When something is down.
TELL THEM FIRST
Before they notice, if you can. A client who discovers the outage themselves is already annoyed.
WHAT TO SAY IMMEDIATELY
That you are aware That you are working on it When you will update them
You do not need the answer to send the first message.
WHAT NOT TO DO
Go quiet while working. Silence is what turns an outage into a lost client. Promise a resolution time you were not given Explain in technical detail they did not ask for
DURING A SERVER INCIDENT
If the problem is at our end, say so plainly without blaming.
"The server is affected, the provider is working on it, I will update you within the hour."
UPDATES
Even if there is nothing new. "Still working on it, next update in an hour" is better than silence.
AFTERWARDS
A short account of what happened and what changed.
Clients forgive outages handled openly. They do not forgive being left uninformed.
FOR MULTIPLE CLIENTS AFFECTED
A single message to all of them, rather than answering each separately.
