The main incident management process can be one of the most important IT service management (ITSM) processes for an organization. A major incident can damage business operations (and therefore revenues). And when a major incident is handled poorly, it has a negative effect on your organization and is likely to generate more customer inquiries and complaints. In addition, it can cause problems for your frontline workers because at best they face increased workload and at worst the team morale is affected.
This blog offers 5 ways to improve communication about major incidents to minimize the impact of major incidents on everyone involved.
What is a major incident?
What defines a major incident varies by organization, but it's safe to say that when the process of major incidents needs to be invoked, something critical happens and requires immediate attention and remediation.
Most organizations are aware of the criticism of the need for a major incident handling process, even if it is still relatively informal. They try to do it right, but one area that often needs improvement is communication. If your IT organization realizes that it could improve its process of major incidents - perhaps it will receive complaints when your organization experiences a major incident - then the following could be helpful.
1) Establish formal channels of communication to improve effectiveness
More than one communication channel is usually needed to communicate major incidents effectively. There is often no single communication method that works alone, and the trick is to have multiple channels available and involve them together to make sure everyone (who needs to know) knows what they need to know, when they need to know.
These communication channels can be:
Outage banners. If your organization has an IT self-service portal, you can place a major incident banner on the home page. Such outage banners can be activated immediately, so as soon as you become aware of a major incident, you can enable it. Then end users who go to the portal to register an issue will see that you are already aware of the current major incident and are working to resolve it. The banner can also provide access to simple solutions if applicable.
Text messages. While texting can be considered old-fashioned when compared to newer social media networks, it is still a reliable and effective method of mass communication. So when a major incident requires it, your IT organization can use an SMS service to send important communications to a predefined group of people.
E-mail. Although email has its limitations as a communication channel, it is still a great way to send important messages to your entire company to alert end users of a major incident. But there has to be a realization that not everyone will read the email (s) on time, so keep in mind that a bulk email blast alone won't be enough to make sure everyone who needs to know knows.
Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems. As with outage banners, one of the best things to do when your IT organization experiences an outage is to activate an appropriate IVR message on your IT service desk telephone system. This will alert callers that the IT department is aware of the major incident and is working on the resolution. It can also provide simple solutions, if applicable. This communication prevents people from waiting on the line to inform the counter.
Plus, of course, face-to-face meetings and phone calls / conferences - both of which can be one-to-one or one-to-many communications - as and when needed.
2) Create communication templates to improve the efficiency and completeness of the message
Managing a major incident is a stressful task in itself, which is why your IT organization must want to ensure that you do not cause unnecessary stress to your processes.
Trying to quickly write an effective major incident announcement from the start is such a stress that can be avoided by creating major incident templates ahead of time. Your IT organization can create different templates for different types of major incidents, such as a failure or performance degradation. And once the templates are created, all you need to do is open the template, insert variables that cannot be pre-written, such as the date, and then click a button to run the communication (ideally after it has been checked ).
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Communication templates ensure consistent and accurate message. Your audience can be misled by and criticize poorly worded communication, which can make matters worse than necessary. It's something that's easy to fix, so don't let it happen.
3) Consider your audience and target communications accordingly
When communicating what happens to a major incident, you have different audiences and their respective information needs to think about: affected end users, key stakeholders to raise awareness, and senior business leaders who may want more technical information. The frequency of the communication also depends on the audience.
The variety of audiences is a major reason why multiple channels of communication are needed - the different channels allow your IT organization to send a series of updates so that you reach the right people at the right time, and perhaps even more critically, with the right message. .
4) Communicate consistently during the serious incident
Simply sending a message when a major incident begins - letting everyone know you're aware - isn't enough to meet the varying needs of stakeholders. At the very least, customers don't like to be left in the dark when problems arise - meaning communication during the incident is essential. As with the need for communication templates for major incidents, knowing what you need to communicate in advance - and have a plan makes it both easier and better.
It is important that the communication of your IT organization must be easy to understand and clear. They also need to show your audience that you are in control and that their needs are your priority. And while you may not receive specific updates during the incident, it is often enough to tell your end users that the right people are still working hard to fix things.
When troubleshooting the problem, it's good practice to let stakeholders know what happened, why it happened, and what to do to prevent the problem from happening again. Be apologetic and get the hang of things - transparency in your communication process is essential.
5) Target the right people - Sometimes less is more
Sometimes it may not be necessary to notify your entire organization that you are experiencing a major incident. If a critical business application is affected that only 50% of your end users are working with, the other 50% probably won't care that there is a problem.
Therefore, if possible, your IT organization should use your channels of communication to alert only those who need it, rather than bombarding unaffected employees with updates about a major incident that doesn't worry them.
Ultimately, application downtime, while problematic, doesn't have to paralyze your IT department. When you communicate effectively with affected people, they are much less likely to get negative reactions and persist. End users hopefully understand that incidents happen, what they don't understand - and don't like - is when they aren't notified. And a good communication process for major incidents will help your frontline workers manage, especially when under pressure, and should lead to faster resolution and fewer complaints.
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