If you want your customers to trust you and buy your products or use your service, they have to believe in your image. And a public relations crisis - whether it's a product recall or a legal allegation - can taint your audience's belief in you, causing all kinds of damage to your reputation and sales. 4. Craft and Issue a Holding Statement (If Necessary)
Your brand image is everything, which is why you need to know the top strategies for effective PR crisis management, should a crisis ever strike.
Ideally, you'd never face a PR crisis, but sometimes it's unavoidable, despite your best attempts to prevent it. That's where these crisis management strategies come in handy. Here's everything to know about handling a PR crisis.
A public relations crisis is an unanticipated event that severely hurts a person or brand's reputation, leading to a lack of trust and a negative response from the public. All kinds of situations can trigger a public relations crisis, including a lawsuit or other legal issues, a controversial social media post, a product recall, an employee being accused of behaving inappropriately, or any other issue that provokes customer backlash.
Even if the incident may seem small (a tone-deaf Instagram caption, for example), the ramifications can be severe, causing a person or corporation to suffer reputation damage, lose long-term customer trust and, eventually, lead to the downfall of the organisation.
If the general public develops a negative association with the company, there may be financial hits (stock market drops, customer boycotts, loss of deals or income). There can also be serious legal repercussions, leading to investigations, lawsuits, or potentially even criminal charges.
When a company is facing a situation that has led to negative public opinion, crisis management is needed. Without it, a PR disaster can ensue, which always poses the risk that the company's reputation may never fully recover, reputationally and financially. By managing the messaging and effectively responding to the situation, the person or company involved can make amends and regain the public's trust, minimising the fallout from the situation.
Having a crisis management plan in place is a smart idea.
While a company usually can't predict what will cause a PR disaster, it can have the bare bones in place so it's able to get to work on reputation management as quickly as possible. Moving fast can help slow a tidal wave of bad publicity before it becomes insurmountable.
Proactive planning, such as coming up with templates for possible crisis situations, will help the organisation do just that. The alternative is just reactive scrambling, which leads to slower reactions and less thoughtful responses. If a crisis management plan isn't well-thought-out, it can backfire and make the crisis even worse.
When it comes to handling a crisis situation, there are specific tenets you want to follow to ensure you get the problem under control and can successfully regain the public's trust. While making your crisis management plan, prioritise these aspects:
Transparency and Honesty - One of the biggest issues when a crisis occurs is that people start to lack faith in the company. To regain their trust, the corporation should be as transparent and honest as possible in its messaging. If the public feels the company is still hiding something or isn't being entirely truthful with its response, then the mistrust will only fester, and it'll be even more difficult to reverse public opinion.
Speed and Responsiveness - Organisations need to act quickly when a crisis occurs. The longer a company waits to respond and fix an issue, the more time there is for negative public sentiment to grow. If the situation involves legal issues or safety concerns, then it's even more imperative a corporation acts fast to minimise danger and liability.
Empathy and Apology (When Appropriate) - A company's response needs to show empathy for those affected, first and foremost, whether the situation is over an employee's discriminatory comment or a contaminated product making users ill. Demonstrating empathy shows the company understands the severity of the issue and genuinely cares about the impact. An apology should also be issued (although it may not be appropriate if there are liability concerns — always seek legal counsel when apologies are being crafted). A short, sincere, public apology and acknowledgement of pain is the first step to moving forward.
Consistency in Messaging - An organisation should be consistent in its messaging during a crisis. If the company's tone or actions are all over the place, it can be confusing for the general public. This confusion can lead people to believe that the company is not sincere in its actions, generating further distaste and backlash.
Stakeholder Focus - When working on a crisis communications plan, the company should identify the key stakeholders it needs to target (think customers, employees, investors, media outlets, and so on). Once you've determined the audience you need to communicate with, then you can figure out their key concerns (which may vary) and craft the ideal message for each interested party.
A good crisis management plan will include the following steps:
First, you need to get an accurate overview of what's happening. Identify what caused the problem, what the side effects are, and what the general public is saying.
Remember, during a PR crisis, tensions are running high and rumours will be swirling. You'll want to ensure you have the most accurate information possible about the situation.
Once you've established all the facts, it's time to bring together the key players in your crisis communication plan. You may be able to build a team using people already involved in your company, or you may want to seek out the services of a professional crisis management team.
Either way, it's time to find the right people to tackle this problem and assign them roles, so they can start their work.
With so many different types of PR crises, there isn't a one-size-fits-all way to handle one.
Once you have your team, you need to work out how to tackle the problem: Do you need to issue refunds? Put out the word for a customer recall? Fire anyone? Institute policy changes? Stick with a simple apology? This is the time to craft your overall crisis management strategy, determine who you need to directly communicate with, and figure out the way you want to manage the messaging.
Often, one of the first actions a company should take is to make a brief public statement to address concerns — the sooner, the better. This allows a company to acknowledge the PR crisis, as well as show empathy, honesty, regret (if necessary), and a commitment to do better.
This will reassure the public that the company is working quickly to remedy the issue and do better in the future. Plus, acknowledging the issue helps the company buy time while they actually solve the problem, which often can't be fixed in just a day.
