Five Status Page Messages to Send During an Outage

During a server outage, your IT team can feel pulled in two different directions: First, having to communicate with customers about the issue and second, fixing the actual problem. Since you want to keep your customers informed while working to resolve the issue, there’s a solution tailored to your team: A status page can help you communicate while keeping pages updated with specific, clearly-written automated messages.

Here’s how a status page can help you in each stage of an outage, along with four examples of status page messages you can send to customers:

Stage  1: “The servers have gone offline but we don’t know why.” In this instance, a status page notification can be used to notify admins and employees. The notification can include details of what next steps need to be taken. Then, the status page is used to notify customers and vendors that you know of an issue and are working on getting it resolved. You can even set the status page to send out the message every 30 minutes until a new update is ready.

Sample Status Message: “We’re aware of an issue in our Seattle Data Center and working to identify the cause and appropriate steps to remediate. All data is safe and backed up. This status page will be updated every 30 minutes.”

Stage  2: “We’ve found the problem, but not the solution.” To communicate this specific message, your team can schedule automated messages in 30 minute increments that anticipate customer questions. Then, you can continue focusing on what’s being accomplished as opposed to answering customers calls and messages.

Sample Status Message: “We’ve identified the cause of the issue in our Seattle Data Center. Our engineering team is working to get this resolved as soon as possible. All data is safe and backed up. This status page will be updated every 30 minutes.”

Stage  3: “We have the solution, but not the ETA.” While you have the solution but not a good understanding of how long it will take to be implemented, your team still needs to keep customers updated. This decreases the number of phone calls and emails you’ll receive as you work to fix the problem.

Sample Status Message: “We have the solution in place for the issue in our Seattle Data Center. We’re currently working on implementing the solution with the assistance of our senior engineering team. All data is safe and backed up. We don’t have a current ETA. This status page will be updated every 30 minutes.”

Stage 4: “We have the ETA.” Once you’ve got a handle on the the solution and now know the timeline, send an ETA to your customers.

Sample Status Message: “We’re now in the process of bringing our servers back online in our Seattle Data Center. All data is safe and backed up. We expect to have all systems online with in the next 45 minutes. This status page will be updated every 30 minutes.”

Stage 5: “Issue is resolved.”  All systems are back online and it’s time to send that message out to your customers and employees.

Sample Status Message: “All systems are back online and users are able to access. All data is safe and restored. If you have any issues logging back in you can reach our support staff at support@XXXXXX.com.”

When you deploy a status page, you’ll keep people informed and have your team focused on fixing the issue. Your team will be able to work on the problem all while sending automated, timely messages to customers to answers their questions and give them peace of mind.

If you’re interested in learning more about how a status page can decrease your call volume and increase customer satisfaction, schedule a call with us here.