How to Manage a PR Crisis (Steps + Examples)

You only have one reputation. You can’t buy a new one. You can’t insure it. So, being able to do and say the right thing on the most challenging of days can be the difference between business success and failure.

Sounds very absolute. That’s because it is. These situations are rare, but they can be career and company defining.

Take Goldman Sachs for example. After it was accused of fraud, its shares lost $12.4 billion in one afternoon and $20 billion in a week. Similarly, following its failure to cap its leaking Gulf of Mexico oil well, BP shares lost £12 billion in one day. You get the picture.

So, how do you manage a PR crisis? Let’s start from the beginning.

A PR crisis is any negative story that has the potential to damage a business’ reputation.

These crises can take many forms. It could be a loss of service or a recalled product, a serious accident at one of your sites, a sensitive data breach or ransomware attack, an affronted ex-employee, a debt ridden Board member or a supplier slating you on socials. And everything in-between. Usually at a massively inconvenient time.

The impact could be minimal; just a few negative comments on social. Or the impact could be enormous; senior leadership being sacked, plummeting share price or companies having to cease trading.

No one wants a PR crisis, but they do happen.

They happen without warning and can blow out of proportion in the blink of an eye, especially given the power of social media. You can be under the pump before you know what’s hit you.

A crisis brings increased scrutiny from the media, customers, prospects, and stakeholders, leaving a business with nowhere to hide. This, of course, has the potential to seriously impact your reputation.

So, acting swiftly and decisively makes all the difference. Think damage control, providing reassurance and ending interest in the situation.

If the interest doesn’t move on, your brand reputation will not be able to recover. In 2014, Malaysia Airlines was struck by two disasters in less than five months, and it has been tarnished by the disasters ever since. Trust has never been re-established, and the connection with the consumer has gone.

There is also Pret a Manger’s fall from grace. A decade ago, it was the most revered retail experience, now it is a hotbed of complaints, hostile takeovers and poor customer service. Of course, its darkest moment came in 2016 when teenager Natasha Ednan-Laperouse died after suffering a severe allergic reaction due to Pret’s ‘inadequate’ food labelling.

Effective crisis management cannot happen without two things:

1. Being prepared
2. Quality communication

Time is not on your side when you’re hit with a crisis. Quick, good communication can determine the outcome of the situation and its impact on your company and brand.

You need to be ready before the event. It will be too late to prepare once it starts. Pick your adage for this one: ‘Fail to prepare, prepare to fail’, ‘plan for the worst, hope for the best’ or ‘believe the worst could happen to you, and you are taking the first step towards ensuring it doesn’t’. You get the gist. You need to have a plan already in place to successfully navigate a crisis.

The plan has to have substance, with roles and responsibilities clearly mapped out. Decision-makers need to be armed with the resources, knowledge, ability and confidence to weather any storm, before it hits.

Crisis management is not ‘one size fits all’ and needs to be bespoke to the business. Let’s break it down:

1. Crisis & issues planning

• Scenario planning: doing a detailed exploration and ranking of potential crises that could impact the business. Make an exhaustive list, not just ‘the most likely’.
• Develop clear crisis communications protocols.
• Stakeholder prioritisation – which people should be talking and on what subjects?
• Media training key spokespeople – once you know who is going to represent the business and the subjects they are going to ‘handle’ you train them to be the best version of themselves, no matter the situation.
• Proactively create template communications materials, from FAQs and media statements, through to customer support scripts, stakeholder engagement and internal briefing documents

2. Crisis handling support

• Crisis and issues communications support. You will need someone with senior expertise in handling crisis situations available out of hours, at a moment’s notice.
• When things kick off, update consistent communications materials, for all external and internal audiences. Remember all channels from call centres and team meetings, through to newsletters, website and social.
• Have someone handling all media enquiries and supporting the spokespeople. Log everything carefully.
• The same goes for social. Monitor sentiment and how the story is playing out.
• Always have someone listening to the media. What news is breaking? Are there new facts? How are we being portrayed? Picking up tips on how to nudge the scale in your favour.

Top tip: The most important prep goes into banking goodwill before an issue arises. Any business can more effectively navigate crises and issues if it has the support of its stakeholders to lean on when necessary. Proactive and positive brand building PR delivers exactly this. An admired and trusted brand is more easily forgiven.

Naturally we recommend having a crisis management expert/PR agency on board to guide you through this process. Of course we would say that! But this allows the people involved to concentrate on doing their roles perfectly. No outside distractions, just ‘let’s sort this out’.

Having someone that can take a step back from the business and see the whole picture is invaluable.

Working with an agency that understands your audience is a major win too. They will know what the audience needs to hear from the business and how to position messages for best effect.

It’s a good idea to learn from the mistakes and successes of others. Here are some examples of the good and the bad of crisis communications:

The Good

• CrowdStrike – George Kurtz’ (CEO) quick apology, taking ownership for the software update that took global IT systems offline, stands out in an industry rife with deflection
• Microsoft – All data breaches are severe, but for a business like Microsoft it can be devastating. However, it simply did everything it needed to do to reassure its customers – notified affected users straightaway, using timely yet detailed messaging explaining what they needed to do. Spot on.

The Bad

• The Captain Tom Foundation – We have a lack of donations, a newly built spa/pool house and ill-advised crisis comms. The Ingram-Moores went from heroes to villains in the blink of an eye, yet they kept silent whilst the world’s news teams reported on them over and over. When they did eventually break their silence, it was with an unapologetic and ‘corporate’ statement. Saving face, not trying to protect Sir Captain Tom’s legacy.
• The BBC and its rotating door of stars – Russell Brand, Huw Edwards, Jermaine Jenas, Gary Lineker, and many more. For an impartial and independent broadcaster, paid for by the British public’s licence fees, you would expect it to be ‘squeaky clean’. However it seems to be producing scandal after scandal, and doesn’t react quickly enough to limit the damage. On every occasion, it knows the story is going to break, yet it seems to be caught on the back foot.
• David Coote and the FPL – The Premier League referee sacked for bad mouthing managers and taking drugs went viral. He stayed quiet, hoping it would blow over, but it didn’t. The media only became more entangled with it as more details emerged. WhatsApp groups exploding, then socials picking it up, followed soon after by the media. Eventually Coote released a statement, but by that stage it was too little, too late.

Want your business to be prepared to handle any situation? Get in touch with our crisis management experts at susannah@energypr.co.uk.