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Crisis Management

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© Trainer Bubble Ltd. 2016 - Sep-23 www.trainerbubble.com

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What is a Crisis?

A crisis is defined as any situation that threatens to harm a person or property, disrupt business, negatively impact an organisation or damage its reputation. The role of crisis management is to help manage these situations when they occur, or where possible, avoid them happening altogether.

Crisis management is about trying to avoid trouble, and when you can’t, knowing how to react appropriately. In order to do this, the starting point is to establish the types of crisis that could occur within your organisation.

There are of course lots of different types of crisis that could befall an organisation, but fortunately they can be separated into three main categories for ease of definition.

Creeping Crisis – This is a series of events that build to become an issue. In these cases, decision makers don’t view the series of events as a pattern. By putting measures in early you can minimise damage and even prevent the crisis occurring.

Slow-Burn Crisis – This is a crisis that has some advance warning, but then evolves slowly. Things go from bad to worse over time, but initially there is no actual damage.

Sudden Crisis – This is where the damage has already occurred and will get worse if not addressed quickly.

Creeping Crisis – Examples (these are usually preventative measures that have been overlooked)

Lack of two-way communication within organisation and externally Lack of rumour control system, resulting in damaging rumours


Inadequate preparation for partial or complete business interruption Inadequate measures to protect life and property in the event of an

emergency Absence of effective induction process for new employees that could

cause crisis i.e. health and safety, security, data breaches etc. Poor management processes that could result in business incidents

Slow-Burn Crisis – Examples

Internet activism Most lawsuits Most discrimination complaints Company reputation Lack of regulatory compliance - safety, immigration, environment, hiring,

permits, etc. Major operational decisions that may distress any important audience,

internal or external Local/national/governmental actions that negatively impact operations Official/governmental investigations involving your organisation and/or any

of its employees Labour unrest Sudden management changes - voluntary or involuntary Marketing misrepresentation

Sudden Crisis – Examples

Customer death - Your organisation perceived to be liable in some way Serious on-site accident Insane/dangerous behaviour by anyone at a location controlled by your

organisation Criminal activity at a company site and/or committed by company

employees Lawsuits with no advance notice or clue whatsoever Natural disasters Loss of workplace/business interruption (for any reason) Fires

Everyone within an organisation has a role to play in crisis management. It is crucially important that crises are prepared for and mitigated. In these days of easy communication and 24/7 media through traditional sources and social means via the internet, a bad message can spread extremely quickly. Those businesses not prepared will soon get dragged into a very damaging spiral. Crisis management should be seen as an investment in your organisation, there to preserve its value.

Stakeholder Identification and Analysis


The word ‘stakeholder’ is used to describe anyone that might have an interest in your organisation and what happens to it. This interest could stem from a number of different areas, many of which might not seem obvious at first. Let’s take a look at some examples.

Crisis management is all about retaining the support of stakeholders. It’s likely that a large number of stakeholders with widely divergent interests will be involved when crisis strikes. Managing these stakeholders will be a major task. Therefore, it’s important that you are able to identify your stakeholders and also analyse the level of influence and interest they have with the crisis. The following stakeholder map provides a useful strategy tool for managing these relationships.

Stakeholders are a crucial part of the crisis management process and it’s extremely important that these relationships are managed carefully. Consider who your stakeholders are and how much involvement you are going to afford them throughout every stage of the crisis management process.

Crisis Prevention


As discussed previously, it is much better to prevent a crisis than it is to have to manage one after it has occurred. However, this can be more easily said than done and many senior figures in organisations seem scared to implement crisis prevention activities. This most likely occurs where they are fearful of the activities a carefully planned crisis prevention audit might shine a light on. They may also have doubts about the costs involved in preparing a prevention strategy.

This type of thinking is counter-productive and will leave a business vulnerable to severe damage from a crisis. It’s certainly true that the costs involved in implementing crisis prevention are dwarfed by the expensive business of dealing with a crisis once it has happened. Crisis prevention really does make sense.

The best way to take preventative measures against a crisis is to implement an organisational crisis review of some nature. This review will check the vulnerability of the operation and help identify methods of avoidance.

