Both Facebook and T-Mobile recently admitted mistakes and apologized to their customers...sort of. CIO.com columnist Bill Snyder says tech companies should at least act sincere if they're going to say they're sorry. It’s really not difficult to say, “I’m sorry.” But getting companies to say it – and mean it – is sometimes akin to turning water into wine. I’m really sick of companies that step on consumers’ toes, issue non-apology apologies and then act like everything is alright. To me, a real apology sounds like this: “We made a mistake. We’re sorry, and we won’t do it again.” Simple. But that’s not what we recently got from Facebook and T-Mobile. Maybe I’m naïve, but I believe that consumer-oriented companies will do better in the long run if they fess up to their mistakes and build customer trust, even if it means short-term embarrassment or a temporary hit to the bottom line. Let’s start with Facebook, the tech world’s all-time serial apologist. Late last month, we learned that the company was manipulating the news feeds of more than half a million unsuspecting users as part of an experiment. Facebook’s in-house data science team carried out the project, it said, as a way to examine the “emotional impact of Facebook” on its users. Naturally, there was quite a bit of upset, and COO Sheryl Sandberg eventually apologized…sort of. “So we clearly communicated really badly about this and that we really regret,” she said in an interview aired on India’s NDTV. “We are in communication with regulators all over the world, and this will be OK and we will continue to make sure users understand that we care about their privacy.” rabble.ca Note the phrase: “Communicated really badly.” She didn’t say Facebook is sorry. She didn’t say it was an egregious violation of the trust users have (for some reason) placed in Facebook or that her company won’t do it again. That’s like using a really ugly world to describe someone and then saying you’re sorry if you offended anyone – as opposed to saying, “I shouldn’t have said that, and I’m sorry.” You’d think that by now Facebook execs would know how to apologize, since they do it so often. (This interesting piece in The New York Times recounts a decade of Facebook apologies.) Now let’s talk about T-Mobile. Last week the FTC alleged that the wireless carrier made hundreds of millions of dollars from bogus premium text-messaging charges wrongfully billed to customers, a tactic called “cramming.” Here’s T-Mo CEO John Legere’s response, from a blog post title “Doing Right By Customers: “We have seen the complaint filed today by the FTC and find it to be unfounded and without merit,” writes Legere. “In fact T-Mobile stopped billing for these Premium SMS services last year and launched a proactive program to provide full refunds for any customer that feels that they were charged for something they did not want.” Let’s parse that. Legere says the complaint is unfounded. Fair enough. An allegation doesn’t mean the company is guilty. But then he says, T-Mobile stopped billing for those services last year. Really? If it’s wrong now, wasn’t it wrong last year? But the ever-combative CEO doesn’t say that. Nor does he say that he’ll find a way to refund those charges. C’mon, John. You’re acting like a spoiled kid. T-Mobile styles itself the “uncarrier” and says it carries the banner for consumers. It should act like it. Related content Feature 10 cloud mistakes that can sink your business Just a single mistake can send your cloud strategy plummeting to earth. Here’s a rundown of how not to approach the cloud. By John Edwards Mar 21, 2023 8 mins IT Strategy Cloud Computing Case Study Arvest Bank reskills IT to support its banking core refresh When introducing new software, allow ample time for staff retraining, says transformation lead Laura Merling. By Peter Sayer Mar 21, 2023 6 mins Employee Experience Business Process Management Cloud Management News Accenture acquires Flutura to boost industrial AI services Bengaluru-based Flutura offers internet-of-things (IoT) and data science services to manufacturers and other asset-intensive enterprises. By Anirban Ghoshal Mar 20, 2023 2 mins IoT Platforms Internet of Things Artificial Intelligence News Amazon to lay off 9,000 more workers, including some at AWS The latest round of Amazon layoffs will impact AWS, Twitch, advertising and PXT, CEO Andy Jassy said. By Jon Gold Mar 20, 2023 3 mins Technology Industry Cloud Computing Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe