Last week, I was traveling for a speech and, because of the location, had to stay in a hotel that charges $800 a night.

The service was lousy and over two nights and three days, I was on the receiving end of a record setting 36 “I’m sorry’s” and “I apologize.” Each was well-practiced and patently disingenuous.

I started doing some research and discovered that most people feel the same way; they simply don’t believe most customer service apologies.

I also discovered some fascinating research published in the Harvard Business Review about what it takes to make an apology work.