There are many types of crisis review with varying scope based on the needs and size of the organisation. Here are some examples…

Crisis audit

This is a simple review of existing crisis plans, typically using an audit checklist. The review allows you to check preparedness and response, how well the plans have been made, what the organisation and structure is and the procedure for testing the crisis management plans. The review should end with a written evaluation and recommendations for improvements.

Executive review session


This will typically be a one-day session that brings together the executive team of the organisation. They are led through a series of discussions that helps them review and uncover any crisis vulnerabilities within the organisation. The review should end with a written evaluation and recommendations for improvements.

Comprehensive review

This provides a series of interviews with employees in different roles and at various levels within the organisation. The interviews are taken in complete confidence, which should allow the employees to feel assured that their feedback is given without judgement, ensuring that it is consequently honest and open. The internal interviews will combine with discussions with key external representatives and stakeholders. The review should end with a written evaluation and recommendations for improvements.

Blended review

This combines the two previous reviews (executive and comprehensive) to give a well-rounded examination of the crisis risks within the organisation. However, it’s likely the blended review would use a limited number of interviews for the comprehensive review element.

Online reputation review

This is a review of the organisations online presence and potential vulnerability to attacks to its reputation via this means. The review should end with a written evaluation and recommendations for improvements.

Ultimately, each of these reviews is used to identify and determine risks, looking at operational and communications weaknesses and strengths. The aim should be to identify potential solutions to ensure any weaknesses are not allowed to develop into crisis. The review should not only prepare the organisation for potential crisis, but also prevent crisis wherever possible.

Crisis Planning Document


Notes:

Here is a list and description of the typical contents of a crisis management plan.

Table of Contents

Providing a table of contents will make it easier for people to access the relevant sections quickly and easily should a crisis occur.

Introduction

This will explain the purpose, relevant policies, scope and main aims of the plan, giving you a clear sense of what is required from the document and helping you keep track of what should be put in and left out of the document.

Documentation

A place to keep detailed records of actions that are taken during a crisis. This might include; decisions that are made, meeting minutes, actions taken, what the crisis was etc. The documentation should also include a regularly updated list of contacts that might need to be contacted when crisis occurs.

Emergency Operation Location

A record should be kept of the place the crisis team would meet should a crisis occur. This would typically be somewhere off-site.

The Main Crisis Team

This would be a list of the team that come together when a crisis occurs. It would typically be the head of the organisation, key personnel (i.e. department heads), the public relations manager if you have one or the outside consultancy firm that you use, legal representatives and any other important members. The documentation should include each member’s contact details, again, regularly updated. You should also provide a list of alternative contacts should these key people become unavailable at the time of the crisis.

Team Member Responsibilities

A clear list of all team member’s responsibilities in the event of a crisis.

Additional Teams

If your organisation has multiple locations, it is useful to have relevant contacts at each site. These people would provide information and feed in to the main team. Again, there should be a full list of their contact details.


Team Communication Process

A detailed list of the methods of communication for the team members should a crisis occur.

Crisis Procedures and Holding Statements for Each Scenario

You should have established a fair idea of the likely types of crisis that could occur for your organisation. This section of the documentation will provide the procedures and holding statements for each of these types. The best method is to provide a tabbed section for each crisis.

Each crisis tab will provide detailed instructions for the procedures that should be in place in the event that the crisis occurs. This would cover both the internal and external communication process. Preparing an initial ‘holding statement’ for each crisis type will ensure you are able to quickly respond for a wide variety of scenarios that the organisation may be vulnerable to. Some examples could be:

We are in contact with the victim’s family and are doing everything we can to support them through this difficult time

We are investigating the incident and will provide a full and accurate response as soon as possible

We will be reviewing our procedures and making any improvements necessary to help prevent a repetition of this incident

Spokespeople

Although you have already identified the main team members that should respond to a crisis, they are not necessarily the automatic choice for speaking on behalf of the organisation. Therefore, you should identify the key people that you would like to speak on behalf of the organisation should a crisis occur.

It’s likely that the head of the organisation would be one of these people, but not necessarily the main one. The person/s selected should be very effective communicators and trained in public speaking (specifically with the media).

