Scheduled Maintenance: 15+ Email Examples

Just like an engine, your product also needs maintenance to run smoothly. Maintenance activities often cause service issues or even require system downtime, so minimizing customer frustrations is key.

This is where scheduled maintenance emails come in. They can also increase customer loyalty and brand value.

But how do you make these notifications friendly and informative?

In this post, you’ll learn best practices on how to write scheduled maintenance emails, and see how other SaaS brands are writing theirs.

Why scheduled maintenance emails are important

While these scheduled maintenance emails are primarily for your customers, they also help your brand.

Value for the customers

• Giving customers the necessary heads up. Think of scheduled maintenance emails as the “Construction Ahead” signs you see on the road: they give your customers a heads up so they can work around it.
• Preventing frustration. Telling the customers about possible service issues or downtime during the scheduled maintenance period sets expectations, and prevents unnecessary stress over something they cannot control.

Value for the brand

• Minimizing unnecessary support tickets. Your customer support team won’t have to deal with too many “why is your system down?” or “why is your platform not working properly?” questions during the scheduled maintenance time.
• Showing that you care about your customers. Showing your customers that you care always helps build trust in your brand.

Understand the impact of your maintenance activity

Before anything else, gain a full understanding of how these maintenance activities will impact your service. Doing so makes it easier for you to explain the situation to your users.

These questions will help you evaluate how upcoming maintenance will affect your users:

• Will the maintenance activity take the entire service offline?
• If not, what particular features or functionalities will be affected?
• How long is the expected downtime?
• Which segment of users will be affected?
• Should the user do something on their end?
• Is there a risk of other problems arising that could prolong the downtime, or affect other services/features?

Best practices for scheduled maintenance emails

Give ample lead time and enough reminders

You wouldn’t want your users to be caught off guard, so you want to make sure that they have enough time to work around the downtime if necessary. Generally, sending the heads-up email a week before is enough.

Should you choose to send the email longer than a week before the maintenance day, you should send another reminder closer to the actual day.

The number of reminders will also depend on the expected impact of your maintenance activities. The bigger the impact and the longer the estimated downtime, the more reminders you should send out.

Provide the necessary details in your email

Users don’t need to know all the technical nitty gritty details of your maintenance activity, but they do have to know the basic information of when and how this will affect them.

Your email should at least include the following:

• Date and time. If your users are spread across the globe, using UTC as the default time zone in your email helps readers easily convert to their local time.
• Estimated downtime. Will it take 30 minutes? 1 hour?
• What maintenance activities are being done. Your users might not understand super technical terms, but that doesn’t mean you should leave them in the dark. Explain what you will be doing and why you’re doing it in the simplest terms.
• What services/features will be impacted?
• Does the user need to do anything on their side? And even if they don’t have to do anything, it’s best to put this in the email to reassure them.
• Who can the user reach out to if they encounter issues or have questions

Thank the user for their patience and understanding

Downtimes and service interruptions are not ideal situations, so it’s important to acknowledge the inconveniences they cause the user.

Aside from explaining the reason behind the maintenance activity, a simple “thank you for your patience and understanding” in your email could help minimize frustrations on the user's side.

Use other channels to complement your email

You can use other channels to complement your scheduled maintenance emails.

• A public status page is best for most cases because this page lives outside your platform.
• In-app notifications can be used if the maintenance activity won’t take your entire services offline.
• Social media is another channel you can leverage, but with so much going on on these platforms, there’s a risk most of your users won’t see it.

Scheduled maintenance email examples from SaaS companies

#1. DigitalOcean

Subject: NYC3 Network Maintenance 2024-11-26

DigitalOcean is a provider that offers cloud computing services and infrastructure as a service.

Their email immediately tells the reader about the start and end of the downtime. They give a brief explanation about the maintenance activity and what it's for. The next section details the potential issues the user may face during this time.

We think it’s a nice touch that they reassure the reader that they’re keeping the impact to a minimum during the downtime.

What can be done better?

They should have mentioned if users need to do anything on their side.