As the company continues to move through its crisis management plan, consistent communication is key, especially with the stakeholders. Customers, employees, investors, and the media should be updated on the steps the company is taking to reassure everyone involved positive change is happening — and that the organisation wasn't all talk in its initial apology.
This can be done via emails, social media, press releases, or even in-person conferences.
Once the crisis response begins, you need to closely follow the reaction to it. What are people saying on social media? How is the media responding? Ideally, the response will be positive, and people accept the apology. But you need to continue to closely watch the situation, so you can pivot strategy if needed.
Once you're out of the crisis, it's time to reflect. Consider what parts of the crisis management plan worked and what didn't. Were there other strategies that could have been more effective? It's important to go over what happened, so you can update your plan to prioritise effective crisis management and be better prepared if another PR disaster strikes.
Nobody ever wants to face a public relations crisis, but when they're unavoidable, it's way the company responds is what matters. In fact, a PR crisis can actually lead to positive publicity for a company with the right strategies. Consider these crisis management examples:
In 1982, seven people died after unknowingly taking Tylenol capsules that were laced with cyanide, leading to widespread panic. However, Johnson & Johnson, the owners of Tylenol, were able to respond quickly and effectively.
The company immediately pulled Tylenol from shelves nationwide, even though this cost them millions and millions of dollars. This signalled their commitment to consumer safety over profit.
Johnson & Johnson also actively worked to prevent this kind of disaster from happening again in any of its products. They helped develop tamper-proof packaging, so customers could feel safer buying the products going forward (in fact, today, all medicines use that kind of packaging for safety).
Johnson & Johnson's swift, transparent, and customer-focused response earned them plenty of goodwill in the face of a tragedy.
In 2017, United Airlines ended up in hot water after staff used unnecessary force to remove a passenger from an overbooked plane. A video was captured of a man being physically dragged out of his seat and off the plane. The recording quickly spread on social media, leading to widespread negative sentiment from users, who questioned why United Airlines would jump to using force instead of providing financial incentives to encourage fliers to give up their seats.
In United Airlines's initial statement, the CEO seemingly blamed the passenger, describing him as "disruptive". This received backlash on social media as people felt this response was overly defensive, incentive and lacked empathy - a move made purely to protect the company's reputation.
United Airlines eventually issued a second apology, but it was viewed as too little, too late. The company didn't adequately express regret or concern for customers, and it made no moves to change its policies, ultimately impacting its reputation for years to come.
These opposing crisis management examples illustrate how important a thoughtful and swift response is in public relations crisis management.
There are many types of PR crisis management tools you can use, but one of the most important is a way to monitor feedback. That's where Streem comes in, our Media Monitoring tool makes it easy to monitor media — including print, TV, online outlets, radio, and social media — in realtime, so you can keep an eye on all the conversations happening during a crisis.
Streem doesn't captures more than just what's being said in the news cycle, it also gives users detailed insights and breaks it all down into easy-to-read, easy-to-understand reports, and data visualisations. Having all this fast feedback lets companies determine whether their response has been effective, or if they need to pivot to protect the organisation's reputation.
Nobody wants to worry about public relations crisis management, but any company can end up in negative situations at some point, whether it's a safety issue, a lawsuit, problems with an employee, or even supply chain issues. However, with the right crisis response (and the right tool), a company can avoid permanent damage to its reputation and, if handled excellently, potentially even bolster it.
How do I handle negative reviews during a crisis?
During a crisis, make sure to respond quickly to negative reviews by demonstrating empathy and a commitment to do better. Acknowledge the issue, apologise if needed, and hint at how the problem will be fixed.
What's the role of legal counsel in a PR crisis?
Legal counsel can help you during a crisis by navigating any lawsuits, crafting statements that avoid liability and other legal issues, and providing compliance advice.
How do I choose a PR crisis management agency?
Do careful research when selecting a PR crisis management agency. You want to pick one that has plenty of experience in crisis comms and is committed to helping you navigate this challenging time.
What's the difference between a holding statement and a press release?
A holding statement is a short statement the company issues immediately to acknowledge the issue to help stem public backlash. A press release is longer, more detailed, and more formal, featuring the actual apology and a plan going forward.
How long does it take to recover from a crisis?
There is no set time for recovering from a PR crisis. However, with the right public relations crisis management, recovery can be much quicker and smoother.
What is the best way to communicate with employees during a crisis?
Regular communication with employees during a crisis is key, whether it's via email or in-person meetings. It's important to be as transparent and open as possible during these check-ins and updates.
What are the legal implications of a PR crisis?
PR crises don't always have legal implications, but certain ones — like employee misconduct or product damage — can lead to lawsuits and even criminal charges.
What are the first steps to take in a PR crisis?
The first step is to gather all the information about the situation available, including what happened and how the public is responding. Once you have the facts, you can build a team, craft a strategy, and start deleting, starting first with a formal statement.
How can a company avoid a PR crisis?
Unfortunately, there's no surefire way to avoid all PR crises. Organisations can remain committed to ethical business practices and open communication to mitigate the risk, though. Plus, having a crisis communications plan in place can help companies avoid a full-blown PR disaster.