In business, a crisis can be defined as any kind of event that threatens your reputation or your bottom line. This can be anything from the bad PR that results from a customer getting hurt using one of your products to an employee on the front page of the paper for being arrested after embezzling company funds to situations that have the potential to drag your name through the mud, like an employee posting inappropriate comments online from a corporate account.
Up until recently, crisis management was something only large companies spent time thinking about. But thanks to the internet and social media, even small businesses can experience a crisis that can quickly gain traction online and spiral out of control. And thanks to Google, your crisis will now come up every time someone searches for your company, extending the hit to your reputation for months or even years after the actual event has been resolved.
No matter what your size, a crisis management plan is something you should have prepared and in place. Think about it like a spare tire for your car: you travel with one in your trunk no matter if you’re just going to the store down the street or taking a cross-country trip because you never know when you’re going to get a flat. Hopefully you’ll never need it or only somewhere like the grocery store parking lot, but if you get a flat in the middle of the desert or in a snowstorm crossing the mountains you are going to be very glad you have it.
In the event of a crisis, effective communication can be the difference between stopping bad publicity in its tracks and watching a story spiral out of control. When creating your crisis management plan, you should therefore consider in advance how to best communicate your message in an efficient way. Just as you wouldn’t wait until you get that flat tire to see if you have a spare in your trunk, you should prepare your plan now when things are quiet and in control; the worst time to try to define a crisis management plan is in the middle of a crisis!
Once you have a prepared plan, the second element of success is speed. News cycles have been reduced from days for newspapers to a matter of minutes online. If you are slow to react, you may not get the opportunity. You must immediately be proactive in communicating your side of the story to the news media and your own channels if you hope to have your side heard.
However, speed isn’t enough. Transparency is also key to your communications. Don’t try to paper over the problem and hope it goes away; trust me, it won’t, and opaque responses only make it look like you have something to hide. Acknowledge the problem head-on, no matter how embarrassing and provide as much information as possible. People love secrets; the more you put out into the open, the more boring you make the story and the more likely people will quickly move on to the next scandal.
In addition to acknowledging the problem, address what you are doing to solve this instance of it and the steps you’re taking to ensure it never happens again.
While you can’t prevent a crisis, with a good plan you can help mitigate the damage it does to your business. Of course, this all depends from the place you start. A company that has an impeccable track record, a strong reputation and makes a positive contribution to the community is going to be given the benefit of the doubt when things go wrong.
On the flip side, if your company has a poor reputation people will be more likely to believe bad news, jump on the dog pile and kick you when you’re down.
Building a good reputation is not something you can do when your name is being dragged through the mud; you have to put the work in day in and day out to prove you deserve the benefit of the doubt. A strong brand, passionate customers and ethical business practices are something you should value regardless, but they can also make the difference when it comes to how strongly a crisis affects your business. Traditional media and social media wield an enormous influence. They both have the power to either play down or exacerbate a crisis. By building up trust now, you are more likely to experience favorable treatment later.
ShanRae Hawkins, Principal of StingRay Communications
541-383-7193
shanrae@HelloStingray.com
