How to write apology email to back clients

    by Irina Podorvan
    28.08.2020

    Oops emails

    Don’t be afraid of making mistakes, afraid not recognizing them. Human beings aren’t perfect, and faults happen. Even in perfect marketing teams. It is essential for a business to use apologize email sample & know how to write a formal letters of apology to improve client experience with the project.

    37% of disappointed clients were good about something was given in return for the mistake according to Carey School of Business. Furthermore, if the brand apologized on top of the credit, satisfaction increased to 74%. So, how to write an apology?

    But the question is how to catch this moment and say sorry to customers to get their loyalty back using apology email and apology email template. Read one more article of the series about email campaign types to find the answer.

    For good management of emails use our special software -  email studio. We also have a great mailing list cleaning software for managing email lists. Using the email addresses collector, you can extract email addresses for sending letters.

    What apology email is

    Oops emails are the letters apologizing for screwing up. If a brand makes a mistake, it should send an apologizing email to clients.

    image of apology

    For example, the website was broken and didn't work for a time. Your customers couldn’t make a purchase. After resolving the problem the company should send such an apology email:

    Images for apology

    Funny apology email to a client

    How to write an apology email subject line

    The subject line is the face of a newsletter, and it should be perfect. In oops emails, it is a little rose that you’ll give to get forgiveness.
    We’ve collected the top 5 variants on how to write a topic a formal apology letter to your client.

    Apology email subject line samples

    1. “Oops ─ the link was incorrect”
      A brand says about the real mistake, and the client sees the reason for sending an email. The recipients will read the apology emails with such a subject line for apology email because they would want to know the correct link.
    2. “Corrected version”
      Such formulation lets the recipients know that in an apology newsletter they’ll get correct information.
    3. “We really do apologize”
      This subject line lets know that the company apologies. The formulation is so sweet and friendly, and likely most that the client will want to open and read oops email.
    4. “Our company is so sorry because of giving wrong information”
      Brand asks for forgiveness and says what mistake it’s done.
    5. “Hearty apologizing because of technical issues with the website”
      The same meaning, but the different formulation. Anyway, both variants sound sincere and pleasant.

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    How to write a formal apology email newsletter to your customer

    Troubles can happen, and your clients may be involved in this situation. If customers have a bad experience using your product, your task is to apologize via email and return their trust to a brand. Here you’ll find some magic words, ideas, and oops email examples for creating an apology letter sample for mistake that will break the ice. Master the art of brand apologizing with us.

    Empathize

    It’s clear that the oops newsletter shouldn’t be emotionless. If someone asks you for forgiveness, you want them to understand you. It is vital because saying “I’m sorry” in email apology for mistake is accessible, but without empathizing, your words have no meaning.

    The first step is to walk in the client’s shoes and understand:

    • What problems did they have because of your mistake?
    • How long did it last?
    • Have they lost the money or trust to the brand?

    If you say about a concrete problem, the client will see that you understand his/her pain

    The keywords that email should have:

    • I understand how important it is for your work process.
    • I imagine how disappointed you are because of this bug.
    • If I were you, I would be frustrated as you.

    Apology email

    Some notes of empathizing are in the apologizing email to clients. It has sincere words and compensation.

    Be proactive

    Answer as quickly as possible in your apologize letter to customer. Contrary to the customer complaint response emails, an apology should be your initiative. Imagine that the customer received a faulty product or your software crashed. And yet, the customer doesn’t send a formal complaint – they may have just decided not to purchase from you again or not to update their contract next year, etc. Then, it’s up to you to send them an apology letter to client that will resonate and change the situation to your best.

    be proactive

    Say “I’m sorry!”

    It’s unexpectedly, isn’t it? But there is such an important detail: you should apologize via company apology letter for pain, not for a mistake. Say that you are so sorry because of the issues that your customer will have.

    Don’t try to justify yourself. It’ll mean that you feel no guilt and want to prove innocence using email to apologise to a customer. Your clients won't appreciate it. They think that you aren’t sincere with them.

    Sincerest apologies in emails are the best way to show care about clients and to increase the trust level to the brand.

