The art of the business apology (with free templates)

Welcome to The Manual Weekly, the can’t-miss-newsletter for small business leaders. You’ll find snackable bits of news highlighting emerging trends, actionable resources, and proven best practices that can help take your business to the next level.

In this week’s edition:

• Learning to pronounce diverse names at work — with finesse.
• Managing customer neglect (and expectations).
• Related: Saying “I’m sorry” like the upstanding SMB that you are.

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CALL ME BY MY NAME

How to approach diverse names in the workplace

Ever read a name you're not sure how to pronounce?

You’re not alone. Let’s say you’re welcoming a new employee who has a unique name you aren’t familiar with. You might think it’s worth a little embarrassment to attempt a pronunciation, but it’s more important that we pronounce names correctly.

Names can carry cultural, familial, or historical meaning. They’re a foundational part of our identity — to mispronounce them can cause more hurt than we might think.

No one wants to be like those substitute teachers stumbling through roll call. Thankfully, there are strategies to help you approach diverse names and hopefully, develop a deeper connection with your colleagues:

Do some research.

There are tons of resources online for getting phonetic descriptions of names. YouTube is going to be your best friend here — there’s a whole channel dedicated to correctly pronouncing names across different cultures.

Ask for help.

The truth is that an individual’s name is pronounced however they choose. Try opening your conversation with something like, “Hi X, am I pronouncing your name correctly?” This will either result in an excited “Yes!” or “It’s actually pronounced Y.”

In both cases, you’re building rapport — your question shows that you’re invested in getting to know them as a person.

?? Find more strategies.

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YOU IN?

It’s a #HotConference summer and you’re invited

We’re welcoming the best in the (small) biz to share their proven playbooks with you at Playbook 2022!

Ask best-selling author and marketing wunderkind Seth Godin all of your burning questions.?Get the inside track on how to train for running a business with pro athletes and Saysh owners Allyson and Wes Felix. Plus, hear from the people behind today’s fastest-growing companies, like Basecamp, The Giving Keys, PandaDoc, Little Spoon, The Cupcake Collection, and more.

It’s all happening September 21-22. And guess what? It’s completely FREE and headed for a laptop near you.

Hold up — you haven’t registered yet? We’ve got a link for that.

?? Register free!

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#SORRYNOTSORRY

A crash course on apologizing — professionally (with free templates)

My business screwed up. Now what?

Consider the following scenarios:

• Your resident escape artist (ahem — the dog) ran out the door one morning making you 20 minutes late for a client meeting.
• You accidentally charged a customer for shipping when it should’ve been free.
• An employee ketchup-shamed a diner when they asked for five extra packets (the fries were *extra* thirsty that day).

Any of them sound remotely familiar? Contrary to popular opinion, businesses are human, too. Because until our robot overlords take over, there are real-life people powering them — and mistakes are just part of the human condition.

This is the stuff Yelp nightmares are made of.

Well, yes — but they don't have to be. Just like your personal relationships, how you handle a gaffe can be the difference between a loyal customer and a social media adversary. It all starts with taking responsibility for your SMB’s actions (say it with us: “be humble… sit down”) and detailing what went wrong along with how you plan to make things right.

The best way to do that?

An apology letter.

Writing (and apologies) aren’t my forte.

That’s okay. Not everyone can be a Keats or Hemingway. Whether you’re apologizing for a defective product, being late to an appointment, or a cranky employee, these 10 SMB apology templates have your back.

?? Say you’re sorry like a pro.

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This is our lite version of The Manual Weekly. Like what you’re reading? There's more where that came from. Sign up here to unlock our full weekly content. Kind of like when Indiana Jones unlocked the clues in a booby-trapped temple to get the golden idol — but with way less poison darts.

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TL;DR

This week’s highlight reel

• Young moolah, baby. Imagine the financial barriers you could leap over with a little extra help. We’ve got you — check out the latest and greatest small business grants for women and minority entrepreneurs.
• It could be worse. Or could it? When we dismiss complex issues by abruptly condensing them into oversimplified, clever phrases like this one, it can actually diminish our mental health. It’s basically the mental equivalent of putting a Band-Aid on a bullet wound. Oh well, it is what it is.
• Nana nana nana nana… can-celed! Warner Brothers invested $90M in the almost-done “Batgirl” film before *pow* calling it quits. No, we won’t see it in theaters or on streaming services. And yes, a film with major diversity (including a woman of color lead and a transgender character) just got the boot. Not a good look, WB.