Communication Protocols

It’s unlikely that the first people to hear about a crisis would be the team who are in place to deal with it. Therefore, it is important to establish a protocol for a crisis when it occurs. This should be documented and also distributed throughout the organisation, so that all employees have sight of it. Typically, the crisis communication protocol document would inform all employees of what to do and who to call should a crisis happen or even if it could potentially happen. It should include contact details, names and alternatives.


Stakeholders

This should be a list of the key stakeholders that matter to the organisation whether internal or external. These names should be listed in the plan, organised by the type of stakeholder they are.

Stakeholder Communication Methods

You need to clearly document the methods of communicating with each of the stakeholders that you have identified. This list should contain up to date contact details for each contact method. You should also be clear about what type of information each stakeholder should be provided with and the best way to get this to them.

Summary Section

The summary section allows you to critique your processes and the plan itself when a crisis occurs. This would remain blank initially, but after a crisis you would document the strengths and weaknesses of your crisis plan and the procedures you have in place.

Crisis Strategy Checklist


Q&A – Notes:

In the event of a crisis, the Crisis Management Team members must remember the importance of thinking strategically and communicating professionally. This checklist will serve as a guide for strategic thinking by all members.

Contextual Analysis:

What is the nature of the crisis? Has it been anticipated? If no, what do we know about this matter? Which of our categories does this crisis fall in, if any? How quickly should we respond? What steps have been completed? Which risk does the crisis create? What has been done to lessen the risk?

Stakeholder Analysis:

What stakeholders are involved/affected by the crisis? Which stakeholder(s) is the most important? Who are our primary stakeholders? Secondary? Tertiary? How does the public view the crisis issue? Who will influence the public? What role does the media possess? How does the public perceive the organisation’s credibility?

Strategy:

What are our business goals? What are our communication goals? What are our objectives? Does our strategy reflect with our business and communication goals? How will we evaluate our effectiveness? Are the values of the organisation reflected in our message? Is it practical? Is it ethical?

Tactics:

Who should be the spokesperson? Our message will be communicated through what channels? What media options are available to us? When do we want to convey our message?

Crisis Response


There is no set rule of when you should decide to respond to a given crisis. Sometimes it can be better to get the bad news out as soon as possible, which allows you to control the message rather than having to deal with a story that has already been created for you.

In other situations, it can be better to let things take their course and see how the crisis develops. There are times where a negative story will appear and then disappear just as quickly and it proves better not respond and draw attention to the scenario.

There will be other times where the decision to respond to a crisis is taken out of your hands and the suddenness of the catastrophe means that you have to enter crisis mode immediately. In these cases, all your preparation will pay off.

The key thing to remember is that if you are not facing a sudden crisis, the decision about when to respond to the crisis comes down to the main crisis team.

When you do decide to respond to a crisis, there are five main points you should always follow.

Prompt

Any response to a major crisis that could damage the organisation should be rapid. Where there is no communication, it is likely that rumour and innuendo will fill in the gap.

Compassionate

People will often be prepared to forgive when mistakes are made, but what people will not forgive is a seeming lack of concern for the feelings of anyone involved in a crisis. Yes, you want to get the facts out, but first you must be prepared to address the emotional needs of those watching the issue unfold. This means including a compassionate message with any facts that you present.

Honest


Honesty is very important when dealing with a crisis. If you aren’t honest, you will usually get found out sooner or later and if you do, the consequences can be much worse than the negativity you received from the initial crisis.

Informative

When responding to a crisis, you need to provide as much information as you can without compromising your legal position. When people feel threatened because of a crisis that affects them, the last thing they want is to feel that they are not able to get the answers they want. You should be prepared to share as much information as you realistically can. It’s better that you share the true information than let people fill in the gaps for you and get it completely wrong.

Interactive

Aside from providing all the information you can during a crisis, you should also be prepared to allow two-way communication with your stakeholders. This means answering their questions to the best of your ability in whatever format most suits that stakeholder.

If you can demonstrate that you are both willing to provide information and to respond further to the concerns of your stakeholders, you will be far more likely to gain their support, cooperation, loyalty and trust throughout the crisis.

