This is a topic worth talking about. Think of how do you, personally, tell bad news? How many times a day do we have to do it?
“Honey, I have just eaten your favorite peanut butter” or “Unfortunately, sir, we have not fixed your car yet” or “I’m calling from …Hospital, your grandmother died…” It all depends on the way you say it. Are there any definite rules on how to make “bad news” more acceptable and not so harsh? There are some, but basically you have to follow the situation. Mostly it depends on the level of seriousness of news.
As a matter of fact the best way to inform of bad news is to do it over the phone, unless the addressee is your relative or someone close to you. This way you can avoid an extra undesirable negative experience, such as further wrangles or dissatisfaction. The absence of an actual person in front of you helps emotionally and psychologically to overcome a complicated inconvenient situation.
One of the rules of telling bad news is to make sure there is an actual bad issue worth telling. Tell your hearer something is wrong too many times and he/she will decide not to have business with you any more; or simply just will not believe you next time. Once you are completely sure there is an actual problem and there is nothing you can do to solve it, try to make it as casual as possible. Do not delay the breaking of bad news until it is too late.
Do not forget to arm yourself with arguments or possible solutions. It is much easier to tell bad news once you have suggestions on how to work it out.