Incident Communication Templates
Professional templates for status page updates, escalation messages, and post-incident customer emails. Fill in the blanks and copy.
**Investigating** — 2026-10-06 19:19 UTC We are aware of an issue affecting [Service Name]. Our engineering team is actively investigating. **Impact:** Some users may experience degraded performance or errors. **Status:** Investigating **Next update:** Within 30 minutes or when we have more information.
Frequently Asked Questions
Post your first update within 5 minutes of detecting an issue — even if you don't yet know the cause. Silence erodes trust faster than bad news. Update every 15–30 minutes during active incidents, even if only to say 'still investigating.'
Be specific about what's affected (which service, which users), honest about what you know and don't know, and clear about next steps. Avoid blame, jargon, and passive voice. 'Our database cluster experienced elevated latency' is better than 'Some users may experience issues.'
Share what you've confirmed, not what you suspect. Saying 'We've identified a configuration change as the cause' is fine once confirmed. Speculating publicly can mislead customers and create PR problems if you're wrong.
Proactively offer credits before customers ask — it builds trust. Include the affected time window, the SLA target that was breached, and clear instructions for claiming credits. Automating this via your status page tool is ideal.
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