#2. Apple Podcasts

Subject: Scheduled maintenance on May 11, 2024.

Apple Podcasts is Apple’s podcast streaming service.

Their email is short and straightforward, telling the user about the downtime and which services will be affected during that time.

What can be done better?

• They should have included the important “what” and “why” of the maintenance activity so users understand the reason for the downtime.
• They also should have mentioned if users need to do anything on their side.

#3. Userlist

Subject: Upcoming maintenance on August 11th, 2024

Userlist (that's us) is an email automation platform built for SaaS businesses.

We sent this email during the database upgrade we did earlier this year. This contains all the necessary details expected in a scheduled maintenance email:

• Date and time of maintenance mode
• What is being done
• How long the downtime is
• If the user needs to do anything on their side
• What services and functionalities will be affected
• What will happen after the downtime

#4. Plain

Subject: Upcoming downtime due to maintenance

Plain is a customer support platform for modern tools.

Their email is divided into several clear sections, each discussing an important detail:

• Date and time of the maintenance activity/downtime
• How this affects the usage of the platform
• Reassurances about keeping customer data intact and the length of the downtime
• What the user needs to do

The email also explicitly acknowledges the inconvenience the downtime may cause, so Plain explains why they’re doing this maintenance activity to reassure the user that this is for the long-term improvement of the platform.

What can be done better?

While it’s okay to have a few timezone conversions on the email, the UTC time is already enough so that section could be shorter.

#5. Postmark

Postmark is an email delivery service.

Unlike the other examples we’ve read so far, this announcement was a section in one of their newsletters.

While it provides the necessary details and links to a separate post about the maintenance plan, we don’t recommend this approach. You shouldn't assume that all customers read your newsletters, let alone dig into the end of it for some status updates.

What can be done better?

They should have a dedicated email about the upcoming service maintenance.

#6. Pitch

Subject: Maintenance alert ⚠️ Nov 28th 7-9am UTC

Pitch is a presentation software that lets teams design beautiful decks in minutes.

Aside from the necessary details, Pitch’s email goes above and beyond by including:

• A link to a time zone conversion
• Give users updates via a separate status page
• What the user can do should they need to present during the downtime
• What the user can do if they need to edit their deck during the downtime

#7. Simplecast

Subject: Scheduled Maintenance – August 15th

Simplecast is a podcast hosting and management platform.

Their email talks about the upgrade being done on their marketing website and how this might affect usage and log in. They go on to explain how the user can directly log in via the dashboard and continue using the platform without any problem.

What can be done better?

They could have added a short “Should you have any questions or concerns…” before ending the email so the “Contact Us” CTA doesn’t seem out of place.

#8. The StoryGraph

Subject: Important: Scheduled Maintenance November 25th-28th

The StoryGraph is a social cataloguing platform for books.

Their email provides the necessary and basic details about the scheduled maintenance activity, and links to a status page so users can monitor the real-time updates.

What can be done better?

As we’ve mentioned earlier, choosing UTC as the time zone in your announcement is often enough. Having five timezones here is unnecessary and could potentially overwhelm the reader. Instead of doing this, they can link to a time zone conversion tool should the reader need it (similar to what Pitch did).

#9. NordPass

Subject: Scheduled maintenance on February 28, 2024

NordPass is a password management platform.

This email contains the basic and necessary information needed in a scheduled maintenance email. They also acknowledge the inconvenience this might cause and thank the reader for their understanding.

What can be done better?

They should have mentioned their support email address or a specific method of contact because “please don’t hesitate to reach out to us” is vague.

#10. VEED

Subject: VEED scheduled maintenance, Friday 19/08, 5am BST

VEED is a free online AI video editor.

While it contains all the necessary details related to the downtime, this was their only scheduled maintenance email and sent a day before the actual maintenance day.

We don’t recommend sending your email only a day earlier because you shouldn’t assume that your customers are waiting to read your email. And while maintenance activities are often scheduled during off peak hours, you should still allow users enough time to adjust their schedules around it if they need to.

What can be done better?

• They should have scheduled this a few days earlier.

