Client Clash: How Do You Deliver Bad News to Customers?

Service-based businesses thrive on delivering top-notch results to customers. Delivering bad news requires quite a different skill set.“Often, news is bad only if customers perceive that they have no control over it,” says Kristin Robertson, president of Texas-based management consulting firm KR Consulting, Inc. “Sometimes, the way you phrase your communication turns the message into bad news for the customer.“Learn to recognize bad news from the customer’s perspective, and how to influence the perception of what is bad news and what is good news.”Robertson provides some strategies for delivering bad news in the best way possible.1. Anticipate bad news“Anticipate instances