Demonstrating Credibility

When communicating your crisis message, there is more to consider than just ‘what you say’ and you should also pay attention to ‘how you say it’. To do this, it’s important to think about the following three key skills that will help demonstrate your credibility.

Caring – If you can show empathy and demonstrate that you care, people are more likely to place their trust in you.

Capable – You need to sound like you know what you are talking about. This will give people assurances that you know what you are doing.

Confident – Having a confident attitude will allow people to relax in the knowledge that if you are confident, they can place their faith in you getting the issue resolved.

Dealing with the Media


It’s important that you manage the media carefully when you are in the midst of a crisis. People will want answers and the media is often your best form of getting a message out. Even if you’d prefer not to communicate through the media, you may not be given the choice, so managing your approach to them is crucial.

We’ve already talked about ‘holding statements’ that you can use to hold off the media in the short term. You should consider the best way to get this message out through the media. Often, the most effective way to do this is through a news release, where you provide as much information as you can. Another option is to provide select interviews to key journalists.

Whatever your approach to the media, you should always remember that they aren’t the important stakeholders and it is them that you should consider most of all. The media are just a communication channel and generally have no stake in the situation further than reporting on it. You should consider their function as a method of getting through to your stakeholders and nothing more.

Here’s a few things to keep in mind when dealing with the media…

Reporters can use leading questions and will sometimes try to put words in your mouth. They may say things like, ‘Would you say that…?’, ‘Do you agree that…?’ Of course, once you answer in the positive, they will provide this as a direct ‘quote’ from you. They said it, but now you have.

They often focus on ‘allegations’ more than ‘responses’. The journalists job is to make the information they present sensationalist, they may well be far more interested in the allegations made than they are in the sensible, structured arguments put forward to rebuke the allegations.

People often believe what they see in the media and will go with the thought that if it’s been reported there must be some truth in it. Therefore, when ‘facts’ are reported selectively, it can put you in a very difficult position.

‘Off the record’ isn’t. Never fall for this trick. If it’s said, it will be reported.

‘No comment’ means, ‘I’ve done something wrong.’ Staying silent usually unwittingly demonstrates guilt. It’s not fair, but it’s true.

You mostly have to put up with the media response, although they do have a code of ethics. A lot of what the media say and do has to be taken on the chin and accepted. However, if they push the boundaries of being offensive or ignoring the facts despite you consistently correcting them and providing demonstrably accurate information, you can take a complaint up through legal means.

Internal Communication


While you may have elected officials that are meant to speak on behalf of the organisation, it is impossible to control anyone that is employed or even knows someone who is employed by the business from expressing their views.

Because of this, it’s vitally important that you manage the message that the internal people in your organisation receive. This controlled message ensures as much as possible that employees express the views of the organisation rather than gossip or hearsay.

When you are communicating an internal crisis message, here are some pointers.

Develop one to three key messages. If you can make a key, simple to understand message that explains the situation in a clear way it can make it much easier for employees to state the true facts when asked. Where the situation is sensitive, your message may just be a reassuring statement.

Brief all employees personally. It’s always best to communicate a crisis to employees face-to-face. This shows that the organisation cares about their staff and wants to take the time to speak to them. Once you have spoken to employees, follow this up with an email/memo/newsletter stating the facts. Where it is not possible to speak to employees personally, and in most cases it is, you should provide them with a written statement of your key messages.

Create a communication channel. Your employees will undoubtedly have questions during a crisis and it’s important that you provide a means for this to happen. Again, by doing this you help control rumours and gossip. This means setting up key members of staff that are trusted to take queries and then obtain answers from someone on the crisis team.

Another way of creating a communication channel is by providing a forum for responses on the organisation intranet. The beauty of this method is that it reduces the volume of questions that come in, as often the question is already answered on the forum.

A good internal communication process can be a really effective way of mitigating the damage of a crisis. When you have an internal workforce that are completely behind the organisation it can help stem the flow of negative feeling and promote a positive front.

Creating a Crisis Message


The messages that you put out during a crisis are the most important aspect of crisis management. After all, it’s only the messages that you put out during a crisis that stakeholders and the public get to see. Their concern is what you are doing about the problem while it is happening as opposed to any preparation you might have in place, so the message is critical.

