When bad news is delivered the wrong way it can lead customers to a sense of hopelessness, frustration, and anger. But when it is delivered the right way, it can lead them to feel in control and empowered to participate in finding a solution.
The February issue of Customer Communicator, the training and motivation newsletter for frontline reps, includes seven steps to deliver bad news the right way.
The first step, says Evan Horowitz of Evan Horowitz Advising, is to slow down.
“It’s natural to want to alert customers the moment a problem occurs. But this could be the worst thing to do,” he says.
Instead, take time to fully research and understand the problem, why it happened, and what steps you and the customer can take to resolve it. You need to be able to give the customer a good sense of what happened and what can be done about it in that very first contact.
More on delivering bad news to customers appears in the February issue of Customer Communicator.