Posts filed under ‘Crisis Management’
Komen Crisis Management Attempt Works Against Them – Big Time
The Susan G. Komen self-defense is making matter worse for them. Their YouTube explanation is a good example of how NOT to handle a crisis.
The video is long, self-justifying and takes up 2/3 of it with worthless explanations that dodge the issue. If you’re going to use YouTube, get to the heart of the matter quickly. This strategy strikes me as a giant stall and sleight-of-hand to distract us for the real issue. The lesson for every #crisismanger is this: meet your critics head-on. Stalling with good words, mission statements and policy explanations makes us wonder what you’re NOT saying.
As a long-time fan of both #SusanGKomen and #Planned Parenthood, I have to say the #Komen folks are coming off here as the villains and Planned Parenthood’s looking like the victim. Not a good interplay for #Komen. We know who we root for and it’s not the villains!
UPDATE FEB. 3: Looks like someone at #Komen wasn’t tone deaf. Decision was reversed today: http://bit.ly/wHUUfP. It’s a start now GO OUT THERE AND START REBUILDIING YOUR REPUTATION, KOMEN. You’ve got a way to go!
Making The Most of a #McStake
As a vegetarian, I never thought I’d be saying this, but here goes….. Good job McDonald’s.
When their Twitter campaign using #McDStories went terribly wrong, they admitted it and took it down. They introduced the hashtag Thursday with they tweeted “When u make something with pride, people can taste it.” People jumped on the hashtag, using it to kvetch about all things McDonalds ranging from food poisoning to chipped molars from the burgers.
They moved quickly to take down the campaign. Here’s part of the smart, self-effacing email from McDonald’s social media director Rick Wion that explained it:
Last Thursday, we planned to use two different hashtags during a promoted trend – #meetthefarmers and #mcdstories.
While #meetthefarmers was used for the majority of the day and successful in raising awareness of the Supplier Stories campaign, #mcdstories did not go as planned. We quickly pulled #mcdstories and it was promoted for less than two hours.
Within an hour of pulling #McDStories the number of conversations about it fell off from a peak of 1600 to a few dozen. It is also important to keep those numbers in perspective. There were 72,788 mentions of McDonald’s overall that day so the traction of #McDStories was a tiny percentage (2%) of that.
With all social media campaigns, we include contingency plans should the conversation not go as planned. The ability to change midstream helped this small blip from becoming something larger.
Bravo, McD’s! You admitted a mistake and didn’t let the need to be right keep you from admitting a screw up. Here’s the lesson to all corporations where arrogance gets in the way of such actions: you can admit a mistake and people will forgive and forget. Or you can think of yourselves as infallible and NO ONE will forgive OR forget.
Don’t Forget the Stakeholders
By Andrea Obston, President, Andrea Obston Marketing Communications, LLC
One of the biggest mistakes people make when dealing with a crisis is to focus all of their attention on the media. I know this may sound a little odd coming from a PR professional (like the doctor who decries the use of medicine) but it’s true. Sure, communicating early and often to reporters and bloggers is critical. They are important sources of information. But it‘s a mistake to think they are the only group that requires attention during a crisis.
In the book Dealing with an Angry Public, the authors write about the need to reach out to everyone affected by a crisis and to really listen to what they want. It’s easy to assume, for example, that someone damaged by a malfunctioning product is only interested in getting as much money as possible out of the product’s manufacturer. The first person to sue Ford over its ill-fated Explorers (more than 100 people died in accidents in these SUVs) didn’t want money. What she wanted was an apology. That’s all she wanted, but Ford never took the time to find this out and immediately went into bunker mentality and hunkered down for a financial battle with her. How much easier it would have been if they’d just taken the time to listen.
The next time you’re working with a client in response to a crisis, encourage them to think about the variety of people it effects before reacting. Suggest they withhold any actions until they make a list of all the people who have a stake in the outcome of the crisis. Then, and only then, can you work with them to formulate a strategy that will allow them to return to business relatively whole.
Here is a partial list of the “publics” that are often impacted in crisis communications:
• Those affected by the events – While this is obvious, I’m often surprised that the “recipients” of a disaster are the last people considered in a crisis situation. Caring for them first and really listening to their concerns can head off problems later.
