Dyadic Dynamics

Engagement is everything.

Ben P. Rosenfield

The Art of the Apology

Many of us learn at a young age to apologize when we goof up. The apology is as much an opportunity for us to save a relationship as it is a chance to look inward and develop preventive measures we can use the next time we’re heading into a similar situation.

The apology affords companies the same opportunities. It’s a high-impact way for them to demonstrate accountability, de-escalate customers’ emotional responses, and even prevent litigation.

Apologizing is an art, especially when it’s on behalf of an organization. Let’s take a look at how to develop an apology and avoid making common mistakes. We’ll also check out an apology that left customers with a smile.

Hone your tone

Make the message meet the moment. For example, if a utility company were to accidentally cause 500,000 of its customers to go without power in their homes for a week, it would be unwise to send those customers a witty apology loaded with zingers like: Watt went wrong? We’re as shocked as you are!

Apologizing is one of those times when if you have to ask, the answer is yes. Is this too funny, given the fact that we left half a million people without power in their homes for a week? Yes.

But when a mistake isn’t catastrophic — and isn’t actually harmful at all — it’s fine to show some personality or self-deprecating humor in the course of patching things up with customers. Making too big of a deal out of a small, benign mistake is just as bad as taking a flippant tone when apologizing for a major issue.

Not every mistake is life or death; but each mistake is a chance to prove you’re conscientious and value your customers.

You can find plenty of examples out there if you’re looking for a sterile non-apology that shows you’re only interested going through the motions. The one we’ll review a bit later will show you that an apology can be a strategic communication that delights customers and demonstrates that you care.

Mistakes to avoid

Effective apologies present necessary information in a direct, plainly worded, and conversational way. At the very least, they should say what happened, express remorse, and explain how to contact the company. If you’re able to share information about resolution and next steps, then include it. But no matter what, you should do your best to keep the following out of the apology.

Impeaching your credibility

Let’s say your company exists solely to provide data security. One day, your company is responsible for a data breach. The last thing you want to say in an apology is: Keeping your data secure is our top priority. Clearly, it’s not; otherwise, your company would have prevented the breach. That’s what customers will think.

Hiding away

You can’t account for every possible outcome or perception when you apologize to your audience. Some people will have questions. Others will want more information. Make sure your apology provides at least one way for customers to connect with you. Don’t hide yourself away in hopes that the apology will settle the matter for the entire audience.

Couching

Couching, also known as hedging, is when you lead into a thought in a way that you hope will soften the blow to the reader. Instead, couching wastes their time and takes the power away from your apology.

See an example

Couching: We just wanted to write to you today to let you know we messed up.

Direct: We messed up.

Disclaiming

Disclaiming, also known as totally chickening out, is designed to deflect responsibility away from the company. Ultimately, disclaiming makes customers think your business is weak, insincere, and even deceptive.

See an example

Disclaiming: We’re sorry for any inconvenience we may have caused.

Direct: We’re sorry we inconvenienced you.

Getting lost in the weeds

Be as clear and as helpful as possible, but remember that giving too much information confuses and distracts your customers. Focus on their needs first. Accept the fact that they may not care about something that your company feels is important.

See an example

In the weeds: One of our data systems in Anytown, USA, experienced an ID10T error at 3:27 a.m. Pacific, and that caused our email software to send you three duplicate emails on August 13: one at 3:28 a.m., one at 3:30 a.m., and one at 3:34 a.m. Pacific.

In the clear: A technical problem on our end caused us to send you duplicate emails on August 13.

Making empty promises

Stick to the facts. Saying the mistake will never happen again is ridiculous. It will happen again or a similar one will pop up. The customer won’t know, or care about, the difference between the two issues. If you’ve resolved the problem, just say that.

See an example

Empty promise: We discovered a problem with our payment system. We’ve fixed the issue, and it will never happen again.

Reasonable assurance: We discovered a problem with our payment system. We’ve fixed the issue.

The biggest mistake

What’s the biggest mistake your company can make when it’s time to apologize? Not having a process in place. If your organization doesn’t have one that people can follow consistently, then you’re putting your business at risk.

Why is this such a big deal? Because the need to apologize introduces unexpected change — and the change could be big and fast-moving, which only makes matters worse. Governance prevents change from disrupting your operations. In this case, it enables your organization to handle most apology-worthy situations in predictable, repeatable ways. Here are some quick thoughts to help you start.

When and how to apologize

These are critically important parts of your process. When should you apologize? Do you reach out to customers any time something goes wrong? Do you set a threshold where you apologize only if your mistake affects more than 1,000 customers? If you find an issue, do you wait for customers to complain or do you say something proactively?

