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Crisis communications preparedness for communicators and PR professionals. First presented in Singapore on Nov. 5, 2012.
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When crisis hits! The importance of being prepared. Presented by Yeow Mei Ling
Managing Consultant and Crisis Communications Practice Lead
Text100 Global Communications
“Good reputations can take centuries to build, but just
seconds to destroy”
What is your reputation worth?
“Corporate reputation is a more important measure of success than stock market performance, profitability and return on investment. Only the quality of products and services edged out reputation as the leading measure of corporate success.”
World Economic Forum
“30% - 50% of a company’s value is in
intangible assets.” Ernst & Young, Measures that Matter
Crisis Communications Preparedness: The Purpose • Marketing builds business value
• Crisis and issues management seeks to preserve business value
• Poorly handled crises affect trust ― and the bottom line: – Share price
– Loss of sales, contracts, goodwill, partnerships
– Price erosion
– Interrupted/damaged organizational performance
• Thoughtfully handled crises are an opportunity to: – Present the true soul of the company
– Prove management’s integrity
– Build and preserve credibility and trust with major stakeholders
What can go wrong?
• Act of God, business catastrophe, terrorism
• Employee (mistake, miscommunication, litigation initiation, IP theft, criminal activity,
dissatisfaction)
• Product, service or technology (network outage, service failure, downtime)
• Management, leadership, company performance (resignations or shareholder/board
pressure to resign, fraud, corporate investigation, personal indiscretions, earnings miss,
financial malpractice)
• Consumer, community or pressure group action or legislation
• Accident or negligence (causing illness, injury, fatalities, damages, loss)
Restructuring Merger
Bankruptcy Shareholder Value Low Morale
Hostile takeover
Disgruntled customers Office closure
Product failure
Declining revenue
Corporate transparency
Unhappy employees
.. .Multiplied by unprecedented market turmoil
Changes in
Society Changes in Business
Changes in Technology
TRUST Confidence in
each other,
not institutions
EMPOWERMENT
More choice, more voice
FRAGMENTATION Bigger cake, thinner slices
...Compounded by new worldwide dynamics
Can make a bad situation much, much worse…
• Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill
• Tony Hayward appeared unsympathetic and attempted to shift blame
• BP was too transparent in its attempts to manage its reputation
• People thought BP cared more about fixing its image than solving the problem
Can make a bad situation much, much worse…
• Sony repeatedly hacked
• Customer details shared
• PSN knocked offline for extended period
• Sony downplayed severity of problem
• Official communication was sparse and vague
• No details or timeline for situation resolution
SONY
TAIWAN FOOD SCARE
And can have a far reaching impact…
• What external and internal factors could represent a
crisis for your business?
• Define three major risks that you feel could affect
your business.
• Consider how prepared you are to deal with these
events from a communications perspective today.
What are your risks?
Types of crisis
Smoldering Resignation, product faults, legal actions, complaints, quality issue, unethical corporate actions, accountancy malpractice, poor financials
Sudden Accident, death, bomb, fire, serious product failure
Dealing with a crisis
Pre-existing relationships of trust
and goodwill
Strong values and company culture
Skilled crisis prevention, preparation, handling and
communication
• The ultimate objective: issues
don’t reach crisis proportions
• Very few crises are total
surprises
• A crisis is the latest possible
point at which a response can
take place
• Prior to this point, somewhere,
someone (usually senior
management) knows about the
probability of a crisis
Who owns the crisis?
Operational
Operations
Security
Manufacturing
Facilities
Physical recovery
Management and leadership
Overall responsibility
Official positioning
Business leadership
Spokespeople
Communications
Internal communications
CEO communications
Marketing/branding
Investor relations
Crisis Management
Team The key is effective coordination of the
management, operational and communications response to the crisis
10 guiding principles of managing a crisis 1. Have a clear process
2. Know how to analyze the situation
3. Develop clear objectives and strategies
4. Ensure smooth logistics
Action principles:
5. Speed
6. Consistency
7. Candour
8. Control
9. +1
Establish:
10.Monitoring and evaluation mechanisms
New Era Crisis Communications
Social media crises rising
Bad customer experiences
31% %6
What employees are doing
Social media can make a bad situation much, much worse…
A case study
National Australia Bank
Another case study
DBS Bank Singapore
Building Blocks, Holger Zscheyge, http://www.flickr.com/photos/zscheyge/49012397//
Building blocks for crisis preparedness
LISTEN
PREPARE
CRISIS
ENGAGE
REVIEW
REFINE
Map and monitor
social and
traditional media
channels
Create a crisis
communications
plan and train
executives to
engage Conduct
immediate debrief
on resolution
Manage dialogue
with Internal &
external
stakeholders and
communities
Revise crisis plan,
preparation and
monitoring
New era of crisis comms workflow
LISTEN
Buzz Analysis What is the size of the conversation
around your brand? What topics are generating buzz
around your company?
