There was once was an ad campaign (see the Florists Review from 1920) that suggested that one could “say it” with flowers. Whether the “it” was a symbol of one’s love or an apology for a one’s behavior, the idea is that the gift of flowers would be more meaningful than words alone. Sorry As A Service took this idea of gift giving and is applying it to customer relationships.

As Sorry As A Service co-founder Sabine Sipunova says, “We are helping companies bring personality and authenticity in their apologies.” Their software as a service offering allows a customer service representative to select an appropriate apology, whether gift or hand-written card, and, through its partners, Sorry As A Service fulfills the apology.  Sipunova explains that there are algorithms that help match create the appropriate apology for each customer. It integrates into most major CRMs as a one-button extension, so their implementation is relatively easy.

According to Sorry As A Service’s website, their apology approach results in “12x increase in the lifetime value of a customer, 4x greater customer satisfaction, 40% increase in customer return on investment and is 8x cheaper than investing  in marketing.” This lean start-up has established itself with European brands such as Tele2, Credit24 and Tallink.  The above interview, filmed at the Telecom Council’s TC3 event in Silicon Valley, represented their debut in the United States.

[Author’s Note: As seen in the background of this video, there was a lot of activity and a number of exciting young companies at the TC3 event. Unfortunately, my time was limited at the event and  so Sorry As A Service was the only one that I interviewed. What caught my eye was their simple hand-written logo and a name that said it all, but still had me wondering what it meant].