The route out of a communication crisis: what to do, when and why
It is impossible to please everyone. Every business or public figure faces negativity in their own way, and that is normal. If we are talking about large companies, then there will always be those who want to score reputation points at their expense. And with constant monitoring of the infofield, the share of negativity up to 10% is acceptable.
But what then is a “communication crisis”? When negative mentions of a brand grow abnormally, and this growth is exponential, it is time to think about actively protecting the company’s reputation. As for the number of “unpleasant” publications, which is already a reason for action, it all depends on the scale of the enterprise. Business giants are mentioned in the media and social networks hundreds of times a day, so if a dozen of these mentions are negative, it is not critical. But for small and medium-sized businesses, even a few such materials or posts can be fatal, especially if they are left without a comment from the company.
The reasons for the crisis can be internal and external. The first is that the actions or inaction of management and workers, any emergency situations, controversial statements or actions of the leadership, which are directly associated with the company, caused it. External is a different specific. Such crises can be caused by competitors or the state in the form of its various institutions – legislation, regulatory policy, actions of law enforcement officers, etc.
So what to do? I will say right away – there is no universal solution. Each reputational crisis, like a fingerprint, is unique. Therefore, anti-crisis PR needs to be detailed according to the situation. However, there are several reference points from which you can form a kind of crisis checklist for yourself and follow it.
Internal “informants”. The first thing a PR person needs is to get a complete picture of the trigger event as soon as possible. To do this, he must contact the managers in the areas, who must also be ready to quickly provide all the information. Without shifting responsibilities to others, without excuses about the end of the working day or vacation. You need to act immediately. So ideally, the company should have a system protocol developed in advance at the top management level for such an event.
Time. PR people have only one to three hours to collect information, write a position, coordinate it with the top and provide it to media people either upon request or in advance – through their contacts. Society seeks satisfaction, and journalists work for their audience. Not for you. So if they don’t have information from business, they will take it from other sources. The media, opinion leaders, influencers, if the topic has touched them personally, are able to raise such an information wave in a matter of hours that can wash away a small company. Especially if we are talking about today’s Ukraine – society is overstressed, the sense of justice is heightened, so you should not expect a measured and humble waiting for your explanations.
Speaker. A certain person from the company should comment on the situation. It is desirable that someone who “appears” not only in a crisis and has a certain media credibility. The main thing is openness and willingness to talk, even during non-working hours. I’ll tell you a little secret – there is no such thing in anti-crisis PR. So even if the event happened at night, in the morning, when the editorial staff gathers in the office, they should have a position from the company and contacts of a person who is ready to tell them everything about the event. “Everything” – within the company’s position, of course.
We inform in real time. If the flames could not be extinguished immediately, we connect all the company’s public platforms to the maximum. Social networks, websites – we inform about the course of events, we do not keep quiet, we communicate.
We monitor the situation. In a crisis, it is important to monitor the degree of tension here and now. This way you can understand whether your position and contacts worked, or vice versa – the fire is burning and you need to look for other communication approaches.
Sociology. To understand how the crisis affected the company, you can do a quick sociological study. It is generally advisable to do a full-fledged sociology once a quarter in order to rationally assess your reputation portfolio and know whether the company has a safety cushion in case of a crisis.
A crisis “lives” for 1-3 days, unless it is extraordinary or particularly triggering for society. PR people also have to fight crises caused by changes in laws for longer. After all, their consideration and adoption is a long process (with some exceptions). And such a fight can drag on for a long time and be quite exhausting. But then only the response time frame changes, and other points of the route remain mandatory for the communication team.
The foundation for successfully overcoming a communication crisis is the understanding of the entire business that this is a shared problem, not just the task of the PR department. Therefore, the work on overcoming the reputation quagmire must be joint.
