That famous line from the 1970 film Love Story is so bogus. If Netflix loves their customers so much, they better have prepared to apologize for their subscription increase earlier this summer. Many happy subscribers turned into pitchfork village folk chanting, “Down with Netflix!” with the threat of booting the popular cinema service. Fortunately, Netflix has finally given an official apology, and it shows humility in the company by owning up to a mistake they made to their beloved subscribers.

People are either furious that they are now charged more for mail and streaming video or are indifferent about it altogether. Still, Netflix has lost more subscribers than they expected over the last few months. From a business standpoint I can understand the reason for their price increase. The fact that such a great service is available to us today is amazing and convenient and was almost too good to be true. This business, after all, is the reason why it’s difficult to find a Blockbuster or other store and physically browse rental shelves for your Friday movie night (which is a bit of a shame). Netflix themselves have their own price wars to wager between movie studios and distributors. I personally believe that such a price increase could actually make us all benefit. With more settled contracts between distributors we should hope to expect more content available for our streaming pleasure. Then again, this is only me speculating. If there is actually some truth to it I urge Netflix to mention this to its subscribers in a follow-up letter someday.

I first heard of the apology letter (above) that Netflix CEO Reed Hastings sent to all Netflix customers from a Facebook post from my friend Amanda.

Amanda’s response, among many others, showed me what the power of sincerity can do for your business. Amanda had plenty unsatisfied friends reply to her comment with her rebuttal, “Even if fueled by a PR agency, [Hastings] could have said no. It’s still not an amazing stunt, but with all of the other businesses (and their leaders) out there who make mistakes that affect a lot of people, it’s nice to see someone trying, even if it’s not totally genuine.”

I have to agree with Amanda. You can’t always make your customers 100% happy after a mistake. Hastings, or Mr. PR ghost writer, simply tried to explain his company’s actions just like he would to a business partner. He’s not sending you flowers with his note, but he’s simply owning up to his actions. On a more human level an apology like this can be a powerful thing. “But most people don’t even have the courage to apologize at all…courage is just a really big deal in my book,” says Amanda. Many times will a decision have to be made for your brand or company that could ultimately damage the relationship between you and the customers that got you where you are. Some people will take it personally while others will retaliate and burn you publicly via social media.

I think this was a good effort on Hasting’s part, who in the letter announced the separation of Netflix streaming video and the new company to take over the mailing rental service, Quickster. It wasn’t just an apology but also an announcement of where the future of Netflix is going. Remember, the subscription increase may suck but it’s all so Netflix can stay in business. The last thing we need is for Netflix to shut down. We already closed most of our physical rental stores. If both end up disappearing, well… who’ll be apologizing then?