The art of delivering difficult news in your business communications.

Learning how to deliver “bad” news, tackle sensitive topics or respond to a complicated issue is a skill that’s super useful – if not absolutely necessary – both internally and in your interactions with customers and clients. Here’s some help with the latter: communicating with your customers in a way that gets your message across with sensitivity, understanding and tact.

This lesson is really all about empathy.
Empathy is at the core of customer-benefit-driven copy. It’s the key to writing those fee increase letters, customer complaint responses or overdue payment reminders in a way that leaves people thinking, at worst, “Well this is a pain, but I understand” and at best: “I really like the way they communicated this with me and I have a positive lasting impression.”

Empathy begins with prioritising them as much as you.
Empathy is about understanding that your communication is going to provoke certain responses, then trying to manage those responses. It’s anticipating questions and feelings, and addressing them so that the person feels understood.
Let’s take an insurance company – who needs to communicate a premium increase – as a practical example. Armed with your primary and secondary messages, write down a list of potential customer responses, like “Why are premiums increasing?”, “Do I need to do anything in response to this letter?”, “I don’t want to pay an increased premium, what are my other options?”, “Is this policy still worth it?” Or even just “How do I talk to someone about this?”
By the end of your communication, you should have addressed the most important of these concerns – with a link or call to action to cover off anything else.

About that all-important opening sentence...

1. Your opening sentence will hold the core topic: Lead with a highly informative sentence that will tell people immediately what the communication is about.
   
2. The bad news doesn’t have to come first: It may be in the opening sentence, but it doesn’t have to be. The most important thing is that it’s easy to find, wherever it is – be it in the first paragraph or in a bold subhead to catch an eye that scans. Just don’t bury the bad news near the bottom of a letter or in a deep paragraph of copy. That’s when it looks like you’re trying to hide it.
   
3. But don’t open the communication with a list of benefits. “Hi, did you know that by belonging to GrammarNerds.com you get this amazing thing, that amazing thing and the other?” “Uhoh,” I’m immediately thinking, “What’s the bad news?” People don’t write just to tell you about the benefits of something, so as a reader, I know the real ‘point’ is still to come.
   

How to keep things positive in the face of bad news
Your ultimate goal here is to make sure, despite this piece of news, that people still feel their association with you is “worth it”. So if you have positive points that can help to balance out your “bad” news, that’s great.
But even when you don’t have any good news to add a positive spin, here are three other things that can add positivity even in the face of bad news:

1. Tone of voice: Lighten up. Many business make the mistake of thinking they have to be grave, overly formal or just stick to the facts when delivering difficult news. But there’s nothing wrong with being friendly. Here’s what your tone of voice should NOT be when delivering difficult news: Defensive, flippant, or dry. Instead go for accessible, direct, reassuring and open.
   
2. Honesty: It’s important to always ‘own up’ to a piece of difficult news. Don’t bury it in dense paragraphs amongst hieroglyphic words – tell people clearly what the deal is. Take responsibility, but don’t be apologetic about it. If you’ve been empathetic and explained the reasons behind the bad news, people will respond to your openness and will hopefully feel your actions are justifiable.
   
3. A call-to-action: This gives people some power back. People hate to feel like they’ve been bullied into something and had their agency or voice taken away. A call-to-action might be as simple as suggesting you contact them with feedback, or it could be offering them alternative options to choose from – such as a different plan or policy. They might never use the power of choice, feedback or complaint, but they’ll feel better for having it available.
   

Even bad news can be good for your business
When your communications show understanding and generosity – both tangibly or emotionally – it humanises your brand. You can win back a customer, or create a loyal customer for life. You might even turn the situation into a sales opportunity. So when you have a piece of difficult news to deliver, start with empathy, write with honesty and keep an eye on your goal: turning something negative into a communication that leaves your reader with a positive lasting impression.