When a company is the victim of a smear campaign and is attacked in the media, in the vast majority of cases its officials are not prepared to face this situation.
The underestimation of potential risks and not having a Crisis Committee established and trained is one of the main causes that lead company officials to hesitate when reacting to the media.
Questions arise such as:
- Will it be convenient to react? And if we rather complicate things by making statements? What should we say without getting into more trouble? Who is the best person to go out into the public arena? And if reacting brings us legal problems? What journalist do we talk to who doesn't misrepresent our version? Do we pay journalists to speak well of us?
These and many other questions arise when, on any given Monday, we buy the newspapers and are surprised by a headline with five columns and on the front page with the name of our companies accused of a situation that, we know, is misrepresented and damaging information. your corporate image.
The worst mistake that company officials in a crisis situation can make is to keep quiet and let time go by. Crisis management is urgent since the actions to be taken must be immediately.
Why?
If we do not act in time, negative adjectives begin to position themselves in the minds of our audiences and, without realizing it, our corporate image begins to be destroyed.
When, finally, we decided to react, we hired a crisis management expert and then the investment of resources (time, money and positioning) is much higher than we would have done if we did not let the scandal grow.
Rebuilding is three times more expensive than building, let's never forget this.
To this we add that, paradoxically, silence also communicates something. Some executives think it smart to answer with a resounding "no comment."
What to do then? Here are some suggestions:
- Immediately set up a Crisis Committee, which could in principle be made up of the general manager, the public relations officer, the head of human resources, the company's legal adviser, the head of security and the financial director. They will make the big decisions. Hire a crisis management expert with extensive experience and a strategic vision. Make a thorough analysis of the situation by collecting all the information that is circulating in the media. Name and subject to a media training to a spokesperson who should not necessarily be the public relations officer, much less the general manager. The person who meets the requirements to handle the issue well, who is disciplined and who can remain calm in the face of harassment to which journalists may be subjected should be considered.The crisis management expert, after analyzing -in record time- the information and identifying the position in public opinion, must design a contingency communication strategy to deal with the crisis.
In a first meeting with the press, it is best to tell journalists why, exactly, it is not possible to give a complete or official version at the moment.
Here are some suggestions of reasons that can be mentioned:
- Because the negotiations have reached a delicate point. The decisions are being taken and when we are ready we will call a press conference. Because you have not yet received the full report. Because the interested parties have not been informed yet, etc.
But never be silent! A boss I had said to me: "Harmful and dangerous monsters kill when they are very young, they should not be allowed to grow an inch."