First, set your policy for when, and then document the how. For example, you decide that your organization will apologize to impacted customers any time the company makes a mistake (when). Next, you establish a rule that says you’ll use the channel in which you made your mistake (how). For example, if you were to send customers an email that contained inaccurate information, you’d email an apology to that same audience.

A real-world example

A health and wellness marketer once asked me to write an apology that would address a minor issue with a campaign they led. The campaign’s purpose was to entice people to visit a doctor for a preventive screening — a blood-pressure check, for example. It involved a mailer that offered a gift card as an incentive for completing the targeted care visit.

A third-party print vendor used a master template for the mailer and flowed the name of the preventive screening into it dynamically. The rest of the content was static, including deadline for participation, instructions for sending in proof of the exam to get the gift card, and so on.

A mailer that focused on getting a mammogram (an x-ray image of the breast to help detect cancer) would pull the word mammogram into each fill-in-the-blank in the template. A mailer that focused on getting a dilated retinal exam (checking the eyes for diabetic retinopathy and other conditions) would be exactly the same as the mammogram mailer, but it would instead show the phrase dilated retinal exam in each fill-in-the-blank in the template.

Unfortunately, a data problem at the printing facility caused the phrase dilated retinal exam to appear in one of the fill-in-the-blank spots in a mailer that targeted mammograms. Now, is that the end of the world? No. Is it a catastrophic mistake that requires legal counsel and public relations to get involved? No.

Most, if not all, would see mammogram over and over again on the mailer and understand that the incentive was tied to getting a mammogram. They would know that the mention of the retinal exam was made in error. But any mistake is a potential hit to the company’s credibility and customer trust. The company rightly took responsibility for the mistake and issued an apology.

The apology

Get a mammogram. Get a gift card.

It was really supposed to be that simple. But it turns out we made a mistake in the directions we sent you for claiming your gift card.

The second instruction said to send in your dilated retinal exam information. That doesn’t make sense because we’re talking about mammograms — not eye tests.

It should’ve said send in your mammogram information instead. We’re sorry for the confusion we caused.

You get the mammogram and the gift card. We’ll get the eye exam so we can catch mistakes like this sooner.

If you have questions, please call us at 000-000-0000.

Sincerely,

The Health and Wellness Group

What makes this apology effective? The communication:

  • Tells the customer about the failure and shows the company accepts responsibility for it.
  • Acknowledges the mistake openly and honestly, and it expresses regret authentically.
  • Shows the company understands that its customers value and expect accurate information.
  • Expresses personality by poking fun at the company for making a totally avoidable mistake.
  • Closes with humor to further defuse the situation and reinforce the original marketing message in a friendly way.
  • Gives customers a way to contact the company if they have questions or concerns.

Most importantly, it’s more memorable than the mistake. We’ll close this discussion below with why that matters so much.

Make it memorable

The best apology is one that’s more memorable than the mistake. A memorable apology doesn’t erase the problem or cause customers to forget it. In the short term, an apology that outshines its cause will persuade customers to focus on your transparency and how well you’re handling the situation. In the long term, it will influence their perception of your brand.

If you have questions or would like more information, please contact me.

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Influencing People’s Perception of Bad News

Do you love hearing from your health insurer? Probably not. And that’s likely because you expect to hear only bad news: Your claim was denied. Your monthly premium will increase next year. Your doctor has decided to leave your health plan’s network.

A lot of the hate that health insurers get comes from what they communicate to their members. Even more comes from how they communicate. They have to tell you what’s going on with your health plan, but do they have to do it like that?

Health insurers certainly are not alone. Every business is susceptible to negative perception when they share bad news. After all, it makes people unhappy. But we can influence how unhappy people will be after they open the envelope or email.

Getting to the perception problem

The utilization management (UM) denial is the most inflammatory communication a health insurer sends.

The UM denial advises the member that the insurer has decided that it won’t cover the cost of the member’s care — a treatment, procedure, medication, or something else along those lines — for one or more reasons.

Here’s a simplified overview of preceding events, commonly known as prior authorization or pre-authorization:

  • The member or their doctor asks the health insurer to review a request for care.
  • A medical or clinical expert then evaluates the request for the insurer as part of a UM review and makes a determination about the care based on several factors.
  • Finally, the insurer decides whether it will cover the requested care, and then reports that decision to the member.