We’ve already discussed the importance of holding statements and these are really useful for giving you the breathing space to focus on your next steps. However, there is always going to be a time when you have to develop a crisis message while the crisis is going on, and this is what we are going to focus on now, providing you with clear guidelines for developing your crisis message.

Create key messages

The crisis team should already know what each key stakeholder wants. Once the crisis has started the message for each should provide the information they want for this specific crisis. Try and keep the message similar for all stakeholders, with a little tailoring to suit each. This will help to keep you on track.

Use facts

Be specific about what you are doing to address the crisis, avoid generalist terms or platitudes. You should be clear about the message you want to get across without surrounding your point with flowery language. You should also avoid being smart with your response. People don’t appreciate flippant or humorous statements when a crisis occurs.

Create context

Context helps people to understand where the crisis sits in the great scheme of things, so you should try to include context wherever possible to help change people’s perceptions and let them appreciate the realities of a situation. So, ‘We fired the employee’ sounds a lot worse than the contextual statement of ‘We fired the employee due to the damage he caused to the customer’s car, which we consider gross negligence’.

Keep it simple

People will not take the time to read or listen to a long explanation or message that you put forward. They want easily digestible facts and statements that they can quickly absorb and understand.

Try it out, safely


Once you’ve written your message, read it back to yourself and see if it sounds like something you would expect to hear if you were the stakeholder, employee or customer. Read it out loud, read it to a colleague, read it to someone you trust. If it doesn’t sound right, you need to try again.

Change for audience

Remember that different stakeholders require a slightly different message. Think about who you are giving the message to and adapt accordingly.

Time your message

Don’t provide information before you need to. You may create a problem before it even occurs. By all means prepare it and be ready to release if needed, but don’t prematurely cause issues or frighten stakeholders unnecessarily. You should also ensure you don’t not delay the release of information when it is required. When there is no message, the media or gossip will fill in the gaps.

Change formats

It’s tempting only to send out written messages. However, these can seem impersonal and there are times when only a personal approach will work and someone will need to speak directly to the stakeholder or media via communication channels.

Use appropriate method

Your message should fit the medium you are using. For example, if you are appearing on television you may not have much time for long explanations and visual presentations, so keep it to short soundbites. If you are to appear on the radio, remember that you won’t be seen, so you’ll need clear verbal information. Your website can afford you the luxury of providing images and graphics if needed, but keep it simple.

Crisis Message – Activity


Review the example crisis shown. Create a general message that you would like to put out to your stakeholders based on the information provided.

Crisis Recovery


Your message:

So, let’s say you’ve made it through the crisis and things have calmed down a bit. What now? Is this the end of it? What should you do next?

It’s tempting to sit back and relax, knowing that you’ve got over a very difficult period for the organisation. However, this is exactly the wrong thing to do. If you had a plan when the crisis hit, you’ve probably weathered the storm quite well, but if you didn’t you probably have a lot more work to do. Either way, you need to focus on repairing the damage of the crisis and ensuring the organisation gets back to its best.

A lot of companies will deal with a recent crisis by carrying on as usual and pretending it never happened. This is a mistake and the crisis should be seen as an opportunity to review processes and grow as a business. There are three main steps you should take as you begin your crisis recovery.

Determine the damage

It’s important to establish what the impact of the crisis has been. This means reviewing elements that may have been affected such as share price, company profits, market share etc. You should also communicate with your key stakeholders, looking at their attitudes towards the organisation and the crisis it has been through (of course you would need to be careful how you approach this). It’s also worthwhile establishing their view own how you might improve things.

Conduct post-crisis review

This step means reviewing how you performed during the crisis and what you could have done better. This is important as it will give you key actions that you can use to improve your response to any future crisis.

If you had a crisis plan, this process is simple, as you can compare the components of the plan with what really happened and look at the gaps in performance. If you didn’t have a crisis plan, it’s perhaps even easier as it’s likely everything could be improved!

Complete new audit review

The final step is to go back to your original audit and complete another review of the likely vulnerabilities of the business following the crisis you have just been through. You should appraise your crisis plan and make any improvements necessary. These improvements will help to ensure you avoid and are prepared for any future crisis.

