An incident is every unexpected event that disrupts the service provided. There are many reasons for such incidents, including network issues, power outages, software bugs, malware, hardware failures, etc.
With a status page, you can provide sufficient information about what’s happening and when you expect the issue to be resolved by the responsible parties. That’s why you need to find a convenient status page provider, like StatusCast, to let you communicate during normal operations but also while handling the incident.
But why do you need a status page for that?
When informing the stakeholders and customers about the current outages or disruptions, you’re reducing the number of IT helpdesk tickets while maintaining transparent communication.
If you still aren’t sure whether to choose a status page for advanced incident management and escalation, here are a few reasons to consider doing that:
1. Incident Prioritization
Sometimes, a lot of things happen at once, so you don’t know when and how to start resolving them. Luckily, the status pages can automate the prioritization process and help you start with the most important issues while de-escalating the whole problem.
As a result, the responsible parties can immediately relocate resources and workforce and fix the priority issues first. That way, the service is expected to get back to capacity as soon as possible.
2. Communication with Internal Stakeholders
Private status pages can be used for internal communication between the company’s management, C-suite roles, and IT teams. The goal is for everyone to be informed about the progress and resources spent to resolve the issue.
On the other hand, you can easily create reports and offer in-depth data in order to prevent such events in the future.
3. Improved Customer Communication
A status page can be used to communicate with customers about the status of incidents and to provide updates on the estimated time to resolution. That way, companies are completely transparent and honest, which means end-users won’t get frustrated during the incident.
Use the status pages as incident management software so you can best communicate every issue on time. Make them easily accessible on the web, so everyone who is interested can track down the progress and get realistic expectations on resolving the issue.
4. Automated Incident Escalation
When managed properly, status pages can automatically notify the relevant parties when something unusual happens. Some status pages have this feature pre-integrated, or you can ask your provider to add incident notifications.
Based on the incident type, the status page can immediately inform everyone who is affected by the disruption, even the end users who are using the public version to track the workflow.
5. Post-Incident Analysis
Status page reports let you analyze the incidents and track the reasons why they happened in the first place. That way, you can prevent the same incident from happening and even manage to lower the risks for similar ones.
Status pages can effectively let you spot the root causes of such incidents. You and your team, based on that, can set some crisis actions and even prevent further disruptions.
Tips on Using Status Pages for Incident Management
As you build trust between different employees, stakeholders, and customers, you also can improve the overall communication on specific issues during incident management. Status pages are a great way to integrate notifications and data analysis within your company, making the whole working process more efficient.
But how do you successfully use a status page to manage incidents? Here are some tips:
Have Dedicated Status Pages
Some incidents happen internally, and the end users aren’t affected. But some incidents disrupt the whole service, so you need to inform the customers on time.
It’s not enough just to publish a social media post or a web post. Instead, use a dedicated status page that is designed for this purpose.
Use Templates and Incident Response Plans
No matter how much you trust your services, incidents are unpredictable. Still, you probably know what can go wrong in the worst-case scenario, so be prepared to immediately announce that by having plans and templates.
That way, you can save plenty of time when communicating with the customers during the incident.
Integrate Status Pages with Work Management Tools
Many status pages can be integrated with the tools you use to manage the workflow or communication channels you have with your customers.
This will allow you to automate many of the tasks involved in incident management, such as sending updates to customers and stakeholders.
Collaboration and Cross-Functional Teams
An incident management process accompanied by a dedicated status page serves as a collaboration hub. That way, you provide a platform for more teams and stakeholders to track the management process and take action if needed.
When using a status page, make sure all relevant parties have access to the available tools for more efficient collaboration.
On Incident Management and Keeping Everyone Informed
Incident management is not a simple process to handle. Some incidents may disrupt the overall service and let the end customers down. Surely, being honest at this point is essential because customers appreciate transparency. Don’t try to act like nothing is happening because you won’t be able to resolve the issue without everyone noticing.
So, the status page can help you communicate clearly during the incident, but also:
- Keep everyone informed about the progress
- Record historical data to analyze later
- Communicate with the customers on the estimated time to resolve the issue
- Preventing small incidents from becoming huge ones
- Making informed decisions on what resources to use when managing an incident
- Creating detailed reports on further prevention
- Being professional all the time
In conclusion to this article, we can say that managing incidents is not an easy process, and it requires a lot of patience and dedication. So, the status pages can help the responsible parties handle the incident in a professional manner while the customers and stakeholders are aware of it all the time.
Status pages are a small investment compared to the time you need to take to respond to all incident reports, complaints, and customers who expect your services to get back immediately.
