Take responsibility when you screw up

How would you rate your ability to accept accountability when things go wrong?
Your apology is your humanity litmus test. It is unavoidable that at some point, your business will suffer a failure that disappoints customers. How your company reacts, explains, removes the pain, and takes accountability for actions signals how you think about customers, and the collective heart of your organization.
Grace and wisdom guide decisions of beloved companies toward accepting responsibility and resolving the situation when the chips are down—not accusations and skirting accountability. Repairing the emotional connection well is a hallmark of beloved companies. It makes us love them even more.
When a beloved company apologizes for something that goes wrong, the intent and motivation is to make customers whole—to earn the right to continue the relationship. However, repairing the emotional connection with customers in distress can be costly.
Often the easy-to-execute apology is extended, but the intent is to only “get past the incident.” Beloved companies don’t consider the job done until the emotional connection with customers is restored.
They turn “recovery” into an opportunity that says to customers, “Who else would respond this way?”