Apology Letter To Customer: Tips + Free Template

Apologies are a high-stakes art form. In 1077, Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV successfully reversed his excommunication from the Catholic Church by standing barefoot in the snow for three days as a sign of apology to Pope Gregory VII. On the other hand, in 1974, President Nixon was forced to resign after his failed attempts to defend his personal character and justify the Watergate events.

Although an effective customer apology letter doesn’t require mortification of the flesh, there’s present-day value for businesses in both examples: Expressing sincere regret is effective (especially if you can prove it), and denial isn’t.

A sincere apology letter can help businesses repair damaged relationships and alleviate customer concerns about the future. Here’s when to write a customer apology letter, nine best practices for writing an apology letter, and a customizable customer apology email template to help you get it right. 

When should you write an apology letter to customers?

Businesses send formal apology letters whenever they need to repair a customer relationship. They can help you regain a customer’s business or, at a minimum, minimize the damage to your reputation. 

Although you can’t anticipate them all, you can create a list of conditions that will trigger an apology letter for your business. A formal apology letter policy can help your customer service team identify qualifying situations and respond in a timely manner, or even reach out proactively, when warranted. 

Here’s a list of situations that can warrant apology letters:

• Order issues. Shipment delays, out-of-stock items, billing errors, lost returns, or delayed refunds.

• Product or service issues. Canceled reservations, delayed or rescheduled services, missed appointments, technical issues, poor product performance, or service interruptions.

• Customer experience issues. Communication mistakes, poor customer service experiences, negative employee interactions, employee or company wrongdoing, or customer complaints.

• Security and security issues. Data breaches, lost or damaged property, endangerment, leaked information, or confidentiality breaches.

Best practices for writing a customer apology letter

• Act fast
• Take full responsibility
• Be authentic
• Offer a solution
• Show you’ve changed
• Be proactive
• Make it personal
• Follow up
• Seek legal advice

A well-crafted apology letter or apology email is a powerful business tool. Sincerely apologizing can help you restore a customer’s faith in your business, and an excellent letter can even improve customer satisfaction compared to the baseline after resolving an issue.

These best practices can help you write an effective apology letter to a customer:

Act fast

It’s not just what you say that matters, or even how you say it; it’s also a matter of when. Timely letters show sincere regret and demonstrate competent management, which can inspire faith in your ability to avoid a repeat issue. Customers can interpret delayed responses as a sign of disrespect, and long waits give unhappy customers plenty of time to air their grievances on social media platforms and other digital channels.

Take full responsibility

The goal of an apology letter is to regain a customer’s trust, not to exonerate your business, so resist the urge to defend yourself by explaining why something went wrong. From a customer’s perspective, the reason why an issue occurred rarely matters. Instead, sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused, mentioning contributing factors only in relation to the changes that were implemented. 

Be authentic

It’s challenging to express regret when you don’t feel it, and an insincere apology can be off-putting. Instead of faking it, identify your real feelings about a situation and share them selectively. You won’t say that you found a customer’s response completely disproportionate to the issue they experienced, but you can include your genuine regret that their monogrammed napkins arrived too late for a birthday party and your sincere hope that they’ll consider you for future projects.

Offer a solution

Propose a solution to the customer’s problem, such as a replacement item or a full refund and free shipping on their next order. For problems you can’t solve, like a canceled client appointment or a negative interaction with your customer service team, minimize the impact as much as possible. Offer something in recognition of their trouble, such as a free appointment with priority scheduling or a gift basket complete with a handwritten note from your company’s founder and an invitation to call their direct line with further questions.

Show you’ve changed

Share your plans to avoid future mistakes, but don’t overpromise. You can’t guarantee that no customer will experience poor service again or that a customer has never experienced a final product malfunction in the history of your company, but you can share process and personnel changes that minimize the chances of a repeat issue.

Be proactive

You don’t need to wait for a formal complaint to reach out to an unhappy customer. Customer feedback analysis tools can help isolate negative feedback in customer emails, reviews, surveys, and responses. Social listening tools, on the other hand, can track mentions of your brand online and flag customers for outreach. Take advantage of these tools to get ahead of customer complaints and respond to disgruntled customers wherever they’re voicing their concerns. 

Make it personal

Effective apologies are personal. Address your recipient by name (instead of as “dear customer"), and have your customer service representatives sign letters with their names, not your company’s.

Follow up

If a customer doesn’t respond to an apology email within three business days, send a brief follow-up that reiterates your sincere apologies and offers further assistance. You can set a calendar reminder to help you stay on top of the task.

