Difficult conversations — bad news, complaints and saying no

The problem

The delivery will be two weeks late. You send an email that opens with three paragraphs of context, mentions the delay in the middle, and closes with 'we regret the inconvenience caused'. The customer reads it twice to work out what you are telling them, then calls, angry — as much about the burying as about the delay.

What you need

News: A machine breakdown means a customer's 2,000-unit order ships 18 April instead of 4 April. Customer: retail chain, 4-year relationship, one of the top five accounts.

The tool

Any assistant, with the real facts

The prompt

What comes back

This should be a call, followed by this message as the record. A top-five account, a four-year relationship, and a promotion of theirs is affected.

Verify before you use it

• Confirm the 400 units will genuinely arrive on 8 April before promising it. A second broken commitment after the first is much worse than the first.
• Make the call. The message is the record; the call is the relationship.
• Check 'at our cost' is a commitment you can actually make. Do not offer beyond your authority under pressure.
• Do not add blame for the part supplier. From the customer's side it is your machine and your supply chain.