Laura Richards is a strategic communications consultant and founder of Idea Junkies. She supports ambitious brands to communicate their ideas and protect their reputations. Here she shares 5 steps businesses can take to manage a brand crisis.
Analyse the crisis
For brands dealing with a potential crisis, it’s important to first understand what type of crisis it is. Is it a ‘cobra’ (occurs suddenly) or a ‘python’ (occurs slowly over time). Has it been caused by you or your employees, an accident, or something outside of your control? The type of crisis will determine the best response.
You may also need to seek outside advice, including legal advice (depending on the issue at hand) or from a crisis communications specialist. It can be difficult to think objectively when a crisis hits suddenly.
Pick an appropriate response
In a crisis situation, a brand is more likely to suffer damage to its reputation if it chooses the wrong response for the type of crisis it is dealing with. Ignoring – or worse, denying – a mistake or wrongdoing that took place, can lead to a complete break in trust with your most important stakeholders.
Even when a crisis is caused by something outside of an organisation’s control (like a pandemic), the risk is in how the business reacts. We saw this in the first half of 2020 – some brands’ response to global events left their customers feeling ignored or angry, while those that responded with empathy saw their reputations grow. The crisis itself was universal, but the impact on brand reputation varied wildly.
Make sure everyone in your team knows the plan
Brands that have a plan in place for various scenarios typically respond better when facing an actual crisis. Do you work regularly with influencers? Then make sure you know what you’ll do if one of them faces a scandal. Rely on a supply chain? Know what you’ll do and say in case of disruptions.
You also need to make sure that all your employees know how to respond to different situations and when to escalate an issue. This is particularly important for social media, where the accepted time frame for responding to a crisis is just 1 hour.
Be patient
Rebuilding a brands’ reputation after a crisis can take time, and arguably the worst thing you can do is rush to announce big changes (Meta, anyone?). Consumers are savvy and will be able to spot a stunt a mile off.
If a crisis has occurred as a result of a business’ actions, then rebuilding will usually require examining what went wrong and making genuine changes. If the crisis was outside of your control, then your brand should not suffer long-term damage – if you respond appropriately. Either way, consistency is key in building back the goodwill of your stakeholders.
Plan for next time
Anyone can be caught out by a crisis (the Covid-19 pandemic is the perfect example). But you should make sure that you learn from anything that goes wrong and put measures in place to protect your brand in the future. This might mean updating your policies or staff training, but can also mean prioritising your relationships with your customers – research has also shown that the reputational damage caused by a crisis can be minimised, if a brand already has a ‘bank’ of goodwill from its customers.
