Nestle Apology

The horsemeat scandal continues across Europe. Today global food colossus Nestle are the latest to fall prey. Whether you’re at the mere mislabelling end of opinion or rather feel victim to grand-scale fraud, you surely hope something will change for good.

They issued an explanation yesterday. It signed off with this line:

“We want to apologise to consumers and reassure them that the actions being taken to deal with this issue will result in higher standards and enhanced traceablity”

As salespeople, we often have to say sorry to customers. Even when the fault lies with someone else, we are expected to ‘fess up’ and demonstrate genuine contrition in person. I’ve blogged before about how to go about this, including thinking of “the 4 As“, and ‘the 3 parts of the process‘.

What’s good about the Nestle apology is that is leaves the customer in no doubt what they aim to achieve. “Higher standards and enhanced traceablity” is a noble ambition and one they can easily be judged on along the way.

In the heat of the sales furnace, when inevitably required, this approach can only be a long-term winner.