Customer Support Professional Blog

The conclusion of the Getting Real series. See post 1, post 2 and post 3 as well.

Get bad news out there and out of the way.

If something goes wrong, tell people. Even if they never saw it in the first place.

For example, Basecamp was down once for a few hours in the middle of the night. 99% of our customers never knew, but we still posted an “unexpected downtime” notice to our Everything Basecamp blog. We thought our customers deserved to know.

…

Be as open, honest, and transparent as possible. Don’t keep secrets or hide behind spin. An informed customer is your best customer. Plus, you’ll realize that most of your screwups aren’t even that bad in the minds of your customers. Customers are usually happy to give you a little bit of breathing room as long as they know you’re being honest with them.
(c) Getting Real. Chapter 14.