The question of what to do first if you mess up is addressed in a study by the Carey School of Business and others.
When compensated monetarily, 37% of customers are happy with the service recovery (e.g., a refund or credit).
But when an apology is included alongside the compensation, customer satisfaction soars to 74%.
That means that when things go wrong, just saying “Sorry” can bring back 37% of unhappy customers.
Not even half (58%) of customers are given an apology.
Source: 80 Customer Service Statistics and 8 Lessons for Growth [2020] (groovehq.com)