Crisis Management, including communications is a speciality, and I do not pretend to be an expert. But I believe there are a few fundamentals to managing a crisis including the communications.
Here’s my list:
– Take responsibility (even if someone else did it, then your security plan failed)
– Say sorry and then say sorry again
– Get the facts; if you are caught taking liberties with the facts you are as good as cooked
– Say what immediate steps you are taking to fix the problem
– Say how you will compensate those affected
– Say what you will do differently in the future to ensure a similar calamity does not occur
– Stop advertising (no one wants to hear about your next sale or how great you are) They only want to hear what you plan to do about the calamity
– Keep your staff in the loop. They are your best ambassadors
– Only one person must speak for the company and it should be the highest ranking executive officer preferably
Have a peep at this mia culpa, apology and what we will do differently from Target in their recent mess. Took them about a week too long I think, but it could not have been an easy web to untangle.
