How to Communicate Bad News to Customers

If your business is hit by a crisis, ALWAYS let your customers know what is happening and do it FAST.

The worst thing in the world is for an important client to learn about an event from the media or someone else other than you. And email can be too slow.

Text is the ONLY way to ensure vital messages reach very senior executives, CEOs etc, within seconds. Voice calls are useless, and emails get buried.

This principle of open, clear, concise, accurate, instant information is absolutely key to maintaining trust when things start to go wrong.

Let your clients know what is happening, why, what you are doing about it immediately and when the next update will be.

This applies in logistics and supply chain management but also in every other sector, whether manufacturing, oil and gas, retail, construction, aviation, hospitality, banking, insurance and so on.

CEOs often fear that by going public too soon they may create risks to brand or even trigger legal action of some kind, but in my experience, repuatational / brand risks can be huge from delay.

And when media ask for comment, don't avoid.

Within seconds a bad story can become a destructive hurricane unless you are seen to respond rapidly, responsibility, with empathy and humility.

Patrick Dixon is a keynote speaker on logistics and supply chain management, as well as delivering keynotes for every other industry, including issues relating to brand protection and reputational risks. Questions and answers at Seminarium Chile.

* "How AI Will Change Your Life - A Futurist's Guide to a Super-Smart World" - Patrick Dixon's latest book on AI is published in September 2024 by Profile Books.  It contains 38 chapters on the impact of AI across different industries, government and our wider world, including chapters on the future impact of AI on logistics, using AI to improve supply chain management. And the impact of AI on innovation.