How to protect your company reputation during a crisis

Not having the right processes in place to pre-empt or deal with a crisis can easily turn a minor situation into a full-scale disaster. Corporate reputation is a delicate thing, with even the slightest tarnish affecting customer and stakeholder perception, sales and share price.

But how can you protect that reputation and, if the worst happens, defend it? Chris Hewitt, CEO of Berkeley PR provides businesses with tips for staying in control in a crisis.

Prevention is better than cure

Firstly, it is crucial you have a communications policy that includes a process for tracking and responding to market issues effectively. A crisis can often be averted if you anticipate what's happening out there, rather than being forced to react to it.

As the cause of an immediate crisis is often due to activity within the company, the policy should include a system for ensuring that the communications department and their agencies are quickly appraised of any developments such as redundancy, client losses, or acquisitions. This will ensure everyone is communicating the same, up to date information.

Taking control of a crisis

Whatever the scale and type of the crisis, you need to own it from the start. This is essential as, although it's very rare that you can change negative opinion, you can contain and minimise it if you take control early on.

By tracking market issues you can become part of the debate from the start and hopefully defuse the situation. As public interest builds you can have an impact on the evolution of an issue and maintain control. The media will often influence the development or death of an issue so, it is essential to use it to make sure your view is heard.

Having a comprehensive communications policy which contains roles and responsibilities in a crisis is imperative. Ideally have one spokesperson to deal with media interviews but produce written statements where possible so your company representative doesn’t deviate from what you want them to say.

A question and answer document setting out the company stance and providing strict guidelines for comment will ensure that one single and consistent message is communicated. Make sure spokespeople use the statements and stick to the agenda, so they cannot be pushed by a journalist.

While it is imperative that you acknowledge a crisis situation as quickly as possible, keep statements factual and succinct, saying why the situation has arisen and what is being done about it.

Honesty is the best policy, as appearing to be open will keep the media on side. If you don't talk to them they will become hostile so, communicate regularly to update them either with statements or press conferences. Never refuse to do an interview and never admit liability or speculate.

Keep it simple

Understand what motivates the aggrieved and respond empathetically, answering all their concerns. A heavy-handed response won't buy you any friends, which you need in a crisis.

Keep responses simple so they are easy to understand and there is no chance of them being misunderstood. Don't dilute your point by losing focus - keep to no more than three key messages to ensure your position is communicated correctly by the media and understood by your market.

The devil within

While public relations is a creative discipline, the delicacy of dealing with a company's reputation means you and your PR agency must be ultra organised day-to-day. Your PR team should be there to defend a crisis not cause it! Even the smallest 'slip up' could snowball into disaster for your business - journalists love to get hold of a bad story.

Ensure systems are in place to record approvals for issued material; keep a record of who that has been sent to; and ensure only approved, media trained spokespeople speak to the media.

Lessons to learn when protecting your company reputation

To protect your reputation in the future, always evaluate the result you intended against the actual outcome of a crisis. Reviewing the entire process will strengthen it and contain any future situations.