When things break: own it, fix it, make the customer whole.
An apology that names the specific failure beats five paragraphs of "we apologise for any inconvenience". State what broke, what you're doing about it, and what the customer can expect next. Do not over-explain the root cause unless asked. Do offer a credit before the customer asks for one, the gesture is what registers, not the dollar amount. Avoid passive voice ("mistakes were made") and never start with "unfortunately". The recovery is not the apology email itself, it's whether you followed through on the next step you committed to.
Apology: downtime
After a multi-hour outage. Sincere apology + service credit.
Open →Apology: billing error
We charged wrong amount or wrong account.
Open →Apology: slow response
Ticket sat for too long without reply.
Open →Apology: feature removed
Removed a feature customer relied on.
Open →Apology: data incident notification
Required disclosure of a data exposure incident.
Open →Apology: wrong info given
Previous reply contained incorrect information.
Open →Apology: agent behaviour
Customer felt dismissed or disrespected by previous agent.
Open →Apology: missed commitment
Promised a delivery / fix / callback and missed it.
Open →Pricing change: explanation
Customer upset about price increase.
Open →Apology: issue cannot be resolved
Customer has a problem we genuinely can't fix.
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