Features Articles

How to give users bad news

Jeff Davis Tech Republic

Published: 08 Jul 2003 15:17 BST

When you work in tech support, you get to deliver a lot of good news. It's fun to report things like, "I successfully restored that file for you!" and "I gave you access to the folder as you requested."

People don't ask how you did something when the news is good.

Unfortunately, you frequently have to report bad news to a customer. When you do, you're accountable. Disappointed users expect you to explain why you can't restore the file or why you didn't grant system privileges.

How can you make sure those users are satisfied with the explanations they get for the bad news? One way is to try to make sure everyone on the help desk follows the same policies for communicating bad news. If you don't have formal or informal policies in place for reporting or escalating bad news, try customising these samples for your shop.

Don't tell the users it's their fault
This should be a no-brainer, but it probably wouldn't hurt to establish a formal written or informal policy with everyone who interacts with end users. That policy would say: "Never tell an end user that a problem was his or her fault."

Telling users that they "must have done something" is bad news to the user's ears. Your job isn't to comment on what anybody did -- your mission is to troubleshoot the computer system.

This policy includes in-person and on-the-phone contact. Users will ask, "Is it because of something I did?" If you want to script a standard response for everyone to use, try something like, "I don't know what happened, but I'm going to do my best to resolve the problem."

Don't authorise a reboot unless you're sure
Here's another no-brainer policy: "Don't authorise a reboot too soon."

By the time some users call about an application that "keeps locking up" on them, they've already tried rebooting their systems a few times. Rebooting may be the only option to undo a situation like that.

At other times, users will call when their systems aren't really locked up at all. Telling the user to "try rebooting" might be more than bad news -- it could be the wrong course of action. The application may have lost focus and the user doesn't realise it, or a quick visit to the Task Manager may help explain and resolve what's going on.