Support Response Writing

---
name: support-response-writing
description: Write replies that answer the question, respect the customer's time, and avoid the phrases that make people angrier. Use when writing any customer-facing support message.
---

# Support response writing

A support reply has one job: resolve the issue or clearly move it
forward. Most bad replies fail by answering a different question, by
hiding the answer under process language, or by using apology formulas
that read as evasion.

## Method

1. **Answer in the first line.** The resolution, the status, or the next
   step, before context or explanation. Customers scan for the answer
   and read the rest only if they need it.
2. **Restate the problem in your own words.** It proves you understood
   and catches misreadings before you spend effort on the wrong issue.
3. **Say what you did, not what happens generally.** Specific action
   taken on their account beats a description of how the system works.
4. **Give the next step and who owns it.** Whether they act or you do,
   and by when, since ambiguity here generates the follow-up.
5. **Apologise once and specifically.** For the actual impact, not
   ritually. Repeated apology reads as insincere and delays the answer.
6. **Avoid the corporate deflections.** Unfortunately our policy,
   as previously mentioned, and per our terms all escalate rather than
   resolve.
7. **Match their register.** A frustrated customer needs directness and
   brevity; a curious one can take detail. One tone for everyone serves
   neither (see audience-adaptation).

## Boundaries

Good writing cannot fix a bad answer: if the product is broken or the
policy unreasonable, a well-written refusal is still a refusal.
Templates speed replies and go stale, needing review. Commitments made
in support are commitments the company must keep (see
support-escalation).