Any business, at some point in its life, will come face to face with a crisis. Lakeland public relations companies handle all kinds of PR crisis and the way they handle crisis situations can either boost your company’s image or alienate your customer base and business partners.
Since we are ruled by social media and fast-moving information, one wrong move can go viral and trend on Twitter and Facebook. In a matter of minutes, everyone on social media will know what wrong act you committed. The only way to survive a crisis situation is to hire a PR specialist who will design a strategy that will work out for your business’ best interest.
Take responsibility
The only way to manage a storm is to take full responsibility for it. Do not try to cover up a PR crisis because with social media on the lookout, you can never truly escape anything anymore. It will only worsen the situation and trust us, nobody likes a liar.
Instead of arguing with people about the merits of the situation, acknowledge that you might have hurt your customer base and apologize immediately. You also need to respond to the conversations happening on social media, as well as calm people’s concerns and grievances.
Appoint a response team
When a crisis hits a company, it is important that you speak with one voice. Appoint a response team, specifically a spokesperson who will be the point person for the media. This person should be media-savvy, articulate, and should listen to the instructions of your PR specialists carefully.
The most effective response teams are the ones made up of in-house professionals who know the company by heart and external PR agencies who can look from the perspective of a journalist or a customer.
Control the situation
Get ahead of the story by being one step ahead of the whole crisis. If there is a customer or customers who have been affected by the problem, reach out to them, apologize, give them incentives immediately, and ask for their understanding. If you allow a situation to blow out of proportions, it’ll be hard for any PR agency to kill the fire.
Monitor social media
There will be a social media backlash. That’s to be expected. Prepare for it by having someone monitor Facebook and Twitter, where people converge to talk about topics of any kind.
Search for hashtags related to your company or the issue and make sure to answer each post either to explain or apologize for what happened.
A crisis situation that has been handled and managed well can prove to be beneficial to the company in the end. Always be proactive and on top of the situation so no crisis can ever shock you.