Post-Crisis Review


The following questions should be addressed when reviewing the crisis procedures:

1. To what degree was the Crisis Management Plan followed? Why?

2. Were the crisis team members confused? Why?

3. Did the crisis team know what they were supposed to do? Why not?

4. Did employees know what they were supposed to do? Why not?

5. Was the public updated in a timely manner?

6. Was the media given accurate information?

7. Was the crisis management team effective?

8. Was the crisis management team assembled quickly and ready to take action?

9. Were facts gathered quickly and accurately?

10.Were some critical steps missing in your plan? What steps?

11. How could you be better prepared in the future?

12. Was a crisis reporting channel available to each department?

13. Was the assigned leader within each department able to provide guidance and keep things running as smoothly as possible?

14. Could the crisis have been avoided if certain actions had been taken? What actions?

15. Was the spokesperson able to answer all media inquiries? Why not?

16. Was the spokesperson the best individual qualified to handle the crisis?

17. Now that you have experienced a crisis, is someone else better suited to serve as spokesperson?

18. What about the other major key players? Were they the best suited people for their key roles?

Post-Crisis Review - Actions


Date:

*example

Action Point Question:

Action to Take: By When:

4 Improve communication channels for advising employees what to do during a crisis – intranet forum.

Two Weeks

Online Reputation Management


The internet has become the go-to place for instant information. The reach of the internet and the speed with which people can both post and access information is unprecedented and because of that, organisations have to keep on top of how the internet is representing them. This means using online reputation management.

The reach of the internet and how easy it is to communicate via it is both a blessing and a curse for people dealing with crisis management. Why? Well, just as it is easy to quickly put out a message telling people the facts of a crisis situation, it’s just as quick and easy for people to put out negative messages about your organisation. This makes a careful approach to managing your reputation online all the more important.

Think of any large news story or crisis that has happened recently. If you didn’t hear about it on the internet, it’s likely that you later went there to find out more. Most of us carry in our pocket a tool that gives us instant access to information whenever we want it.

While some of the more traditional media outlets have a presence on the internet, there’s a growing army of internet specific reporters who use websites, blogs and forum channels to promote their own slant on the news. There’s even stories of spoof websites that post ‘fun’ news stories being taken seriously by people and even other media sources who didn’t get the joke. Here’s a couple of examples of fake stories that have been taken to be true in the past.

When faced with the challenge of people who read and believe these articles so easily, you can see why managing an online reputation is such a challenge. A lot


of internet reporters who are posting ‘true’ stories about your organisation may be doing so from a very negative position. They are also not restrained by the rules that the traditional press should follow and so the information can become even more distorted. This makes managing a crisis online extremely difficult and certainly very important.

Social Media Threats

Businesses have always had a number of individuals who have had a bad experience. In the past their methods of complaining where limited to writing a complaint letter or phoning the complaints department. Nowadays people can vent their frustration much quicker via social media. Some even do it while the incident is happening! The reach of social media means that incidents can spread around the world in a matter of minutes. The truth of the situation isn’t important; it’s how your organisation is perceived to deal with these issues that is significant.

Of course it’s not only customers we need to be aware of when considering the source of a potential crisis. All establishments have access to the internet and will promote their thoughts, beliefs, reports and studies in this format too. This means that all organisations must be on standby to deal with information that potentially threatens its reputation at all times.

There really is no end to the potential threats an organisation might face online. This is why it’s critical that they monitor what is happening online and have a strategy for dealing with incidents as they occur.

It’s also important to point out that not every internet critic requires a response. There will always be people that want to ‘vent their spleen’ online and sometimes giving a response will only serve to make things worse. Sometimes it’s better to keep quiet and let people make their own mind up.

Managing Online Threats


An online reputation management system is an in-depth, complex process and the topic requires a lot of consideration. Consequently, it is advisable that you partake in some specific development to review your organisational approach. However, there are some key elements you should consider that will help to ensure you effectively manage your approach to online threats. These we will focus on now.

Make someone responsible for monitoring

There are now businesses specifically set up to manage an organisations reputation online and larger companies may well be able to employ a business like this, or even create their own team to manage this process. With smaller organisations, this may not be a possibility. However, it is still important to ensure somebody is monitoring online threats.