    Oops emails

    The Links of London Team asks for forgiveness and explains the reason why it happens. 

    Recognize the mistake

    Don't be afraid to accept that you or the team screwed up in apologize mail. Think about customers and the mistake’s influence on the brand.

    It’s essential to take responsibility for the issue and doesn’t matter if it is severe or not. Say “I’m wrong!” to yourself at first and acknowledge it, then show it to customers.

    One more important thing is not to shift the blame to the employees.

    “The mistake happens because our manager John forgot to send an email to you. I’m sorry. Don’t worry, we have punished him!” Such a sample of apology letter is awful and will serve as a sample for you to avoid mistakes.

    Imagine the situation when you were visiting friends and they started to fight. You feel the awkwardness. The same happens with customers and it is at best.

    It looks as if you aren’t a conscientious person and don’t respect others. Just accept the situation and start to act according to our advice.

    Clients will see a live person, not a strong man, that even sleeps in a tailcoat and neglects other’s feelings. Your clients will appreciate the sincere words and forgive the mistake you did.

    Apologizing email to client

    Delegate

    Always notify the users/clients if you received their feedback to your apology letter to customer for mistake and redirect it to the right department if needed. If you are unable to resolve the problem immediately, please let your customers know that you received an email and that the client's problem will be dealt with by competent staff that is responsible for what happened. As soon as the email has been redirected to the appropriate department, you’re also welcome to hurry up informing the customers about it in an official notice formal apology.

    apologize

    Also, feel free to use customer apology letter sample in your practice, if you haven’t yet experienced such cases and need visual support for your subject line idea.

    Explain the issue

    If the mistake happens, the customers need a clear explanation. They were in a stressful situation, and to calm them down, you should say the reason. If it’s a technical problem, tell about it, if it happens because of your fault, say it too. An oops email example:

    “We are sorry for sending the email at 3 a.m. We had so many newsletters yesterday because we prepare the new event and should inform clients. We just confused the letters. Forgive us for this mistake!”

    Take a moment and write an email. It shows the client’s importance for you.

    Some marketer makes a blunder: instead of explanation, they’ll give a list of excuses.

    How to write an apology email correctly? Imagine you can’t answer the clients. They are disappointed and want to leave you. Your task is to explain the situation for returning the client’s trust. The list of questions to you should be such:

    • We didn’t answer the client, why?
    • Because we were busy, why?
    • Because we had a lack of free people, why?
    • Because we had more work as usual, why?
    • Because we were preparing for a new special event!

    Don’t waste the client’s time and explain it precise and brief.

    Apologizing email to client

    The company explains the problem briefly and asks for giving recommends how they can improve in apology email to a client.

    Solve the problem

    The apology is worth it if it isn’t just words.

    The client needs not only sincere words but also actions and removing the issue.

    After saying that you are sorry, recognizing the mistake, explaining the issue, give the plan of action that your team did to solve the problem.

    The best time of mistaking is removing it.
    Apologizing email to client

    From this apology email, it becomes clear that the problem is eliminated, but the company doesn't say what actions they’ve done for it.

    Acknowledge the customer’s damage

    We are all humans and make mistakes: emails can not be delivered, service can go down, employers can have awful days. The client’s understanding stops when your error brings serious problems.

    If it happens, you should pay attention to the scope of the situation. In oops email say how the mistake influence on client’s business.

    By doing so, your apologizing will be more sincere because you express an understanding of the massive damage that the client will have.

    Apologizing email to client

    FilterEasy expresses the understanding of the damage that clients have, and they apologize for it in an email.

    Share your plan of actions

    Offer the next steps that you will do to prevent the mistake in the future. Do you want to leave the client alone with your issue? If no, show the changes that the company will do to fix it. It should be a need for a client to see that you care about them and is ready to rectify the situation.

    Creating steps and explaining it to customers leads to improving relations and increasing loyalty to the brand.

    The users will see that you worry about the problem and is ready to change it.

    Apology email for customer

    Clients know the actions that they should do from the apology email, but don’t have explanations of what the company has done.

    Give a candy

    For many people, apologizing without giving something in return means nothing.

