I have some bad news for you. But please, don’t shoot the messenger.
In fact, you should hug, cuddle, or even smooch the bearer of bad news. Because sometimes there is nothing better than knowing.
Ever had something go wrong in a hotel room and had the service desk tell you they would be ‘right up’ to fix it…only to arrive an hour later? You’re pretty angry right? It happened this weekend to friends of mine at a resort we were all gathered at. In fact it happened more than once. Unfortunately for this vacation destination they had a slew of issues. A power failure. A water outage. Inadvertent fire alarms. You name it.
I felt sorry for the staff. They were scrambling. Tired, wet, harassed. It was a long night for them. But management wasn’t making things better. Not only was their service response quite poor, when you did connect they made it worse by over promising.
Even before the pounding weather descended, management was demonstrating their over-promise, under-deliver mannerisms. Personally I wanted a cab to take us to a golf course for lunch. We planned to walk back from lunch (which we did), but it was a two hour hike, so we weren’t up to a four hour round trip on foot! After calling the front desk five times to no avail, we showed up in person to book a cab and told to wait ten minutes. Some thirty minutes later we were on our way, but understandably incensed. Same thing happened to a friend when the alarm in his room went off. ‘Right up’ turned into a forty-five minute delay.
This place was not cheap. But it seems management there could use a few client service reminders that every young person in our business probably knows by heart. I am not suggesting I was great at this, at a young career age, but I had enough mentors who taught me:
- The best time to share bad news is right away. It doesn’t matter how late it is, where you are, or how bad it is. Bad news travels fast, so win the race and deliver it right away!
- There is no spin cycle required. Facts are facts. Sometimes I listen to myself rambling on when trying to dimensionalize the impact of an issue with a client. “Shush” says my oft-ignored inner voice. Just serve up the facts and save the polish for my shoes.
- If it’s by email, put the issue in the headline.
- Unless it’s past bedtime, use the phone.
- Say sorry. Once.
- Definitely come with an action plan to solve, but go one major level further and recommend a communication roll-out. Offer to deal directly or in tandem with key stakeholders of your client. In essence, take one for the team. Offer up to jump on the grenade, potentially taking some blame that shouldn’t be shouldered by you.
- Stop saying sorry and show your remorse through your actions, efforts, and emotions.
- Follow-up as soon as you can, 1:1 with everybody involved, and ask your boss to do the same. If you have dealt with the issue and solved it by the time your boss calls, she will be doing quality assurance calls with a now happy client.
Ironically this resort stands on the grounds of a campy family/convention lodge that I used to work at, during my university summers. My first week there I inadvertently tossed an entire carafe of red wine down the back of a very nice white dress shirt. Mr. Button (the victim) probably hasn’t forgotten me. I can tell you I haven’t forgotten the situation.
The bad news traveled too fast in that case! But at least he knew…