Seek legal advice

If you’re worried about a potential lawsuit, have an attorney review a draft of your apology letter before you send it. Any interaction with the customer could resurface during a court case, and subtle language choices can have legal implications.

Graza olive oil: Customer apology letter example

Personal apology letters are an effective way to respond to an unhappy customer, but what if you need to apologize to an entire group of people? On a recent episode of the Shopify Masters podcast, Andrew Benin, the founder of olive oil retailer Graza, shared how he used a mass apology letter to apologize to his business’s entire customer base. 

Graza launched in 2022, and early demand for its products quickly overwhelmed the company’s distribution system. “Our order volumes were a lot higher than we had anticipated,” says Andrew. “We were really pressure tested, and some gaskets broke.” 

Andrew’s customer service team began receiving customer complaints and observing product issues in person. “[We had] flaking labels; our embossing was peeling off. Some of our bottles were dented. People are waiting three weeks to get their products,” Andrew says. “It got to the point where we couldn’t quantify how big of an issue it was.”

Andrew and his team decided to apologize to their customers en masse. “[We] just had an idea to email all 70,000 or 80,000 of our customers at the same time to say sorry,” Andrew says.

Graza’s apology email was proactive, timely, and sincere. Andrew took full responsibility for product issues, using the letter to apologize, own up to the company’s mistakes, and reassure customers of its progress toward a fix. “This is simply an acknowledgement that we are not perfect, and we are aware that we may have disappointed some folks over the past 60 days, and into the gifting season,” he wrote, adding, “I can assure you that our team is hard at work improving,” and “I want to apologize for not being excellent in terms of your customer experience.”

The letter goes on to name each issue, including problems with gift sets, damaged bottles and labels, account management difficulties, and long processing times. It also includes a simple “We are sorry” and a description of corrective actions in each section. It concludes by requesting feedback on any future issues and offering a small discount applicable to future purchases. 

The apology email was a huge success. Graza received nearly a thousand responses thanking the brand for its honesty and pledging ongoing customer loyalty. The letter even earned coverage in The Wall Street Journal, impressing journalist and Graza customer Ben Cohen with its sincerity.

“The mea culpa from a one-year-old company with the subject line ‘Learning from our mistakes’ was just about the opposite of a typical corporate response,” Ben writes in his piece for The Wall Street Journal. “It explained in plain English and candid detail what went wrong and why. It took accountability for those errors and offered a discount on future orders.” Despite its massive audience, the letter also felt personal. “It was raw, transparent about uncertainty and messy with typos and misspellings,” Ben adds. “It was also oddly entertaining and strangely charming.”

Customer apology letter template

Apology letter templates can streamline the writing process. Businesses will often create multiple apology letter templates for the various types of issues they frequently face, so they can act quickly when the need arises. Here’s an all-purpose apology email template and an example of it in use:

Template

Subject line: [Apology + optional gesture towards what happened]

Dear [Customer name],

I’m writing on behalf of [Company name] to express my sincere apologies for [incident].

We pride ourselves on [relevant elements of company mission], and we deeply regret [acknowledgment of incident’s effect on customer].

We’ve [initial efforts to solve the customer’s problem]. We’ve also [actions taken to prevent a repeat incident].

I want to extend a personal thank you for reaching out to us about [incident]. Feedback like yours helps us provide a better experience for all our customers, and [additional compensatory gesture or personal expression of appreciation for the customer].

Please let me know if I can [offer of continued support or invitation to reply with further questions], and thank you for trusting us with your business. 

Sincerely, 

[Business representative name, role, and company name]

Sample customer apology letter for an order issue

Subject line: Apologies for your recent order experience

Dear Rachel, 

I’m writing on behalf of Bella Maria to express my sincere apologies for the damage your recent order sustained during shipping. We pride ourselves on exceptional service and the reliable delivery of authentic, bakery-fresh Italian desserts and pastries nationwide. We deeply regret that your experience didn’t live up to those standards. 

We’ve refunded your order, and our support team has sent a duplicate order to you, free of charge. We’ve also notified our courier service about the issue and are exploring more resilient packaging alternatives. 

I also want to extend a personal thank you for reaching out to us about your order. Customer feedback like yours helps us provide a better experience for all our customers. We’ve issued $100 in store credit to your account as a small token of our appreciation.

Please let me know if I can offer any further assistance. Thank you for trusting us with your business. 

Sincerely, 

Mike Beltempo, Customer Service Manager 

Bella Maria Bakery