• Board members – Members of a clients’ board deserve a heads-up on any crisis. For obvious reasons, you don’t want them to learn about a crisis from the local media. They are often a client’s most visible “community ambassadors”. They deserve early warning and the courtesy of a few talking points for dealing with any questions they receive. They should also be instructed on the client’s procedures for handling the press, should they get the call from an enterprising reporter or blogger.
• Stockholders – No mystery here. Sarbanes-Oxley covers this one, but that’s the least the client should be doing for this group. Use the incident as an opportunity to reinforce a two-way flow of information.
• Employees – Here’s another group of community ambassadors who have the potential to help a besieged client get their messages out their way (as well as the potential to do harm if not kept in the loop.) Your client should arm them with selected talking points, remind them to send all in-depth interviews to a designated in-house contact and establish on-going dialogue on the situation. Such actions may very well cut short rumors and cement their relationship with them. Employees resent it when they are like mushrooms (that is, kept in the dark).
• Bankers and Vendors – Negative developments make bankers and vendors nervous. It’s better to honestly let them know what’s going on before they hear about it from rumors and your client’s competitors.
• Community leaders and the general public – Encourage your clients not to rely solely on news accounts to tell their story to this group. Letters, emails, opinion pieces and paid ads in the local press allow the client to tell their story fairly and accurately. This is particularly important if a crisis could affect those living near a client’s facility, like a release of toxic waste, a fire or even a plant closing. What happened? How will it affect their lives? What is your client doing to protect the local community or mitigate the effects? What can they expect to happen next? What methods has the client put in place to communicate further developments?
• Regulatory agencies – As we discussed in the stockholders’ section, regulatory requirements should be thought of as the bare minimum when it comes to communicating with this group. With an attorney as the advisor, such groups should be kept as up-to-date as possible.
This list is only the beginning. Obviously, it does not include members of the media and the blogosphere. Attorneys and PR people should develop a crisis plan before it’s needed that takes into account all appropriate “publics” depending upon the clients’ industry. Research tells us that 40 percent of companies hit by disaster go out of business within five years
A comprehensive crisis plan that takes into account all of the publics affected can be an important tool to make sure your clients aren’t victims of this 40 percent “mortality” statistic. Working together, we can help our clients retain their reputations and get back to business as soon as possible.
Comments, Questions, Answers, Suggestions?
aobston@aomc.com
860-243-1447
@aobston
www.facebook.com/AndreaObstonMarketingCommunications
www.LinkedIn.com/aobston
Introducing the AOMC Blog, The Reputation Manager: Rebuilding Trust After a Layoff
By Andrea Obston, President, Andrea Obston Marketing Communications, LLC
How does a company rebuild trust after a layoff? Is there a second act or is it best to push past the layoffs and hope no one notices? Not in today’s environment. Not if you expect to be in business tomorrow.
We know that companies that weather their layoffs most successfully are those that communicate the decision honestly to all the stakeholders it touches. But most companies are so focused on the internal aspects of this difficult decision that they choose to ignore its external impact. This puts their company’s future in jeopardy.
As a manager or business owner, you may be faced with the tough decision of whether or not to deal with your layoff publicly. It will help if you remember this: the purpose of many layoffs is to preserve the business in tough economic times so it lives to fight another day in the future. In other words, the business (and you) will be experiencing the short-term pain of a layoff in exchange for the long-term health of the company. It’s not fun and it’s not pretty, but it is often a solid business judgment made with an eye towards the future. And in order to preserve the company and its reputation, you need to plan on managing the public face of that layoff as part of your downsizing plans.
Ignoring this point puts the future of your business at risk. Businesses that close their eyes to the communications aspect of layoffs can expect to find themselves on the defense. No one looks good in defensive mode, especially when they are dealing with angry customers, curious reporters and surprised local government officials. The last guy who looked good playing defense was Troy Polamalu.
As crisis managers, we are called in to companies before a layoffs to help them with their communications before, during and afterwards. We help them put a public face of this very private decision. We’ve learned two key truths in this work: 1) Companies either choose to take control of their reputations during difficult times or end up allowing others to do it for them and 2) People judge companies by the way they behave in tough times.
