For Better Customer Service, Offer Options, Not Apologies

Jagdip Singh, a professor of marketing at the Weatherhead School of
Management at Case Western Reserve University, explains his
research team’s new findings about customer satisfaction. He says
apologizing is often counterproductive and that offering customers
different possible solutions is usually more effective. He
discusses what companies can do to help service representatives
lead interactions that leave a customer satisfied—whether or not
the problem has been solved. Singh’s research is featured in the
article "‘Sorry’ Is Not Enough" in the January–February 2018 issue
of Harvard Business Review.