18/06/2020
Last week I was in full blown issues management mode, navigating a client through some pretty ugly claims made about their business.
In a perfect world, your business will never stray from the core values and mission it was founded on. In the real world, particularly when businesses are in the ‘scale up’ phase, processes can regrettably slip through the cracks. If customers and the media pick up on this before your processes are back in tip top shape, you may find yourself in hot water.
So what do you if this happens?
Avoid the call to act fast and instead lean into the ‘5 C’s of Crisis Communications:
✨ Competence
✨ Credibility
✨ Commitment
✨ Caring
✨ Capability
Ensure your communications to stakeholders, customers and the media is tailored accordingly and encompasses all 5 considerations.
Unfortunately, many organisations choose to shy away from saying anything in trying times. My counsel more often than not;
✔ Join the conversation and address the issue at hand and
✔ Then, discuss the processes you have in place to ensure the mistake won't be repeated
✔ Then the toughest part -- follow through.
Doing so proves you genuinely care and that alone can restore faith among consumers.
As Covey's quote alludes to, you really do need to behave your way out of a bad reputation.
Historically, we’ve seen that people respond well to brands who admit to mistakes, detail what went wrong and reiterate their commitment to the community they’ve created moving forward.
While it’s in our nature to stop trusting a person or brand who has seemingly done the wrong thing and shown no remorse, it too is in our nature to offer forgiveness when asked, true remorse is shown and action that reiterates good behaviour moving forward is demonstrated.