As you may have heard, Sony has been having a little trouble recently, and other companies should use it as a prime example of how not to treat customers. In todays world of instant communication, keeping your customers in the loop is vital - particularly when something goes wrong.

Following successful hacking attempts by the assorted troublemakers and ne'er-do-wells of the Internet, the online portion of Sony's Playstation service - the Playstation Network, which enables Playstation users to chat to one another, shop online, watch movies and game against one another - has been entirely offline for almost a week.

Online services going down isn't something that's entirely unheard of and, while it's somewhat shocking that a company as large as Sony wasn't on top of things in terms of security, that's not the problem. The problem is that Sony are telling their 70 million Playstation Netowork customers very little about the situation. To date, there have been just four vague blog posts, the last of which - from Sony's Patrick Seybold - casually states that "unfortunately, I don’t have an update or timeframe to share at this point in time."

Understandably, this has frustrated and annoyed gamers around the world who are unable to play their favourite titles over the Easter weekend. However, given that millions of users have credit card information, Facebook login credentials, private photographs and all sorts of other extremely private information linked to their Playstation Network accounts, the lack of updates is understandably causing outrage.

So what should they have done?

When a similar issue occurred with Xbox Live, Microsoft’s online gaming platform, users were kept up to date frequently with informative messages about why the issue was occurring, how it was being addressed, and when the service was anticipated to be returning to normal. It kept people calm and encouraged them to maintain their faith in Microsoft.

The main frustration among Sony's customers is that the service is down. About that, nothing can be done on the PR front. However, adressing issues such as what has happened, whether personal data is safe, when the service will be back up and constant reassurances that the issue is being taken seriously.

If ever you find yourself in a similar situation, here are our recommendations for staying on top of things:

1.    Be forthcoming about the issue.

If something bad that affects your customers has happened, is happening, or will happen, let them know as soon as possible. Explain how it will affect them, and reassure them that steps will be taken to prevent or reverse any damage done.

2.    Explain why it happened.

If your customers are aware of what caused the issue, they will feel more secure knowing that you’re on top of things. Identifying a specific problem demonstrates to your customers that you will not only be able to address it, but prevent it from happening again in the future.

3.    Explain how you intend to address the issue.

List the steps that you’ll be taking in order to correct the problem and prevent it from happening again. If your customers are aware that you’re already working hard on the matter, their concerns will be lessened significantly.

4.    Provide dates and times.

Your customers will want to know specific dates and times that service will return to normal, especially if your product/service is something that is regularly used or relied upon by your customers. Having specific dates and times will allow them to adjust their plans accordingly and reassure them that things will return to normal.

5.    Apologise for the inconvenience and offer incentives to encourage your customers to remain loyal

If your service is subscription-based, your customers may feel cheated out of what they feel is time paid for. It could help to offer them a partial refund based on however long the service was disrupted for.

Any more suggestions? Please comment below!