It's better to over-communicate than to under-communicate
When making a change or giving updates on an an incident, it is usually better to over-communicate than to under-communicate.
If you don't communicate at all then you'll frustrate your customers. Nobody likes the feeling of "I don't know what's going on".
Simple statements to try and reduce calls to the Service Desk, such as "we have an issue, we will let you know when it has been resolved" will only result in angry escalations from customers demanding to know more.
Be verbose in your updates: tell them what's affected, what they can/can't still do and advise them of the frequency of subsequent updates, for example every half hour. Provide an ETA for a fix if you're confident it can be achieved, but make it clear if you don't have a reliable ETA.
Personally, I have more faith in a service provider that is open and honest. I feel that good customers also appreciate these values. It allows them to re-plan their schedule, invoke workarounds, and provide effective communication with people who depend on their services.
The same goes with communicating about changes. You can say the same message through different channels (e.g. email, intranet site, noticeboard) without fear of over-communication because once people have assimilated a message they can easily filter it out when they see it again elsewhere. However, some people will see the message on only one of your channels of communication and that's potentially one less call to the Service Desk.
When a change is poorly communicated it could have the same effect as an incident for a customer - if the change disrupts their ability to use a service and they can't respond immediately by changing their own processes and procedures, you have a potential Priority 1 incident on your hands. What's worse? Excessive messaging, rolling back a change, or losing a customer?
So don't be timid. For every one person that might complain about a flurry of emails, there are ninety-nine others that are truly grateful.
- Previous: Conflict
- Next: Alternative theory of constraints