Companies either take control of these situations or the situations end up controlling them. You take control through straight-forward communications. That means communicating with your customers, prospects, employees, vendors and the rest of the world that the layoffs were a thoughtful business decision on the part of strong company with a good future. In plain language (and before people have a chance to make up their own stories) you need to deliver these messages:
- We have had a staff reduction of X number of people;
- We value all employees who work for this company and did not make this decision lightly;
- This was a difficult choice that we made to ensure the long-term health of this company;
- The layoffs were necessary because of the impact of prevailing economic conditions. These have hit our customers and therefore our bottom line. By the way, it is not necessary to be as excessively dramatic as one organization that ascribed the need for layoffs to “the global financial crisis”.
- This company is strong and has a long history of weathering economic changes. It will continue to provide the superior customer service and products that have characterized it for the last XX years.
It is also critical that your company prepare for any outside interest in the layoff as a symbol of a trend in your industry or region. While these stories have been done over and over, there is a good chance that an eager (or bored) reporter or blogger may seize on this if they are looking for an angle to make the story of your layoff more “interesting.”
Here are some basic steps that will help you prepare for the public face of your layoff decision:
1) Make a list of all groups impacted above and beyond the employees laid off. Look at both internal and external audiences. Internally, these may include some or all of these groups: remaining employees, managers, members of the board, stockholders and investors and retirees. Externally, think about customers, vendors, affiliated organizations, referral sources, industry trade groups, government officials, (locally and statewide) and members of the community.
2) Understand the concerns of each group and be prepared to address them. Often, these concerns will vary. Employees will be most worried about losing their jobs. For example they may be afraid that this is the first several layoffs. For investors, they need to know the bottom-line impact of this move, especially if it sets the stage for long-term profitability. Local government officials, on the other hand, will want to know about timing of the downsizing and what you’re doing to help laid off workers find other jobs.
3) Communicate with each of these audiences in the most direct way possible. That may be letters, phone calls, pro-active press releases (if you want announce the layoff yourself), reactive press statements (if you prefer to have something on-hand in response to a reporter’s call), posts on your site, and/or updates on any social media your company uses for self-promotion. Remember, you’ll be depending upon these outlets to carry the good news about your company as part of your recovery. That means treating them with dignity during the tough times to gain their trust for the future.
4) Remember that timing is everything. When we pre-plan for layoffs with our clients, the most difficult part is the timing issue. It all boils down to this: the more personally affected someone is by the layoff, the earlier they need to be told directly. Not by reading it in the newspaper; not by coming upon it on someone else’s Facebook page and not by catching wind of it through the grapevine. By you.
5) Fight information leak as aggressively as you can. In today’s “porous” business environment, once you tell one person, you can expect the story to be public. Employees tweet. Members of the board have neighbors in the media. Vendors share information with your competitors and retirees stay in touch with each other. The best way to “manage” this process (and you’ll note that I purposely put that word in quotes) is to have a written internal policy about how information is to be shared outside company walls. That policy should designate one person as the only liaison with the press. It should also include explicit instructions to all employees about how they handle any press calls. That should include a strong statement that they not speak with any member of the traditional or “new” press (i.e. bloggers) and a phrase that allows them to tactfully send the caller to the official press contact. We prefer something like: “We have someone who’s handling calls from the media. Give me your contact information and I’ll make sure gets into contact with you.” That sounds a lot less suspicious than, “They told me I’m not allowed to talk to you.”
Your policy statement should also cover what people write about the company when they participate in social media such as Linked In, Facebook and Twitter. While the jury’s still out on how much control you can exert over people’s off-work communications, you can and should explain why refraining from social networking about the company’s internal affairs benefits everyone associated with it, especially in stressful times.
6) Look for ways to deliver good news after a respectful time. It’s not enough to say your company is strong and expects to weather hard times, you’ve got to prove it. As part of your communications planning, look for ways to demonstrate that your company is back to business as usual. Search out customer hero-tales. Congratulate employees who picked up the slack. Celebrate small victories internally and announce them publicly. Touch base with customers to make sure transitions to new customer contacts are going smoothly. Be willing to learn from any complaints you hear.
Your company has probably worked long and hard to establish relationships of trust with your customers, employees and local reporters. Those relationships are the assets upon which you can rebuild your company’s future. If they are cultivated and nurtured, they’ll you get through and past these difficult time and lay the foundation for your future success.
