Today, people are more conscious than ever when it comes to choosing the brands they engage with. If a company accidentally drops the mask or fails to do the right thing when under the spotlight, decades of meticulous trust-building between customers can evaporate seemingly overnight.
Just look at one of the many cautionary tales of mismanaged crises or poorly handled scandals that left deep scars in the minds of the public. Whether it’s the numerous high profile hacks, like the Equifax breach that exposed the personal data of millions, or the recent Ticketmaster fiasco where thousands of fans were left frustrated and unable to purchase tickets due to technical issues and alleged price gouging. These events can quickly spiral out of control and turn into viral social media events.
And aside from the reputational hit, scandals such as these can easily lead to losses in revenue/customers, plummeting stock prices, and even expensive lawsuits. As such, making sure you are prepared for crises is mission critical for businesses across all industries – especially in sectors where trust is the force that drives relationships – think finance, crypto, tech, etc.
In this guide, we will break down the role that PR plays in managing these events, including how to ensure you are prepared, and how you can bounce back stronger than ever if you do find yourself caught up in a media storm.
Being Prepared: The PR Crisis Playbook
As Benjamin Franklin put it best, “by failing to prepare, you’re preparing to fail.” That statement couldn’t be truer than it is in the business world – especially in PR and crisis management. If you’re caught on your heels, you won’t be able to react as quickly – and things will likely get much worse before they improve.
With this in mind, having a solid plan in place is half the battle towards minimizing damage and protecting the reputation.
Identify potential crises
Brainstorm all the possible crisis scenarios, whether it’s a data breach, product recall or employee conduct issue. Think through various situations like social media backlash, supply chain disruptions, lawsuits, and other reputation-damaging events. Develop specific response strategies and actions for each potential scenario. Identifying these ahead of time lets you thoughtfully prepare rather than panic.
Establish a crisis response team
Assemble a cross-functional crisis response team with representatives from departments like PR, legal, HR, customer service and IT. Ensure everyone understands their specific role and responsibilities if disaster strikes. Outline communication protocols and workflows for responding quickly and effectively. Designate key decision-makers and spokespeople.
Develop key messaging
Craft clear, consistent messaging that reflects your company values, voices concern, and addresses various stakeholder worries. Ensure that leadership aligns on the strategy and tone. Have messages ready to go for different situations. Use this messaging uniformly across all communication channels and customer interactions.
Build media relationships in finance, crypto, tech, and beyond
When a crisis hits, you’re going to need open lines to the key publications in your sector. To do this, make sure you put some effort into cultivating relationships with relevant trades media and journalists. Here, it can pay dividers to work with a PR distribution platform in your specific industry. For example, if you operate in the Web3 space, an established crypto PR firm can help distribute key messages across important blockchain-based publications. This allows you to control the narrative early on.
Monitor media and social channels
Closely monitor media coverage, social media channels, and online conversations using monitoring tools and recurring reports. Track brand mentions and relevant keywords. Enable real-time alerts. This allows you to stay on top of the latest developments, respond quickly to emerging negative sentiment, and take proactive steps to mitigate issues.
Responding to a Crisis: The First 24 Hours
Let’s face it – no matter how prepared you think you are, a crisis can hit like a ton of bricks. One minute you’re focusing on your day to day operations, the next you are on the back foot trying to fight fires. Here’s a quick roadmap for how you can navigate the first 24 hours:
- First off, you need to gather the who, what, when, and where. What has happened and how bad is it? By taking a moment to gather what is happening and how serious things are, you will be able to react more accordingly rather than acting irrationally and potentially making things worse.
- Now it’s time to spring your plan into action. Call in the troops and bring that crisis playbook to the table. Make sure everyone knows their roles and that you are all briefed on what the strategy will be moving forward.
- Now you need to come up with an authentic, genuine, and empathetic initial statement. Acknowledge what happened, and lay out some simple steps for what you plan to do about it. Get it up on your website, social pages, and across key publications ASAP. Update frequently with the latest actions.
- Keep close tabs on reactions to your messaging and game plan. Monitor online conversations like a hawk. If needed, tweak the approach based on public sentiment and new developments.
Bouncing Back: The Road to Recovery
Once the storm begins to pass, the hard work kicks into high gear. Winning back trust is no easy feat but can be done by:
- Continuing transparent communication on the steps and changes being implemented to address root problems. Only actions can back up words.
- Doing an audit to strengthen weaknesses, policies and procedures that may have fueled the crisis or made matters worse. Revise employee training programs accordingly.
- Generate positive press by spotlighting charitable initiatives that align with your values. Launch a campaign that highlights forward progress.
- Last but not least, focus heavily on rebuilding fractured relationships with customers, employees and partners impacted by loss of faith in your brand. Offer appropriate compensation or incentives where needed.
Final Word
Protecting your reputation should be a top priority for any business. As we’ve seen time and again, crises can strike rapidly, putting brands at risk of severe reputational and financial damage. However, with proper preparation, swift and compassionate response, and a focus on rebuilding trust, companies can emerge stronger than ever.
The key is having a battle-tested crisis PR strategy that addresses everything from potential scenarios to establishing response teams and protocols. But even more important is the willingness to take accountability, engage in transparent communication, implement necessary changes, and prioritize fixing fractured relationships.
Brands that can show people they truly care about more than profits are the ones that will earn customer loyalty in the long run. By leaning into core values and learning from mistakes, reputations can not only be saved, but boosted when faced with adversity.