In every business, there are times when things take a different turn and projects can often head south, may it be due to human error, unforeseen circumstances, or uncontrollable situations. When things go awry, how do you break the bad news to your clients?
“Bad news is never good to deliver, but developing a process over time has made it easier to handle.”
- Steve Jackson
There are different approaches to it, depending on your client’s characteristics and your relationship with them. A few entrepreneurs share with us their experience and how they tackle the problem when the situation calls for it.
However, all of them have one common word – HONESTY.
Truly, there’s no better way than to be upfront about things, especially in business. It saves all parties time, resources, and effort when things are talked out promptly and issues are tackled head on.
Austin Vaughan, Managing Director at Pacific Solar, confirms this. “I would commonly take a direct approach as we feel honesty applies in all our communications,” he said.
Nyree Hibberd, CEO of Koh Living, expounds on this further. “Honestly, as it’s one of our 5 brand values: “We are honest, authentic, and down-to-earth; ‘keep it real’ is our number one mantra. We tell the truth and strive to always do what we say we’re going to do.” For us, bad news may be around stocks selling out or delays in arrivals of replenishment. So at every stage, we aim to keep the customer informed with accurate information to limit the interruption to their business. In most cases, we find it’s about the communication of the news rather than the news itself, so we aim to always be upfront and honest with any bad news,” she remarked.
While unfavourable news cannot be avoided, it often depends on how the information is delivered. But having a method or careful approach can help mitigate the negative impact it may bring to the client or business. However, it doesn’t stop with just telling the client about the problem. Coming up with alternatives at the onset can also help ease the worries of the client.
Steve Jackson, Director at PurpleMonky and Founder of Moon & Back Co., shared, “Bad news is never good to deliver, but developing a process over time has made it easier to handle. Firstly, an urgent team meeting internally to discuss what happened, and what solutions are available. Then, we make an immediate phone call with complete honesty to the client about what happened and how we want to work together to find the best solution. No matter the outcome, the client always respects the honesty & willingness to find the solution.”
In short, crisp words, Dion Castle, CEO of Struber, stated it simply but powerfully, “Communicate quickly, clearly, honestly with a solution ready.”
This is echoed by Joanne Camilleri, General Manager of Telco Business Solutions Group, “With complete honesty, authenticity and ensuring, if necessary, that we are taking ownership. Ideally, we communicate face to face. If appropriate, we would finish it off with the challenge or opportunity that is arising from the bad news.”
A more detailed explanation is provided by Ben Stickland, Founder and CEO of Alliance Software, “We do it with brutal honestly and as quickly as possible. The formula is simple: we tell clients this is what happened, this is how it'll affect you and this is what we're doing to fix it. We also always tell clients that right now, we're focused on the fix and when the dust settles, we'll do a review and work out how we avoid these problems in the future and make it right. In our space, clients are very understanding if you're upfront and drop everything to make things right.”
Have you experienced a similar situation where you have to break some bad news to your clients or customers? How do you do it? Share with us your approach and its effect on your business.