Comments, Questions, Answers, Suggestions?
aobston@aomc.com
860-243-1447
@aobston
www.facebook.com/AndreaObstonMarketingCommunications
www.LinkedIn.com/aobston
“No Comment” is No Good
By Andrea Obston, President, Andrea Obston Marketing Communications LLC.
A whole blog post on “no comment”? What is there to say? Nothing. Just say no to “no comment.”
This seemingly innocuous phrase provides false comfort. It can give the speaker the illusion of thinking “Well, that’s done with. We said nothing. The press has nothing, so the story’s dead. They’ll leave us alone.” Unfortunately that’s simply not true. Companies that think that a “no comment” will lead the reporter to drop the story haven’t dealt with many reporters. A “no comment” from a company often entices reporters to dig deeper. And those reporters will go elsewhere for sources, allowing company outsiders like competitors and disgruntled ex-employees to shape the coverage. In short, companies that choose the “no comment” route in the face of a crisis give control of their reputation to others.
In addition, the phrase “no comment” sounds a lot likes “I’m guilty” to both reporters and the general public. It says “I know I did something wrong, but you’re not going to get me to say what it is.” Research shows that 58% of Americans equate “no comment” with “I’m guilty”.
Here’s an example: In her book The PR Crisis Bible, Robin Cohn tells the story of an executive who ran into a well-known business reporter in the halls of his company. “Excuse me,” the reporter said to the executive, “I just have one question.” The CEO responded with a gruff “No comment” and literally fled the scene. It turns out the reporter had an interview with someone in the company and needed directions to his office. But the CEO’s “No comment” was so intriguing that the reporter went back to his office and started trolling the Internet looking for problems at the company. He found them and eventually the story he did lead to a loss of confidence by investors and a drastic drop in the company’s stock.
The point is, that saying “No comment” does not make the matter go away. It gives it sizzle in a re
porter’s mind, making them wonder just what you’re trying to hide. Let me give you a local example: We worked with a property management company that was having troubles with a union. Despite the fact that the NLRB cleared them of any violations, the union persisted in staging very public and theatrical demonstrations outside one of their buildings. One morning, my client received word that another demonstration was planned for the next day. That afternoon, I received a message from the real estate reporter for the local paper. The client’s attorney refused to let me call the reporter back to find out why she called, directing me instead to send a fax that said, “Management will have no comment about any labor actions.” Within minutes, the reporter was on the phone to me. “I didn’t know they had labor problems,” she said. “I was calling you to set up an interview about the new owners of the building. What’s really going on?”
Make no mistake: I am not advocating sacrificing a quick public response for an accurate one. I’ve worked with enough attorneys to know that a premature statement by a company can have disastrous effects on both litigation and the company’s reputations. But so can giving control of the story to someone else. I’m reminded the case of a natural gas company in Pennsylvania whose delayed reactions to a leak resulted in the death of two people. In the crisis management team meeting early that morning the CEO, public relations officer and in-house counsel, decided that the company would publicly accept responsibility for the tragedy, outline how and why it happened and explain how they had modified their procedures to prevent a repeat. “We knew we’d have to accept responsibility for the accident,” the PR counselor told me. “It was the in-house counselor who approved the strategy, feeling it would mitigate punitive damages because, as he put it, ‘Juries read newspapers, too.’” It would have been easy for the company to issue a “no comment” after such a horrendous incident, but by going into a pro-active mode, they were able to take control of the story quickly. Incidentally, 18 months after the incident they were honored by the city as one of its most credible corporate citizens.
I’m not advocating such a dramatic response to every crisis. This strategy would be too extreme for many clients. But, what I am saying is that there are ways to respond to a crisis, even early on, with phrases that do not shut off further communications with reporters and make them wonder what the company’s hiding. Consider these alternatives to “no comment:”
Remember, the public judges the worthiness of a company by its behavior under pressure. “No comment” is the quickest way to undermine that public trust, both today and tomorrow. We can do better for our clients.
Comments, Questions, Answers, Suggestions?
aobston@aomc.com
860-243-1447
@aobston
www.facebook.com/AndreaObstonMarketingCommunications
www.LinkedIn.com/aobston
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April 18, 2011 at 2:37 pm Leave a comment