You love your customers. They love you, your product, and your company. Life is grand!
Only one thing can happen when life is this perfect: certain disaster!
Your company is about to enact a change, one that may just chase away your rainbows and unicorns. What the the bad news is, for purposes of discussion, is irrelevant. It’s the impact that most important.
Imagine your about to walk into your customer’s office for the first time to explain the situation. What’s going through your mind?
Try these on for size: Man, I hope she doesn’t get upset! What if he asks a question I can’t answer? Will she threaten to go to another vendor? Will he kick me out of his office? What if? What if?? What if???
Ok, let’s think. No one likes an unpleasant surprise but, is that what THIS is? If you were in the customer’s shoes how would YOU feel? Why is the change taking place? How do YOU feel about it?
Consider these six steps to giving bad news:
Accept and understand the change for yourself.
The first step to effective bad news delivery is acceptance. Notice I didn’t say anything about being positive, that comes later. Instead, it’s crucial to first understand the change itself and why it’’s taking place.
There could be, and often is, a rational reason your company made the decision. That reason may involve survival. Your vendors not only rely not only on your product but on your company’s ongoing support. And, of course, you need a paycheck. Therefore, you both need your product to succeed!
Determine the ramifications of the change.
Once you understand what’s really happening, consider carefully the change’s possible effects on your customer. Yes, management may say they’ve done this but you have a deeper understanding of your client.
The point of this step is not to find answers but to mentally prepare yourself. When you’ve thought through the consequences of the change, you’re in a better position to provide valuable insight to your customer. This makes that first conversation more productive (and less dangerous!)
Consider what has not changed.
After a sober review of the ramifications, you may feel more calm about the change. That’s good. Now it’s time to put things in perspective. Is the news you’re about to deliver global in it’s reach? Or, more likely, is only a portion of a customer’s business is affected.
Next, prepare to make the same point to the customer. Otherwise, they may just apply your “bad” news to everything – you, your product, and your company as a whole. People hate to change the way they work. It’s uncomfortable to say the least. The smaller the change, the easier it is to swallow.
Put it together and prepare.
Once you’ve digested the change, thought through possible effects, and put it into perspective, its time to plan what to say. I’m not a fan of robotic memorized speeches. They take me out of the conversation and make me feel like I’m in a middle school play – the kind where I dress up as a girl.
Instead, just write down the pertinent points you want to make based on the above steps. Keep in mind that you might not have or get to say all of them. Your customer may think your news is a non-event. On the other hand, what you have may still not be enough. More on this later.
It’s talk time!
Depending on the situation, you may feel the urge to kneel at your customer’s feet and beg forgiveness. Don’t. Conversely, you may think you need to “sell” them on how your bad news is really the best thing they’ve ever heard. Also, don’t. Just calmly, confidently, and succinctly explain the change itself, why it’s taking place, and it’s scope. Then make sure they’ve understood what you’ve told them.
Realize every thing we say, in addition to facts, also delivers emotion. Therefore, how we feel about the change will inevitably come out in how we present it. That’s why the previous steps are so important. Our emotions are cues for customers emotions. If you FEEL calm and confident when you present, you invite your customer to feel the same way. Conversely, if you lose your cool, you can expect them to do the same.
Lastly, ask for feedback and wait.
There’s no rules for this part. It’s the customer’s turn to process the change and respond. Sadistically, I think it’s the fun part. Whatever the customer says next will not physically harm you in any way. Stick and stones, remember?
It’s like strapping into a roller coaster, we’re scared out of our wits, yet we know it’s going to be ok. This is the attitude you must take. As your customer shares their thoughts (or gives you a piece of their mind) listen closely. Don’t jump to conclusions. Make sure YOU understand exactly what their saying.
Maybe they misunderstood and you can easily correct them. Maybe they bring up issues you’ve never considered. If you have legitimate answers, by all means, give them. If you don’t, just sit and listen. You may not be able to make the customer feel better right then and there. Just don’t forget to ask to for a chance to follow up.
When things go bad.
Let’s be honest. Despite your best efforts, you may walk away from the meeting with your pride bruised. Your delicate preparation shattered, you may be tempted to call it all a waste. Give the situation time. Sometimes, customers need the time and distance to process changes. At your next meeting, you may find them in better spirits. Suddenly what was a catastrophe is now a speed bump, a non-issue.
When issues do linger, don’t shy away from passing your customer’s concerns up the chain of command. A little internal advocating can go a long way. At this point, you’re ready to repeat the process and go back in! Do your best to go back in with something new, even if it’s just a new way of thinking about the change. You never know what’s approach is going to resonate with a customer until it already has.
Now, get out there and give bad news! When we improve our delivery, not only do we feel better, so do our customers!
Sincerely,