While it’s intimidating to break bad news to your customers, it’s a skill that can help grow your business. When done well, you can take the focus off the bad news and present other options.
Enjoy this tip, from our ongoing Productivity at Work series, which takes some inspiration from chocolate cake.
What Productivity Questions Does This Video Answer?
- How to Break Bad News to Your Customers?
- How to promote other services?
- What to do to keep customers happy?
Video Transcript for How to Break Bad News to Your Customers
How do you break the bad news to your customers? Bad news is gonna happen. Things are going to go wrong. How do you communicate with people, about that bad news, that can set up your success
Let me give you an example. Let’s say you’re at a diner. You want the chocolate cake. The place is famous for it.
But when you order the server has to say, “Oh I’m sorry we run out. We don’t have any more. We’ve run out.”
This is frustrating. It’s bad news.
Does this server walk away and let you be there frustrated?
No. Usually what happens is the server will say, “But while we’re out of the chocolate cake, we have some great sherbet today. We have apple pie.”
They give you some other options. Now they may not be as good as chocolate cake but they are probably better than nothing.
It puts the server in a better position, when they’re giving the bad news. It gives you options and maybe you don’t miss that chocolate cake quite so much.
I want you to think about the chocolate cake, the next time you have to deliver some bad news. Are there other options you can share, other information other than, “We’re out. This went wrong. This is your problem. We’re trying to fix it.”
See if you can structure the conversation in such a way that creates more of a dialogue between you and the other person, giving them an option that might be pretty tasty.
About This Video Series
Ken Okel’s ongoing Employee Productivity video series will make you more effective on the job. Every week, you’ll learn a new, easy to understand tip that you can use right away.
Got a productivity problem? Let us know and we’ll feature it in an upcoming episode.
About Ken Okel
As a motivational speaker, Ken Okel works with leaders and organizations to boost productivity, performance, and profits. At conferences, conventions, and company meetings, he engages audiences with new ways to maximize their time at work. To see a sample of his keynote and workshop presentations, visit his video page.