Whoever is in place to monitor your online reputation, they should pay careful attention to social media, blogs, articles and all other means of online communication. There are some tools available online to help with this process and tools like Google Alerts, Whostalkin.com and Hootsuite will allow you to track when your organisation is mentioned and then automate the process of responding should you need to. It’s important not to solely rely on these tools though, as they are not infallible.

Even when someone is monitoring online activity, it’s impossible to completely contain things that happen on the internet, but with someone observing what is transpiring, you can at least respond quickly and appropriately to things that do arise.

Another important point is that whoever is given the task of online monitoring must also be given the authority to respond to issues as they occur. There is absolutely no point in having someone dedicated to online monitoring if they have to pass an authority filter to respond. The internet moves fast; your response must be too.

Consider the credibility of your detractors

You can’t expect everything on the internet to be 100% positive about your organisation, but you should aim to be over 50%. Where you have critics, be aware of two main things; how much they are likely to influence your stakeholders and their ranking on the internet (how high they appear in Google searches). If the critic is using social media, you should watch out for how many followers they have and how many times things are ‘shared’ by their followers (it’s not uncommon for a comment by someone with few followers to be ‘shared’ by someone with thousands).


There is absolutely no excuse for an organisation to allow someone who is reporting negative comments about them to have a website rank higher than theirs. Where this is the case, you should employ search engine optimisation (SEO) tactics to increase your ranking on popular websites. If you don’t have experts working within your organisation that can do this, you should get outside help to do this.

Take everything seriously

It’s easy to dismiss online critics if you feel they have no standing on the topic, or if they seem to be talking nonsense to you. It’s often amazing what people will believe when they read it on the internet and if this person ranks highly on search engines, or has a large following, they don’t have to do a lot to gain buy-in to their comments. This doesn’t mean you should respond to every crazy comment out there, but you should give each its due respect and treat every case on merit and based on the online response.

Time your response carefully

This works both ways, react to quickly and you can create a storm of negativity from nothing, but react to slowly and people might not think that you are taking the situation seriously. Even worse, a slow response can mean it’s escalated to an issue when it could have been nipped in the bud early on.

Unfortunately, there is no magic formula for the best way to get timing right when responding to online critics. However, with practice it is something that people who deal with it every day develop a feel for.

Be respectful and concerned

Your approach to negativity to should be one of empathy and concern, while also paying attention to the language you use, being careful to not upset the individual. This means that you should try to demonstrate that you understand where the person is coming from and that you would like to do whatever you can to change their perception and improve their experience. A statement such as…

“We care very much what customers/people think of us and our products and we also respect your right to disagree/complain/criticise. We’d like to know what information we can provide/what we can do to improve your experience and/or better understand our organisation”.

Although statements like this are quite standard and used quite frequently, they are often enough to placate a situation and place you in a position where you can have a reasonable discussion. It also provides an example that you have tried to be rational should you have to follow a legal course.


Don’t allow emotion to win over

When responding to online critics it’s easy to allow your emotions to run over and get the better of you, particularly when you feel that the criticism is unfounded. However, this type of response is counter-productive and when viewed from an outsider it may well tip any sympathy they had for your organisation in the critics favour.

Your response should remain level-headed and sensible and this will ensure that the communication remains business-like and professional. If the critic becomes unprofessional, it is best to explain that you feel you have made a reasonable response and that you consider it best to leave things there. Also advise that the door is still open if they would like to communicate directly with you privately and provide an email or other form of contact details.

Always remember that when you are communicating with people online, it is not only that person that sees the information and it usually stays on the internet forever. Therefore, any damaging comments you make can create lasting damage.

Crisis Practice – Case Study


Notes:

At the end of May 2015, India’s Food safety administration (FDA) ordered Nestlé India to recall its popular 2-minute Maggi noodles after tests showed that the product contained high levels of lead and MSG. This case study looks at how the situation developed, and how Nestlé reacted and managed the situation using multiple digital channels.

