The 'Known Issues' Page: Stopping Customers Asking About the Same Outage or Delay Over and Over

10 October 2026·5 min read

Quick answer: A known issues page is one simple page that says, in plain language, what's broken or delayed, since when, and what you're doing about it — so every customer with the same question can find the answer themselves. It won't fix the outage, but it stops the same enquiry landing in your inbox fifty times while your team is stretched. Most businesses only build one after the third outage has already cost them hours of repeat replies. 🚀

There's a specific kind of exhausting that comes from answering the exact same question forty times in one afternoon, each time with slightly less patience than the last. 💖 It usually happens during an outage, a delay, or a system hiccup — the booking page is down, the courier's running three days late, the app won't load — and every customer who hits it assumes they're the only one, so they all do the reasonable thing and ask you directly. A known issues page exists for exactly this moment: one honest, visible update that answers the question before it's asked, so your team can actually fix the problem instead of narrating it on repeat.

What most businesses get wrong

Most businesses handle an outage or a delay reactively — answering each enquiry as it comes in, one message and one call at a time, as if every customer asking is asking for the first time. That scales exactly as badly as it sounds: the busier the problem gets, the busier your support channels get, right when your team has the least capacity to cope. Nobody builds the known issues page while things are calm, so by the time it's needed, it gets built under pressure, half-finished, or not at all — and the repeat enquiries just get absorbed as "part of the job."

Steal this: the known issues page template

Keep it to one simple, scannable page, updated as you go:

What's affected — the specific system, service or product, named plainly.
Since when — the date and time it started, so people can check it matches what they're seeing.
What it means for you right now — can you still book, order, or use the service another way meanwhile.
What we're doing about it — one honest line, not a PR statement.
Last updated — a visible timestamp, even if the update is just "still working on it."

The software outage: A service business whose client portal went down for most of a day fielded dozens of near-identical messages asking if it was just them. A simple banner link to a known issues page — "yes, we know, here's what's happening, updated every hour" — cut the repeat enquiries sharply, because the anxious "is it just me?" question was answered before anyone had to type it out.

The clinic's booking system: When a clinic's online booking tool went down for a weekend, reception took call after call from people assuming they'd need to ring anyway. A known issues page with a direct phone number and the line "online bookings are temporarily down, call us and we'll get you in" gave callers confidence their call wasn't wasted, and let reception stop explaining the outage from scratch each time.

The shipping delay: A retailer hit by a courier delay added one line to a known issues page — "orders placed after this date may take an extra three to five days, we're on top of it" — and linked it from their order confirmation email. "Where's my order" enquiries dropped noticeably, because customers already expecting a delay didn't need to chase confirmation something was wrong.

How to actually build and use one

Build the page's structure now, while nothing is wrong, so all you ever have to do mid-crisis is fill it in. Link it from everywhere a stressed customer might look first — a banner, your auto-reply, your social bios — because it only works if people find it before they pick up the phone. Keep the tone plain and human rather than corporate; "we know, we're on it, here's what it means for you" earns more trust than "we are experiencing intermittent service disruptions."

💡 Build the page before you need it, not during the outage. The whole point of a known issues page is speed — if you're writing the page's structure for the first time while also dealing with the actual problem, you've lost most of the benefit. Set up a simple, dormant page now that you can update in under two minutes when something goes wrong.

Writing vague, corporate language ("we are experiencing intermittent issues") instead of plain, specific facts
Forgetting to update the timestamp, so customers assume the page is stale and call anyway
Burying the page somewhere customers would never find it mid-crisis, instead of linking it from a banner or auto-reply
Taking the page down the moment the issue is fixed without a short "resolved as of" note, leaving late-arriving customers confused

Frequently asked questions

Doesn't a known issues page just advertise that things go wrong?

It's a fair worry, but in practice it does the opposite — customers trust a business more when it's upfront about a problem than when it stays silent and makes people chase answers. The real risk is in how long an issue drags on unacknowledged, not in admitting it happened.

Do I need a known issues page if outages are rare for my business?

Probably not a permanent, prominent one — but it's worth having a simple template ready to publish fast, even if it sits unused for months. The value is in the speed of the response, not the page existing year-round.

Should the known issues page replace my FAQ page?

No — they do different jobs. Your FAQ page answers ongoing, evergreen questions; a known issues page answers "what's wrong right now," and should be separate and clearly time-stamped so customers aren't left wondering if an old issue is still happening.

Who should be responsible for updating it during an outage?

Name one person before the crisis, not during it. The page only works if someone has clear ownership of updating it fast — if it's "everyone's job," it quietly becomes no one's, right when it matters most.

Keep reading 🤍

Written by

Kate, founder of Chronically Online

I help Gold Coast and Brisbane businesses grow with branding, websites and marketing that actually works.

Work with me ✦