PR SOS: how PR can save your business in a crisis

It was once said that no publicity is bad publicity, but social media has changed all that. The rapidity with which stories, complaints, issues and incidents can go viral leaves all businesses and organisations vulnerable to the risk of reputational damage. If serious enough, this can leave a brand irreparably damaged and have a negative impact on to the bottom line. The good news is that PR can save your business when disaster strikes.

In a crisis, of whatever kind, PR is a life raft which really can save a business caught in the storm. Here are my top “PR SOS tips” for when things get bumpy:

Don’t assume the worst won’t happen: it is inevitable that your business will face a public relations crisis at some point. While it may not be possible to predict exactly what form that will take as the possibilities are wide ranging (e,g, an urgent product recall, a customer data breach, an executive scandal, inadvertently offensive marketing campaign, staff disputes, an environmental failure, a hostile take-over, mass redundancies or unlawful activity such as discrimination) you should assume that damage limitation activity will be needed at some point. This will enable you to
Plan, plan, plan: brain storm and identify as many possible risks as you can and walk through how you would respond to them. Make sure you have a crisis team in place ready to go as and when needed and that they know who they are an what their role will be. It may sound obvious but make sure you have contact details for everyone and their nominated substitute (if a crisis hits its bound to hit when a vital team member is on holiday!). The crisis team should not just include internal personnel but may also need to include outside experts who can offer an impartial view – make sure you know who to call.
Put in place protocols: if an organisation has to go into crisis mode then it’s really important that everyone is on message and there is strict discipline around who can issue statements or post on-line and the content of these. Every member of the crisis team needs to understand their role and authority. In addition, the wider workforce also needs to know where to direct any queries.
Preparation, preparation, preparation: as part of any pre-crisis “war gaming” draft generic press releases, blogs and holding statements and get these signed off now. These can then be slightly tweaked to fit the circumstances when the time comes, enabling a quicker response.
Consider if your executives need media training? Being interviewed is not something which comes easily to most people – just look at the mess politicians sometimes get into!So, getting your senior leadership some training and practice to boost their confidence now could pay dividends in the future.
Monitor your reputation: Track what people are saying on line about your organisation; pre-warned is pre-armed. You can get out ahead of issues before they blow up if you have some warning about negative trends. At the most basic level this could be setting up a google alert every time your business is mentioned. Larger companies often employ more sophisticated tracking platforms and software.

What to do and not to do

Assuming the time has come and you need to put the planning into practice, remember some basic rules:

Don’t stick your head in the sand! Acknowledge that there has been a problem and respond in a timely manner but, get the facts straight before you speak. Never speculate about what has gone wrong or “wing-it” until you actually know – having to retract later is not only embarrassing, it will lead to a questioning of competence.
Issue a holding statement until you are sure of the facts. This is far better than say nothing at all. The statement could simply set out what you know and don’t know and reassure the public that you are investigating and will disclose more once you have all the facts.
Be transparent. If you are economical with the truth you are likely to be found out and failing to be open will just lead people to think there is something to hide.
Apologise and don’t blame others. Take responsibility and empathise with those who have been affected. By showing the human side of your organisation you will start to rebuild trust.
Explain how you are going to rectify the issue and be generous and creative in your solutions.

Conclusion

Handle a crisis well and you may even be able to turn a negative into a positive and win plaudits for how you responded to a bad situation. Get it wrong and the digital footprint of your mistakes is likely to be around to haunt you for a long time to come.

PR SOS: how PR can save your business in a crisis

Recent Posts