Not surprisingly, this communication is a hot fire. But if the message itself weren’t enough, imagine also having to cope with technical language, clinical terminology, industry-specific jargon, and regulatory disclosures. No brand voice or tone to be found. Potentially dozens of pages to read. Together, these attributes make the communication hard to understand, navigate, and use.

Why is this a problem? In this case, the negative perception that arises from what and how the health insurance company communicates causes its members to lose confidence and trust in the insurer — and in their health coverage. Furthermore, people who feel betrayed may choose to take action. No business wants negative word of mouth, bad press, or litigation.

See sentiments about UM denials

There are several reasons why people hold extremely negative views of UM denials. The following, based on audience research I led, are the most typical:

  • A doctor or other healthcare professional said the care is necessary. They’re the experts, not the insurance company.
  • Insurance should cover the care, no matter what. After all, that’s why people pay for insurance in the first place.
  • The insurer is hiding something, or is not acting ethically or honestly, because the communication is too difficult to understand.
  • Health insurance is already too expensive and too hard to use. This is yet another let-down from the insurance company.

A summary of the opportunity

A major health insurance company approached me about overhauling its UM denial communication to improve member perception — once in 2019 and again a few years later.

I focused on bringing plain language and brand voice into the communication during the first rework. In the second, I built on previous enhancements by concentrating on showing empathy, further simplifying the messaging, and reorganizing information to improve member access and overall experience.

My goal was not to strong-arm the member into feeling joy upon learning their insurer wouldn’t cover their care. Instead, it was to:

  • Make it easier for the member to understand what was happening and to find information.
  • Make options and next steps apparent.
  • Help the member feel confident in their ability to handle the situation successfully on their own (self-efficacy).

The next parts of our discussion describe the various stages of the work, the results, and how I used fresh insights to develop the final version of the communication. But before we go any further, it’s important to give credit to the people who developed the original UM denial.

Experienced professionals did their best with a very challenging piece of work and delivered what was right at the time at that insurance company. It was a massive undertaking that required considerable expertise, data, and cross-functional stakeholder involvement. Their partnership and commitment to continuous improvement made the rewrites possible.

Day one: hypothesize and rewrite

Developing hypotheses is a great way to connect your work to a purpose and learn whether it connects as anticipated. I looked at members’ functional and emotional needs through an empathic lens, balanced those needs with the business’s new consumerism goals and its adjusted brand voice, and then put the following hypotheses together:

  • Further humanizing and demystifying the UM review process will improve perceived empathy and compassion.
  • Increasing the use of plain language (wording and visual design) will improve perceived clarity and ease of doing business.
  • Reorganizing the communication to better deliver the information the member needs right away will improve perceived clarity and ease of doing business.

I then rewrote and reorganized the communication completely, keeping it aligned to a structure that would not only enhance member comprehension and experience, but also deliver measurable ROI to the business.

People who understand what they’re reading and can find the information they need on their own don’t call the company to bail them out — or to complain. Each phone call to the insurer’s support team costs the company a certain dollar amount.

Successful call-volume reduction can return millions of dollars to the bottom line quickly. That’s the ROI. And it is entirely possible to build an objective attribution model that shows improved content led to a drop in calls.

See an overview of enhancements
  • Page one acts as a cover letter that shares only what the member values most.
  • Legal, regulatory, contractual, and technical content moves onto subsequent pages that the member may choose to read.
  • The simplified introductory paragraph clarifies the purpose of the communication and explains concisely what’s happening in the moment.
  • The second paragraph expresses empathy, uses a more supportive brand voice, and takes a calmer tone.
  • The third paragraph describes the company’s decision in a relatable way and eliminates the need for the member to look for information.
  • Moving the denial rationale up makes it more accessible. (The denial message changes from case to case. The company’s clinical organization owns it.)
  • The last section presents scannable, bulleted information the member may need sooner than later.
  • The sidebar uses color to draw attention to important details, including how to reach the company for support.

Day two: test the content

Testing included the 2019 rewrite (Version A) and the proposed new communication (Version B). It also asked respondents about perceived clarity, compassion, ease of doing business, and empathy. The A/B test gathered actionable insights from a large sample population (n=1000) in one business day.

Samples of Version A and Version B appear below. Both are cleansed of brand-specific details. Click or select a thumbnail image to see it at full size. It will open in a new tab or window.

Day three: see the results

Version B was the clear winner. It delivered significant percentage increases in audience perception across all four areas in the A/B test:

  • Clarity: +12%
  • Compassion: +8%
  • Ease of doing business: +31%
  • Empathy: +33%

Remember, the test involved letters from a health insurer that say the insurer won’t cover the cost of a person’s healthcare.

