The reality is, very few customers really care about apologies or words. They want results. When customer service can't do anything without approval or just can't fix anything then you may as well call what you do customer no service. I've been doing CS for over 10 years.
Two examples from my experience. Had a lady crying because her laptop never arrived and she thought it would be charged to her anyway. I apologized to try and console her. But it wasn't until I promised that she wouldn't be charged if she never got it that she stopped crying.
Another time, on the receiving end, the company AAA gave me the runaround for 3 months in an infuriating circle of no service. Finally I called the other party and told him I'd have to file a lawsuit if it wasn't resolved by the next day. Miraculously I got a phone call from an upper manager with a real apology and an explanation of their failure. We were able to cut a deal then and there. I never felt more relieved than when he was giving that apology and it changed the entire tone of where the call was going.
Thats what the apology should do. It should shape the rest of the call. A predestined stock apology only serves to annoy the caller on the rest of that transaction.
Two examples from my experience. Had a lady crying because her laptop never arrived and she thought it would be charged to her anyway. I apologized to try and console her. But it wasn't until I promised that she wouldn't be charged if she never got it that she stopped crying.
Another time, on the receiving end, the company AAA gave me the runaround for 3 months in an infuriating circle of no service. Finally I called the other party and told him I'd have to file a lawsuit if it wasn't resolved by the next day. Miraculously I got a phone call from an upper manager with a real apology and an explanation of their failure. We were able to cut a deal then and there. I never felt more relieved than when he was giving that apology and it changed the entire tone of where the call was going.
Thats what the apology should do. It should shape the rest of the call. A predestined stock apology only serves to annoy the caller on the rest of that transaction.