    You may notice that in every email examples above were this “sweet sorry candy”. A special offer with a discount or a promo code.

    It has several positive sides: the user will get compensation, make a purchase, and stay your loyal client for a long time.

    Many brands have such a practice:

    Apology email for customer

    Apology email for customer

    Apology email for customer

    Some good oops email examples.

    Get in touch after

    Wait for a week sending an apology email and connect with users once again. Say that you have done everything to avoid repeating the mistake.

    Ask what more you can make for them. Add customer’s feedback to the brand development strategy. They appreciate that you are interested in their opinion.

    Apology email for customer

    The brand asks one a straightforward question and provokes users for feedback using apology letter to a client.

    Write in your brand’s style

    It is an apology email, not a medieval diploma. If a brand’s voice is friendly, keep it in the oops email too. The client has to identify your company’s newsletter as they identify a favorite singer’s voice without seeing him/her.

    Apology email for customer

    The apology email is in cat style as previous.

     

    In the right place at the right time

    Average customer satisfaction in e-commerce, for example, is about 82% as per Statista research. Hmm, it looks like a good result but in reality, it means that about18 out of 100 customers remain unhappy with your services. A customer apology letter is first to consider. And in most cases, a sincere apology email, to the point & sent in the right time makes a difference. Think about the timing of the apology mailing. It all depends on the reason for your appeal to subscribers. Again, look for a sample apology letter to customer to make a good attempt to back your clients.

    Explaining yourself

    For example, your client is already unhappy with the problem, so don't keep them waiting for your business apology letter to customer. Always, remind of the problem when you make apologies. Your customers deserve to know the reason. But stay delicate: don't blame anyone, or the company, for anything. Firstly, customers are not interested in this. Secondly, they just want to know that you have been notified of the problem and are working to fix it. Generally, do not act frivolously in your professional apology letter to customer, which can ruin your reputation in the eyes of your customers immediately.  In addition, if you provide a prompt response, you may even trigger the client to help solve the problem efficiently and timely. Or –purchase anything at your expense as a generous excuse. A nice oops email:

    oops email

    Explaining the reason 

    Always apologize to your users if there is a problem that occurred which’s out of your control: system crash or technical issue, no matter how severely this may have affected the customers. People trusted you, and you were unable to provide the proper level of service – that's what they think. They don’t know or don’t care what the reason was. The fact is the fact. That’s how to apologize to a customer for a mistake in this case:

    • Data breach

    A notification of a problem is better to be sent via your business apology email. It is better to send emails immediately. Site users should know that the problem is not on their side. It will be great if you can let them know what to do if data is damaged or in leakage or when the site can be back online, etc. And promise to let users know about the fix afterwards. Don't bother with letter design here. Plain-text will be just fine:

    site breach opps

    • Site crash 

    A notification that everything is in order is better to be sent in your next letter of apology business. When the problem is resolved, you should be quick to inform your users, as well. Follow them up as if you take them by hand and walk all your lifecycle through. But this time, take some time to design something special. It detracts & entertains, provides fun & relief. Here you should once again express your regret and offer users a discount in gratitude for their understanding and patience. Here’s a good customer service apology letter sample in this case:

     

    oops

    • Technical work apology letter to customers

    Usually, it’s some more or less planned or unexpected, but still quite controllable issue. So the information on exact dates and times may be added to letters apologizing for mistakes like that. If you intend to carry out technical work, your site may be just disabled. Of course, it's best to do this at night when the vast majority of your users are not using it, but still. Cases vary. Send your apologize letter for mistake in a few days before the Day X and add relevant text to your site, set up a redirect or error 404 page.

    Here are some customer apology letter examples with good text examples on such occasion:

    oops mail

    Another example of an apology letter to a customer that will do here:

    sales mail

    As you see there are thousands of oops email examples and the text variants you may use in your fruitful customer support work. Sky’s the limit!