How communications impact perception

If your communication is accessible, relatable, and actionable, then most of the negative feedback you’ll hear will focus on issues outside of the messaging and, typically, outside of what the marketing or communications team owns.

  • Business decisions. The price of health insurance is too high.
  • Experiences. Customer support kept me on hold for an hour.
  • Biases. I don’t trust any health insurance companies at all.

Want proof? Consider the following feedback from respondents about Version B, the proposed new communication. The positives focus on the messaging, while the negatives concentrate on the business decision.

Positive:

  • “The letter was clear enough for me to understand that the request was denied due to it being unnecessary. It sounds compassionate and empathic while still maintaining professionalism.”
  • “I think the letter is well worded. I’m sure someone would be mad at the denial, but having it communicated in a proper way does help.”

Negative:

  • “This should not exist. That’s the only way to make this compassionate. If my doctor and I decide that medicine is necessary, the insurance that I pay for should cover it. That’s the whole point of health insurance.”
  • “Insurance denied coverage because of a technicality…. Insurance clearly doesn’t care and doesn’t want to pay.”

Day four: develop the final version

Version B was the new champion, but it wasn’t quite ready to defend its title. Why not? Because fresh insights from the test pointed out a few more opportunities to further improve the communication:

  • Make denial details/rationale more prominent.
  • Prioritize next steps/actions for appealing the denial decision.
  • Remove statements that seem to be in contradiction, such as: Your plan doesn’t cover this kind of care. But that doesn’t mean that you should stop getting medical care.

This feedback makes sense when you exercise cognitive empathy — that is, taking the audience’s perspective and making it your own. For example, if you were reading the denial letter, what (rational and legal) action would you most likely want to take first? You’d want to fight the decision by filing an appeal. A significant number of respondents said that’s what they’d want to do.

Letting people know on page one instead of on page 17 that they can appeal the denial decision is part of reflecting cognitive empathy in the messaging. The other part is sharing how to appeal. As a result, the cover letter advises about appealing, and a plain-language guide to filing an appeal immediately follows the cover letter.

See tips about working with feedback

You may think that you need to bring all of the feedback you receive into your work, or that you have to take every verbatim comment you read to heart. Don’t attempt to do either; otherwise, you’ll never finish your work.

Quantity serves as a guide to prioritizing what goes into the final round of revision. If you see lots of feedback about a particular aspect of the communication, that’s a great start. If you survey 1,000 people and 60% (600) say you need to mention appeals sooner, then mention appeals sooner.

Passion is another indicator. It’s not perfect, but if you can use it to complement quantity, then you’re on track to making a data-driven decision of very high quality. Don’t overthink it, and don’t overdo it.

The words love and hate are more passionate than like or dislike. Profanity is another example of strongly passionate language.

To sum it up, the more you see a certain topic in the feedback, and the more passionate the feedback is, the more you need to use it to guide your work.

The final version of the UM denial communication:

  • Humanizes the review process and shows empathy while upholding the intent of the communication.
  • Provides information members need right away: the decision, denial rationale, and their right to appeal the denial.
  • Summarizes important review information, contact information for support, and contact information for appeals up front, in the sidebar.
  • Organizes the communication into a cover letter with enclosures vs. one long, continuous communication.

A sample of the final version appears below. The sample is cleansed of brand-specific details. Click or select the image to see it at full size. It will open in a new tab or window.

Minimizing the heat

The path of putting the customer first, taking their perspective, and reflecting empathy in communications is one that leads to the kinds of results you’ve seen here. Don’t bet on bad news ever making anyone happy. Instead, invest in continuous improvement in content.

If you have questions or would like more information, please contact me.

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Strategy Visualization and Storytelling

What’s your strategy? That’s not always a fun question to hear — or answer. But with practice, you’ll be able to lay out the parts of your strategy efficiently and tell a concise, value-focused story about it that others will understand and appreciate.

The way you think about strategy is important. We’ll start there. Next, we’ll move into the strategic outline, the most common parts of a strategy, and the roles those parts play. Finally, we’ll take a look at how to tell a brief and impactful story that’s based on your strategic outline.

Be sure to download the guide that accompanies the information you’re reading here. It offers examples, walk-throughs, and helpful extras.

Thinking about strategy

Think of a strategy as a plan, process, or goal. That way, you can structure it and talk about it effectively.

Your strategy is the what. It’s what your idea will ultimately deliver. The rationale behind your strategy is the why. It’s why you’re proposing the strategy in the first place and why others should care. Use data and insights to form your why.

