Crisis PR
How to surf a tsunami...
From our experience, organizations are, most of the time, concerned about their day to day communication. And nothing is wrong with that! Except that same organizations often postpone solving the situations that can generate real management crisis.
The whole efficiency of their communication is interrupted in such a moment of time called "crisis"! Makers become agitated, they throw words to the public through multiple voices, which often are contradictory. They become stressed by the insistence of journalists and they refuse to communicate. And if they do communicate, they use the "no comment" phrase, which rises more confusion and even panic!
Continuing with our experience, we can say that most crisis situations weren’t crises from the beginning. They were turned into crises because of the chaotic communication.
The consequences were catastrophic: an activity that was consolidated in years, whipped out in less than a few minutes.
And yet, can you control a crisis situation? What are the chances of an organization or a public figure to succeed such a moment?
In our opinion, a well-managed crisis can be overcomed and, even more, it can generate image benefits. For this to happen, the organisation must be prepared before. The methodology for managing such moments must include, among others, the estimation of potential company crisis and formulation of alternatives / response channels embedded in "crisis schemes". Responses may differ from case to case, such as: developping various shades of truth, counterattacking case scenario, denying case scenario, the argument by evidence, acceptance case scenario, etc. Each case scenario is analysed in terms of image benefits, generated social impact and time of the crisis mitigation. If, however, the crisis could not have been anticipated, because of unpredictable elements, our representatives will establish immediate types of approaches, all with an estimation of the consequences of such communication.
Finally, we note that the most important aspect of crisis management is the reaction time. Any delay in reaction will lead to speculation, sensational debates, a roller of confusing information, very difficult to "fix" later.
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