    • Apologies for resending the same trigger emails 

    There are no strict time guidelines here on how to send an apology email. But it's better to wait an hour or two for users to catch their breath. People can get angry when they receive multiple identical emails or a line of apology email to client for mistake in a short time and mistakenly may send your email apology to the trash without even reading it. Another important point: stop the script, fix the error, and only then resume the script in your apology letter to client for mistake, site errors, glitch or whatever the reason:

    apology mail

     

    Images for an apology: How to say “Sorry” without being pathetic

    We’ve analyzed 100 of oops emails for a customer and collected tips on what image of apology is acceptable. Let's start with the fact that there are so many brands that send sorry newsletters without images.

    Apology email for customer

    An oops email without images.

    In our minds, it isn’t effective and boring. Furthermore, images influence emotional perception. A well-designed model of these emails can strengthen a client's desire to forgive you.
    Catch our chart of the image for an apology.

    1. Our first tip ─ don’t use google pictures. First of all, you can run into somebody’s authorship images and get a subpoena. Furthermore, such photos are used by everyone. Your oops newsletter should have unique pictures that nobody has seen before.
      Letters apologizing foe screwing up


      In this apology newsletter brand doesn’t use google pictures, it uses the photo that was taken especially for the company.

    2. Don’t use so many cats, dogs, and other sweet animals. You ask forgiveness, not alms. It can be aptly if you sell stuff for animals or when it is used not to evoke pity.

      Letters apologizing foe screwing up

      The cats in this email are sweet but have no meaning. Without reading a text, the client won't understand the purpose of the newsletter.

      Letters apologizing foe screwing up

      In this situation, the image of a dog looks well because the store sells pets nutrition.

    3. Don’t forget about the brand icon. There are thousand of oops emails in the customer’s inbox. They should identify your one and the brand icon does it at best.

      Letters apologizing foe screwing up

    4. Use an image that refers to the company’s line of work. For example, you have a coffee store, and your subscribers get an interesting fact about coffee once a week. In one of the emails, you were wrong with the information. In the apology newsletter, you may use a photo of a cup of coffee or something like that. Remember about the first tip.

      Letters apologizing foe screwing up

      This is an oops email of beauty products store. The company uses a photo of the model with good hair and makeup. Furthermore, it doesn’t forget about the logo.

    5. The last general rule ─ Don’t use too bright and different colors. In the apology newsletter, this problem is bigger, because companies want to pay attention and do it by colors or vivid pictures, that evoke a desire to become blind.

      Letters apologizing foe screwing up

    The email is hard to read, because of the text and the background color incompatibility.

    How to write an apology letter to a customer various scenarios

    We’ve come up with an apology letter to customer templates for every scenario you may come across while dealing with a variety of customers/system problems. Using them to apologize email for mistake will be easier and more effective because it saves you time and other resources. So, here we go:

    1. Apology letter to clients for a serious mistake, sent to an individual customer;
    2. Apologizing for a minor mistake to an individual customer;
    3. For a serious mistake to apologize to customer multiple; 
    4. Scenario sample to a letter of apologies to a customer or multiple customers for a minor mistake.

    That’s how to apologize in email for a variety of most common cases when some trouble occurs. Keep in mind that writing an apology email you should have the apologetic tone, appropriate subject lines. In the apology emails for minor mistakes it may be cheeky and fun, but may not be right for your brand. Be sure to modify the tone of voice to match your company’s voice, as well as grasp the customers’ mood for email apologies.

    Do not feel drastic as you need to stay close to your customers. Offer the best possible support in your apologize email.  Even when things go wrong the most drastically, do not despair and try to catch an opportunity to engage your customers across multiple channels even via apologise email to customer with Atomic Email marketing tools, well integrated into your customer engagement platform. Apply sample apology letters to customers to speed up and optimize your work.

    Conclusion about how to write an apology email

    Mistakes happen. It is a typical situation for each company. The client’s trust in a brand depends on how your “I’m sorry” will sound. Remember about our tips:

    • don’t try to justify yourself and blame others;
    • explain the issue and solve it;
    • ask for feedback later.

    If you’ll make customer comfort and positive experience number one priority, be sure they forgive you small mistakes.

    In our list of software there is also an email marketing softaware - Atomic email verifier for checking the email address, to do it online use check email validity online

    Written by:
    Irina Podorvan
    Back to blog
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