Crisis and reputation management tips
Over the last two decades we have advised dozens of high profile brands, organisations and individuals on how to protect their reputation either during a crisis or in anticipation of a potential crisis. Here are some key tips based on our experience:
- The first stage is to listen to what's being said about you and your organisation. Free tools like Google Alerts are a useful start. If you don't know what's being said, how can you respond to this or influence this?
- The next stage is to have a plan. What keeps you awake at night? Think of all the possible risky scenarios and plan your response to this. While it is impossible to anticipate everything, it should be possible to cover most risky issues and when the heat is on, it's easier to work with a rough draft than start from scratch.
- Have a process in place that makes it clear to all relevant people in your team what happens when you are in a crisis. This should outline the steps in the process from how the issue would be identified and shared in the first place to how you agree any media response.
- Ensure that your team know who is and who is not authorised to comment on the crisis. This includes any comment in social media, even in their personal time.
- Have a social media use policy in place to avoid a crisis in the first place.
- Make sure everyone is aware of your social media policy and understands what this means for them as individuals who represent your organisation.
- Test your crisis process before you really need it. This helps to identify any gaps in the process in a safe environment.
- If you are in a crisis, don't be in denial. Your staff, the media and politicians will see through it. You can't fool all of the people all of the time.
- The sooner you face up to the crisis the more likely you are of controlling and containing it.
- Finally, being in a crisis is a true test of an individual and an organisation. Remember this is when true colours show through and you will be under the spotlight, so if things have gone wrong don't sail off into the sunset!
If you have any questions about this or have a situation you would like to discuss confidentially, please get in touch with us at info@perceptivepartners.co.uk