It’s no
secret among communications professionals that news travels faster than ever.
The cycle of news stories is getting shorter as a result, but with the spread
of digital-native publications and the dominance of social media as a news
source, there are also more ways for a crisis to gain oxygen.
This
new environment also increases the number of stakeholders who expect to be
heard or have a seat at the table when a crisis arises. From policymakers to
consumers to employees and far beyond, your organization must be deliberate in
addressing the different concerns and expectations held by each stakeholder
audience.
Further,
individuals are paying increased attention to how organizations respond to
crises. The general public is in the driver’s seat, and their expectations have
the power to shape responses and improvements for organizations experiencing a
crisis.
There’s
no doubt that this has changed the crisis response playbook. Previously,
audiences typically wanted organizations to simply acknowledge their wrongdoing
and address the issue before moving on. But today, audiences not only want
organizations to acknowledge their wrongdoing, they also want assurances that
the organization has made appropriate long-term changes for the better, often
outside of the scope of the original issue.
Just
look at the story that broke in November about Google collecting personal
health data in collaboration with a large hospital system, without notifying
patients and physicians. This specific partnership went under the microscope of
policymakers and resulted in additional scrutiny toward other acquisitions
Google has made in the health space, such as Fitbit, and how the company plans
to protect that personal data.
Google
argued that its work “adheres to industry-wide regulations,” and that may be
true, but stakeholders including data privacy experts, U.S. senators, consumer
advocates and Google users called on the tech giant to go above and beyond the
standard requirements and evolve its data collection practices.
This
example illustrates that being properly prepared to respond to a crisis or
issue has never been more critical. Regularly evaluating crisis response
materials to ensure that staff clearly understand their roles and have
participated in crisis communications simulations before an issue hits is now a
requirement, not a luxury. Evolving scenario plans on a quarterly or even
monthly basis to anticipate what areas of reputational risk may enter the
public domain should be table stakes. Without it, you’ll be caught flat-footed when
a crisis occurs.
In
addition, response plans must go beyond a statement simply shared with the
media. The Pew Research Center has chronicled the rapid rise of social media as
the top news source for Americans over the last decade, and nearly 60 percent of
Americans get their news from these sources today. Given that the majority of
Americans are getting news this way, organizations have to tailor their
messaging to social audiences. It’s imperative to think about how a response
will be received online before determining a strategy for more traditional
audiences.
Beyond
the response itself, public expectations around response speed have also
changed. The public now expects a response from organizations within minutes,
not hours or days. Without a quick and strategic response to a crisis, your
organization’s story will be told without your input, increasing the risk of
long-term reputational impact.
So,
what do these new, broader audiences want to know in the middle of a crisis?
There are typically five questions that the public wants answered to ensure
your organization is taking the issue seriously.
What happened?
While
this question may seem straightforward, it is often challenging for
organizations to understand what entirely occurred in time to develop and share
a complete and accurate response quickly enough. And there is nothing worse
than an organization providing an intentionally selective view of what
happened, or worse yet, providing inaccurate information. While the initial
response does not have to include the full picture, it must acknowledge the
issue and provide a timeline for when more detailed information will be
available in order to appease audiences temporarily.
Who’s impacted?
When
navigating a crisis, your organization must clearly define the direct and
indirect impact on various stakeholders and what it is doing to help those
individuals. You must work from a broad scope and then work to narrow the
impacted audiences as you consider each response.
What did you do when you found out?
Given
that the public often does not learn of a crisis in real-time, the public will
demand to know what your organization did when the spotlight was not on.
Meaning, if the organization did little or simply ignored the crisis because
there was no public awareness at the time, it will lead to increased
reputational risk and additional demands from stakeholders.
What changes were made, and how are you going to ensure it
doesn’t happen again?
Your
key audiences want to know what specific improvements or measures the
organization took as a result of this particular crisis. Accountability and
action reassures the public that the crisis is being taken seriously and is an
easy way to address stakeholder concerns.
How will you change for the better?
This
question is often ignored when organizations navigate a crisis and is an
overlooked opportunity following the response phase. Often, when organizations
stop getting frequent media calls or hearing from stakeholders, they believe
the crisis is behind them and move on. But your organization must be smarter
than this by placing yourselves on a path for long-term recovery to rebuild
trust. This means not only addressing the crisis directly via the questions
above, but also facilitating broader change for the organization. For example,
this could mean advocating for more substantial changes at the policy level or
in industry standards, or it could mean a recommitment to your organization’s
mission.
Proactively
preparing for these questions ahead of time is essential to ensuring that you
will address each issue adequately against the new demand for faster, better
responses. After all, for large organizations, it’s no longer a matter of if a
crisis will occur, it’s a matter of when.
Ryan Colaianni February 7, 2020
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