Set yourself up for success by ignoring the notion that a strategy must be a grand plan that’s complicated and involves a lot of people and requires a bunch of time and money. That kind of thinking will keep you from getting anything done. The simplest strategies often deliver the biggest results.

Starting your strategy outline

Distill your strategic vision into a single sentence. A single sentence keeps you focused when you build your strategic outline and story. A single sentence attracts and holds your audience’s interest.

Here’s an example of one: Increase click-through rates in lead-generation emails by 10% in Q4.

  • The why behind it: Click-through rates are flat from quarter to quarter. An increase in Q4 will help the team meet its end-of-year goal.
  • The what that it delivers: We will meet our goal on time by increasing click-through rates by 10% in Q4.

SMART at the heart

Strategies that resemble SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound) tend to come to fruition, as long as they have the support they need. They’re rational and resistant to bias. Our example above has a SMART structure:

  • Specific: You will increase click-through rates in lead-generation emails.
  • Measurable: You will increase click-through rates by 10%.
  • Achievable: Use the objectives and tactics in your outline to show how you’ll deliver on your strategic promise.
  • Relevant: This is the why behind the strategy — the rationale you derived from data and insights.
  • Time-bound: You will deliver measurable results in Q4.

Bringing SMART into your strategy shows thoughtful planning and alignment to purpose. It’s a solid way to instill confidence in colleagues and leaders right away.

Finding balance

It’s important to capture the right amount of detail in your single sentence. Too little comes across as detached or conceptual. Too much is hard to follow.

  • Too little: Increase click-through rates.
  • Too much: Increase click-through rates in lead-generation emails by 10% in Q4 by partnering with Marketing Operations to activate automated A/B testing, and then by testing everything we do to make sure our results are optimized, so that we meet our end-of-year goal.
  • Balanced: Increase click-through rates in lead-generation emails by 10% in Q4.

Other parts of the outline

How you are gonna do that? Inevitably, someone will ask. And that’s a good thing because it means your one-sentence strategic statement engaged. The rest of your outline will be the answer.

It’s time to bring the where, how, and when into the conversation. Keep the other parts of the outline to one sentence, too. The rest of the outline, decribed below, shows the path you’ll take to activate the strategy.

  • Objectives are where you’ll focus your energy to make the strategy achievable. They are specific, measurable, and time-bound.
  • Tactics are how you’ll complete your objectives. They are specific and time-bound actions or deliverables that yield measurable results and demonstrate how the strategy and its objectives are achievable.
  • Results are measurable and time-bound outcomes that connect back to specific tactics. They show how and when the strategy will deliver on its promise.

Laying it out

Create a simple diagram. Don’t overthink it. Use the icons, shapes, and fonts included in the software you’d like to use. If you can’t create your outline with pen and paper, then it’s likely too ornate or complicated to serve its purpose.

The examples in the guide we’ve provided use a bracket shape and a font that come standard in PowerPoint. The strategy anchors everything at the beginning, and then breaks into objectives. The objectives flow into tactics. The tactics end with measurable results.

Telling your strategy story

The best strategic stories are concise, organized, and relatable. You won’t likely impress anyone with a long presentation that’s full of tiny details and sub-topics only you understand. Your audience wants a connected, linear story that shows you value their time and that your strategy is compatible with organizational goals and expectations. Let’s build a story from our earlier example.

Meeting our lead-generation goal

Click-through rates from lead-generating emails are flat from quarter to quarter, and that could cause the team to miss its end-of-year goal. That’s why our strategy is to increase clicks by 10% in Q4.

How will we get there? We’ll test calls to action in our lead-generation emails starting July 1.

We’ll use our email marketing platform to A/B test all of our outgoing communications starting July 1; that way, the tests will be automated and consistent. We’ll have automated testing ready by June 15.

Our platform will automatically send our audience the winner from each A/B test. As a result, the call to action most likely to earn clicks will always be in market. This approach will deliver a 10% increase in clicks in Q4 and help the team meet its goal for the year.

This story has four parts. The first is where rationale leads to strategy. The second describes the objective. The third focuses on tactics. The fourth explains the results.

Each part transitions to the next smoothly and quickly, which gives a sense of momentum and prevents you from dwelling or going off on a tangent. You should be able to tell this story — and your own — in 1 minute or less.

If you have questions or would like more information, please contact me.
Get the guide.

Get the guide.

Dyadic Dynamics shows you how to dig into strategy, design a strategic outline, and convert the outline into a story that’ll let everyone know that play time is over. It offers some nice bonus content, too.

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