So, on 25th May 2015, Indian food inspectors ordered Nestlé India to recall a batch of Maggi Noodles from the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh claiming that tests have found Maggi instant noodles "unsafe and hazardous" and accused Nestlé of failing to comply with food safety law.

The initial response from the global FMCG Company rejected the accusation that the noodles were unsafe and said on their website and social media accounts that there had been no order to recall any products.

A statement on their website said that “The quality and safety of our products are the top priorities for our Company. We have in place strict food safety and quality controls at out Maggi factories… We do not add MSG to Maggi Noodles, and glutamate, if present, may come from naturally occurring sources. We are surprised with the content supposedly found in the sample as we monitor the lead content regularly as a part of the regulatory requirements.

Nestlé continues to keep its customers up to date on the investigation into the safety of Maggi noodles in India. On the official Maggi noodles India Facebook page, Twitter and website, Nestlé states that extensive testing reveals no excess lead in Maggi noodles.


Nestlé interacts with customers on social media thanking them for their support.It uses Twitter and Facebook to answer customer’s questions about the levels of MSG and lead found in their noodles. The company continues to re-assure customers that the noodles are safe and that they are a transparent company working closely with authorities in India to resolve the issue. As well as this Nestlé explains the science behind the tests, what lead and MSG are and gives an informative breakdown of the ingredients in their product.

@MaggiIndia makes an impressive effort to respond to every tweet from customers on this issue with a pre-prepared statement explaining that lead occurs naturally in soil and water.

On the 3rd June Nestlé launched a FAQ page on the official Nestlé website and continued to engage in an active dialogue with customers on social media channels Facebook and Twitter.


After re-assuring customers that its noodles are safe, the brand does a U-turn and decides to recall Maggi noodles produced in India. Nestlé CEO Paul Bulcke spoke to the media and said that “We are working with authorities to clarify the situation and in the meantime Nestlé will be withdrawing Maggi noodles from shelves.

Nestlé decided to destroy more than £32million ($50million) worth of Maggi Noodles in India after they were deemed unsafe by regulators.

After the food safety scare in India Maggi noodles have been tested in other parts of the world to reassure consumers that they are safe. Results from noodles tested in the UK found that levels of lead in the product are within EU levels. Shortly after the UK results were published, Canada also cleared Maggi noodles as safe.

Overview

When Maggi noodles, one of Nestlé’s top products was deemed unsafe in India, all eyes were on Nestlé to see how they would respond and manage the situation. Initially Nestlé defended its product and rejected all claims that its noodles were unsafe, and they did this on all digital channels.

Nestlé took to social media, Facebook and multiple Twitter accounts (main Nestlé account, Nestlé India, Maggi India) to reassure customers that its product was safe. Nestlé responded directly to all comments on social media. As well as this Nestlé created a section on their main website to keep customers updated. As the pressure grew on the global company, in a press conference Nestlé’s CEO said that all Maggi noodles in India would be withdrawn from shelves in order to comply with regulators.


Again Nestlé used digital channels to explain to customers why this decision had been made and to answer all their questions. Nestlé also explained the science behind the reason for the ban in simple terms so customers could understand.

The scare was a huge blow to the company, which has been selling its Maggi products for over three decades in India with 80% of the country’s instant noodle market. However, through smart use of social media during the crisis, the brand limited further damage by reassuring and informing customers to encourage them to continue buying the noodles in the future.

Final Update

After a difficult summer for Nestlé India the company finally receives some positive news after an Indian government approved laboratory has found that Maggi noodles do in fact comply with national food safety standards.

India’s food minister has slammed the FSSIA (Food Safety and Standards Authority of India) for creating an environment of fear in the food industry. Meanwhile, Maggi noodles have been cleared in many foreign countries; Nestlé also received permission from the Bombay High Court to export Indian Maggi noodles.

It just goes to show how easily a crisis can occur, even when you have done absolutely nothing wrong!


Further Reading

Managers Guide to Crisis Management – Jonathan Bernstein

Crisis, Issues and Reputation Management – Andrew Griffin

Crisis Management: Master the Skills to Prevent Disasters – Harvard Business Essentials

Crisis Management: Planning for the Inevitable – Steven Fink

Damage Control – Eric Dezenhall & John Weber


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