• They could have formatted the important details (i.e. date and time) in bold so it's easier for the reader to skim through and not miss out on them.

#11. Calendly

Subject: Billing-System Maintenance in October

Calendly is a cloud-based scheduling app that helps professionals and teams simplify appointment bookings.

Unlike the other examples we’ve seen so far, this scheduled maintenance email only mentions a month (doesn’t have a specific time and date) for the service interruption because accounts undergo maintenance by batches. This was sent about a month before the actual maintenance month.

They also mention that the user will see an in-app notification once their account is undergoing 24-hour maintenance, and what to do if they make a billing change.

#12. Proto.io

Subject: Scheduled Maintenance – Proto.io

Proto.io is an app prototyping platform.

As we’ve mentioned before, your users just need to know the necessary information about the basic when, what, and why the service maintenance is going to happen. Proto.io’s email does just this.

What can be done better?

They could have been specific about what is going to happen (i.e. you cannot use the service at this time) instead of just mentioning “shutting down”. It’s better to be clear to set the right expectations with your users.

#13. Transistor

Subject: Upcoming Transistor.fm maintenance on June 27

Transistor is a podcast platform that provides hosting and analytics.

Aside from stating the details pertaining to the scheduled maintenance activity, Transistor reassures its users that their listeners can still listen to their already published episodes–showing they care about their users’ audiences as well.

They then provide links to their status page should the user want real-time updates about the maintenance activity.

What can be done better?

Since this is a short email, one CTA is often enough. This email can do without the secondary “Status Page” CTA (hyperlinked text).

#14. Stripo

Thanks to Oleksandra Khlystova for this example.

Subject: Stripo server maintenance⌛

Stripo is an email template builder tool.

Their email makes it easier for readers to skim through by formatting the important information in bold.

What can be done better?

While it’s always good to let readers know how they can ask for help from you, make sure that you’re providing relevant information. Since the email is only talking about a scheduled maintenance activity, providing your support email address is often enough. They didn’t need to add links to their help center and demo booking here.

#15. LastPass

Thanks to Syed of WPBeginner for contributing this example.

LastPass is a popular password management tool.

They included their announcement in their monthly update email. While it provides the basic details and links to a status page, we don’t recommend this approach because you shouldn’t assume that all your users read your monthly roundup.

What can be done better?

They should have a dedicated email about the upcoming service maintenance.

#16. Foxit eSign

Subject: 🦊 Notification about Upcoming Scheduled Maintenance

Foxit eSignature is an electronic signature tool for businesses of all sizes.

The hero section has a graphic that immediately tells the reader that this email is about an upcoming scheduled maintenance. They used different formatting for the important details so the reader doesn’t miss out on them.

What can be done better?

• They should include a specific time zone to avoid confusion.
• Because this isn’t a newsletter the other sections (i.e. free trial download) are unnecessary.

#17. RightMessage

Subject: RightMessage Scheduled Downtime

RightMessage is a tool that helps you segment your audience and send personalized messages.

They sent this email to announce that they are rolling out a big update. This email has three clear sections:

• Details about the scheduled maintenance
• What’s changing
• If the user needs to do anything

In the first section, they clearly explain that this only affects the user’s ability to view their account and manage their data, but not the other functionalities (i.e. lead generation).

The second section tells the reader about what’s changing on RightMessage after the scheduled maintenance. Aside from a list of the upcoming improvements, they included a screenshot to tease the user of what they can expect.

The closing section lets the reader know that they don’t have to do anything on their end and they can log in as usual after the scheduled maintenance.

Scheduled maintenance email template

Manage expectations to minimize frustrations

While we can’t eliminate the need for system downtimes to improve our services, a simple and compassionate email to your users can make up for this temporary inconvenience.

By managing your users’ expectations ahead of time, you’re allowing them to make the necessary adjustments to their schedules and prevent frustrations.

Check out email examples for other SaaS lifecycle occasions:

• “Invite your team” emails
• Deleting inactive user accounts
• Pricing update emails
• New feature announcements

To see how email marketing can accelerate your SaaS growth, welcome to book a demo.