Audience Segmentation and Community Mapping What types of online communities are discussing
your company or products?
Influencer Topic Driver Analysis What do influencers think are the key issues?
Influencer Lists Who’s driving discussions
around your brand? Influencer Dashboard What was the tone of
influential posts toward your company? How often do
they discuss competitors?
Influencer Analysis: our experienced analysts deliver in-depth qualitative analysis of the online voices with the most influence on your brand.
Identifying Buzz: we identify which topics are getting the most attention in online discussions and why.
New era crisis communications
workflow
Outputs •Crisis communications plan and
spokesperson / community owner training program including: • Comprehensive DARE-based crisis
communications plan including social and traditional media, influencer and channel engagement strategy (includes internal influencers)
• Established ownership and coordination policies
• Executive and spokesperson training • Social media policy creation • Pre-engagement with influencers • Pre-established presence in key
communities
LISTEN
PREPARE
CRISIS
ENGAGE
REVIEW
REFINE
New era crisis communications
workflow
Outputs •Manage dialogue with Internal &
external stakeholders and communities including: • Social and traditional media outreach
and response to all stakeholders • Real time conversation and media
monitoring • Management of social and traditional
media newsrooms • Creation and management of crisis
micro sites • Strategic communications counsel • Senior consultant joins crisis
management team
LISTEN
PREPARE
CRISIS
ENGAGE
REVIEW
REFINE
Amplified
Authentic
Real time
360 degree
Internal vs. external
Vigilant Monitor multiple channels through social media dashboards and RSS
Internal is as critical as external – ensure all audiences are engaged appropriately
Crises don’t wait for news cycles – monitor and respond 24x7
All channels feed into each other – ensure your message is consistent
Not all channels and influencers are created equal – find those that amplify
Speak with a human voice – that’s what your communities use
The new era of crisis comms
• Identify your crisis communications team
• Have clear guidelines for internal and external comms
• Identify spokespeople
• Train spokespeople
• Establish crisis notification systems
• Identify and know your stakeholders
• Anticipate crises (scenario planning)
In short, be prepared...
How do you improve your organisation’s preparedness quotient?
First..
• Conduct a crisis communications audit
– Hot spots (vulnerability audit)
– Existing structures and processes
– Readiness and gaps
Second..
• Develop clear guidelines, best practices and policies
– Crisis communications manual
– Crisis reference kit
– Roll-out to core team(s)
Third…
• Conduct crisis simulation workshops
– With comms team or with wider crisis management teams and committee
What is crisis simulation training?
• A real live simulation exercise to experience the pace and passion of a crisis with particular focus on internal and external communications
• A great opportunity for individual brand communications teams to work side by side with each other and develop a regional/ global team mentality
• The chance for communications staff who may not always deal with the media directly to get a taste for press office life
A boost to any public relations professional’s ability to manage the media in a situation that could happen!
36
Workshop series #1: Semiconductor company • ‘As live’ crisis management simulation (part of internal
team building programme). • Text 100 developed a crisis around a fictional fire at the
company’s largest fab facility: Large fire spreading! Toxic cloud and missing, presumed dead, staff members.
• In London, Paris and Munich, the communications teams were given imaginary roles to play facilitated by Text100 consultants .
• Pressure from concerned relatives and industry bloggers to broadcast, print and online media.
• Workshop objective – To create a life-like crisis situation and see how each team reacted, learning from any shortcomings in the Company’s infrastructure.
Workshop series #2: Regional Bank • Simulation workshop followed completion of crisis audit and
development of group CC Guidelines
• Conducted over separate full-day workshops in TH, Indonesia, SG and MY.
• Scenario: Banking platform failure with no ATM & online transactions, no payroll transfers, no access to online information, eve of a long weekend, long cues, irate customers.
• Simulation collaterals included mock news and social media monitoring alerts, mock TV coverage, blog posts.
• Designed to provide a test bed and pressure cooker environment with breaking news, ambush interviews, trending twitter conversations, blogs and queries from authorities.
• CMT involvement (with Chairman/CEO) for decisions, approvals and media engagements.
• Actual best practices from ‘as live’ scenarios used to fine tune guidelines and drive home best actions.
Fourth
• Review, refine, refresh regularly
– Review with new crisis scenarios and industry developments
– Refine policies, processes and guidelines
– Refresh with existing and new team members
• Social media has changed the nature of crisis management
communications forever
• However, the principles of crisis management communications remain
fundamentally the same
• It is more critical than ever to understand your company’s channels of
influence, especially your employees
• You can’t rely on news media as the sole channel for crisis
communications
• Constant monitoring is vital
• Authenticity is currency
Being prepared is a weapon in the comms arsenal!
Summary
There’s an up-side
Thoughtfully handled crises are an opportunity to: • Present the true soul of the company • Prove management’s integrity • Build and preserve credibility and trust
with major stakeholders
Thank You
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