Business Communication Basics: The Fall of Suburban Express

Apologies for Beginners & Business People

Recently, the University of Illinois cut ties with local transportation company, Suburban Express, stating that the company’s values are “offensive, bigoted, insulting and in direct opposition to the values of this university” after the following statement on a Christmas promotional.

Everything about this comment has been said already on the UIUC subreddit and UIUC Facebook meme page. I go to Indiana University, so I was never going to ride with Suburban Express; but as a member of the Asian-American community and as a rational human being, I hope no one ever does again.

Today, we’ll dive into some more educational content: How to write an apology letter. The following two screenshots are the apology statements issued by Suburban Express:

Statement 1: Initial statement issued to prospective customers

Statement 2: Statement currently linked on Suburban Express’s website

The Basics

Before we go in depth on apologies, we need to go over some basics. These statements are terrible examples of strategic business writing. Professional writing is not challenging, and while each situation poses its own writing format, business-people need to understand that every writing format has their own basics. Without adhering to these basics, you set yourself up for many risks in your communication. The following is an excerpt from my Business Communications textbook, C204 Strategic Business Writing, on risks:

One of the key words in this excerpt is strategy, in every piece of communication — email, newsletter, apology — you need to strategize, and there are only a few necessary considerations that I have for solid strategic writing:

Understand your purpose — For any business message, there will only be one purpose; if you want to convey more than one purpose, you need to write more than one message.

— For any business message, there will only be one purpose; if you want to convey more than one purpose, you need to write more than one message. Target your primary audience(s) — There are two audiences: Primary (e.g., clients, customers, bosses, coworkers), and Secondary, that is, people who could potentially see your message when it isn’t specifically for them (e.g., coworkers forwarded, HR, Facebook meme pages). Knowing your audience(s) means tailoring your purpose for them.

— There are two audiences: Primary (e.g., clients, customers, bosses, coworkers), and Secondary, that is, people who could potentially see your message when it isn’t specifically for them (e.g., coworkers forwarded, HR, Facebook meme pages). Knowing your audience(s) means tailoring your purpose for them. Consider potential outcomes — Your risks, a promotion, a PR nightmare and media shitstorm, anything can happen. Mitigate risks and increase chances for benefit.

— Your risks, a promotion, a PR nightmare and media shitstorm, anything can happen. Mitigate risks and increase chances for benefit. Be concise, clear, and direct — If you aren’t these three things, it means you don’t care about your audiences’ time. Time is important, regardless of whether you’re speaking with a high-profile client, a boss, or college students.

At first glance, we see Suburban Express’s CEO Dennis Toeppen failed to be concise, with long emails and longer statements to follow. If you excel at business writing, you will only need one message for your purpose.

In retrospect, we see that Mr. Toeppen failed to consider his audience, which led to his failure to consider potential outcome of a PR/media shitstorm that would subsequently lead critical losses of business from their target demographic.

So what was Dennis’s purpose? All he had to do was put his ego aside and apologize. But so much of his statements have nothing to do with apologizing; instead, they were the ramblings of an egotistical business owner:

Laying claim to (mostly irrelevant) failure and competitor’s successes — a remark based on the fact that

“our competitor mostly handles Chinese international students” Correcting prospective customers — “remark is… not how it was intended” Politicizing the issue — Spending two paragraphs discussing the Illinois budget and the appropriateness of admitting international students. Stating a controversial opinion as fact — “Nearly 20% of U of I students are natives of china, and this high percentage of nonnative english [sic] speakers places a variety of burdens on domestic students” Reaffirming claims perceived as racist — “we’re not comfortable with the idea of selling our university to the highest foreign bidder” Sarcastic statement of regret — “we did not intend to offend half the planet”

Aside from the subject line, no instance of the words “apology”, “sorry”, or “regret” appear at any point.

The second (displayed) statement is even longer, inflates the ego of the writer, and dismisses all criticisms as “trying to further their own agenda”.

In short, these ‘apologies’ — if you can even call them that — are a nightmare for most professionals, and a proper demonstration of exactly “What not to do” for a professional apology.

So how do we avoid making such nightmarish apologies?

Professional Apologies for Beginners

There are 3 questions anyone should ask themselves when they apologize. Paraphrased from the same book as previously mentioned, they are as follows:

Did my organization or I cause harm? Will my apology satisfy the reader and allow me to extend my/our relationship with them? Am I willing to be liable and accept responsibility?

By fulfilling the basic considerations above and answering “Yes” to all three questions, you are ready send your apology. Dennis could only answer, halfheartedly, to question number one.

So what would a proper apology look like? This recent example from Uber to London(ers) is fairly solid. While your opinions about Uber and their management may vary, they provided a concise apology that answers “Yes” to all three questions and provided steps to grow the company and its relationship with the people of London.

Dara Khosrowshahi’s apology to Londoners,

In nine sentences, Uber’s new CEO does the following:

Opens with a positive message, Apologizes quickly but sincerely, Details personal steps, essentially stating, “we’re working on it, we promise”, Encourages teamwork in a humble manner, Closes with positivity and forward-thinking message.

These components keep the message, short, sweet, and positive, while still recognizing the need to apologize and accept mistakes.

The following message is one I put together quickly to demonstrate what Dennis Toeppen and Suburban Express could have done:

Dear riders, Suburban Express is working hard to provide all U of I students with the best travel experience possible, and we want to thank you for choosing to ride with us for the last 34 years. While we try to provide the best travel opportunities to all students, our recent Christmas promotional included inappropriate statements targeting a large and important part of our student population. This was a mistake, and on behalf of Suburban Express, I would like to extend my sincerest apology for our statements. For the future, we will work carefully to provide a comfortable and inclusive experience for all students on campus, as we recognize that the diverse population of U of I is what makes our campus unique. In order to do this, we encourage you to post your comments and constructive feedback on our Yelp page, and to fill out our new online evaluation questionnaires which we will begin to send to riders as soon as our buses drop you off at your destination next week. Your comments are appreciated and necessary so we may provide you with a better experience on every ride you take with us. We hope to better our company together so we can continue serving our Illini for the years to come. Best,

Dennis Toeppen

CEO, Suburban Express

While this isn’t the best apology I’ve ever written (since it took 5 minutes), it is certainly a step up from Dennis’s original statements. You may notice many similarities with the Uber apology, which is intentional, because most apologies follow similar formats so that even the most incompetent business people can apologize like a sincere professional.

Fin.

All this said, Suburban Express committed social suicide over the course of one weekend, and the damage they have done is irreparable. Their previous encounters with similar race-related issues demonstrates a resistance to change, and at this point, management should pack their bags and exit U of I.

Dennis, I hope you’re reading this, because if you want to keep serving your other major universities — UIowa, ISU, Purdue — you have to learn how to put your ego aside and apologize.