Apologising for a failure customers never noticed lowers their satisfaction and trust

Five experiments, including a large field experiment, found that apologies for service failures backfire when customers were unaware of the failure, lowering satisfaction, trust, recommendations and repeat business because the apology draws attention to the problem.

Illustration of a waiter apologising to a contented diner whose expression turns suspicious.
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Saying sorry is the standard response when a company slips up. But when customers have not noticed anything went wrong, an apology can do more harm than good, according to a set of five experiments.

The study, by Mason R. Jenkins of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and Paul W. Fombelle and Mary Steffel of Northeastern University, was published online in the Journal of Consumer Research on December 3, 2025, and appears in the journal’s June 2026 issue.

An apology that announces the problem

Technology now lets firms spot service failures early and apologise quickly. The researchers ran five experiments, including a large-scale field experiment, to test whether that is always wise.

When consumers were not aware of a failure, apologies lowered satisfaction, trust, intentions to recommend the firm and actual repeat purchasing. The reason is simple: the apology makes people aware that a failure happened.

Because the effect depends on awareness, apologies backfired for both mild and severe failures, as long as there was room to make customers more aware of the problem.

Worse than a plain notification

Apologies backfired more than simple notifications about the same issue. Both told customers which part of the service had gone wrong, but only the apology framed it as a failure.

Apologies also reduced how customers rated the firm’s service quality and competence. At the same time, they increased perceptions of the firm’s warmth and honesty.

That trade-off explains when saying sorry pays. If customers already know about a failure, an apology has little awareness left to raise and is more likely to improve how they see the company. The practical rule from the findings: apologise for the mistakes customers have seen, and think twice about confessing the ones they have not.

Study Details:

  • Title: Are Apologies Always the Best Policy? Apologies for Service Failures Backfire When Consumers Are Not Aware of the Failure
  • Authors: Mason R. Jenkins, Paul W. Fombelle, Mary Steffel
  • Journal: Journal of Consumer Research
  • Publication Date: December 3, 2025
  • DOI: 10.1093/jcr/ucaf064