mean, “I accept responsibility for having done something wrong.” On the other hand, consumers who identify with a Japanese culture understand the direct translation to mean, “I regret this occurred.”
A survey of college students from the two cultures finds the Japanese apologize about 245% as much as Americans do. In Japan, the apology is more likely to be expressing sympathy and a desire to preserve the relationship.
Then there’s Hong Kong, where business, apologies are common enough for them to be considered meaningless rituals. In India, the equivalent of “I’m sorry” is heard rarely in business, which could give it high significance—or arouse suspiciousness—on those unusual occasions when it is heard.
That’s within a culture. If we cross cultures, we’ll also need to confront the issue that to someone learning English, “I’m sorry” could be misunderstood to mean, “I feel sorry for you,” which might be considered a demeaning sentiment.
Regardless of your culture and language, make your “sorry” a commitment to helping to remedy the problem. Maybe, it is best to avoid using the word “sorry” at all.
A few years ago, an item Best Buy intended to sell for $1,699.99 was offered online, in error, for $9.99. When the problem was discovered, Best Buy promptly shut down order-taking for the item, then posted a statement saying, “We sincerely apologize for this error and make every effort to ensure issues like this do not happen…. While we are truly embarrassed that this occurred, Best Buy will not be able to honor the $9.99 price.”
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Apologize to Customers for Retailing Errors
Produce Aha Experiences for Shoppers
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