I’m sorry.

Not “sorry IF I offended you”

Plus the specific reason why.

And what I will do to make it right.

Recently a CEO of a startup told 35,544 customers he was sorry for badly packaged, late delivery of squeezable bottles of olive oil.

He was thanked for his honesty, some even declined to take advantage of his make-up discount saying they’d buy again at the full price as a result of the apology.

Humans make mistakes, what’s wrong with a heartfelt apology?

But apologizing for the same thing over and over usually backfires even if the apology is perfect.