How to communicate during a crisis: Part 0.5
Posted by Trey Reeme on April 4th, 2007
Your phone rings.
You: See You CU corporate communications, Trey speaking.
Reporter: This is Brent Dean from the Indianapolis Inquisitor. What are you doing about your website redirecting to a spoofing site? Why aren’t you protecting your members’ data?
You: Ummmmmm. Ummmmmm. Let me put you on hold. I’m getting another call.
Another Reporter: This is Matt Dixon from Channel 2…
What do you do? You’ve barely even had time to announce this to your members as IT just informed your exec team of the problem 15 minutes ago!
I’m hoping to construct a best practices post on crisis communications, but I don’t have the answers. I’d love some help writing this post through discussion in the comments.
This situation faces (at least) one of our readers right now.
I’ve never had to talk to the “real” media in a crisis. I could handle responding to blog chatter just fine, but don’t put a camera in my face!
Hi Trey -
Great topic! Here in NC, I have found the approach offered by Rick Amme of Amme & Associates to be helpful.
Rick was a long-time news anchor who now consults with a lot of businesses on these issues. He has a ten step crisis response plan on his web site – I’ll link it here since someone may be able to use it immediately …
This plan is part of a larger section of free content on Rick’s site.
Hope this helps! Jeff
It’s inexcusable for any financial institution to NOT have a clearly written and well-distributed policy on how to handle this.
(fyi, Jeff—I keep trying to hit the link you offered but with no success. Maybe Rick has some “response planning” he needs to do on his own site?)
Jeff, Thanks for the link – Ron, the link has only worked for me two out of three times
Interesting that number 10 is “Follow your crisis communications plan”
When I read this I thought surely some CUs must have this? Anyone willing to share?
So many credit unions have had this tough experience. This article from PR expert Laura Enock may be helpful.
PR Insight: Pre-Empt Negative PR
As a reporter I’ll tell you that there’s nothing that’s more annoying than an organization pretending it has everything under control when it’s clear it does not. What I do respect is when the CU’s rep, be it PR person or exec, is very clear from the get go on three points and expands on all three:
1) Here’s what we know (and what we’re doing about it) ... 2) Here’s what we don’t know (but are working on) ... 3) Here’s what we can’t tell you (and why) ...
On #2, you will gain tons of respect if you get back to a reporter independently after you’ve said you were looking for something. It makes you look doubly bad if you’ve promised a response and never get around to it.
On #3, even reporters understand that there are some things you can’t tell them, but be sure your reasons have a legal or a member-protection basis. If you won’t say because you don’t want to say, it encourages the reporter to look for the info elsewhere, and then you have less chance of offering your side in a good light.
And ask Richard Nixon or Scooter Libby about this one: “They never get you for the crime; they always get you for the cover up.”
Covering something up might buy you time, and it might even get you off the hook sometimes. But if word gets out …
B Rogers makes some excellent points….. but… let’s remember there’s another side here.
Too often, the press blows things out of proportion in its effort to get a scoop and attract attention.
Case in point: Offline fraud incidents outnumbers online fraud incidents by a huge margin. But it’s the online stories that garner the lion’s share of attention.
Funny how the press can wield its influence. Even though Scooter Libby committed NO crime, he somehow got nailed for the coverup.
In the end, I’m willing to bet that B Rogers knows that when he or she has built a trusting relationship with the bank’s or CU’s management team BEFORE a call like that has to be made… then the responses s/he gets is a lot more likely to follow the three points laid out in the comment above.
Interestingly enough, the Laura Enock article I mentioned a couple of comments up sees the other side of the press-CU relationship from what Ron describes (and both are important). the article suggests the CU should develop good relationships with reporters before anything “bad” happens and those reporters call the CU asking what’s up. It can only make that tough situation better to know the person on the other end of the line.
Hi everyone -
Sorry about the link issues – hope everyone is able to get through to it.
Here at the NC League, I’m going to pitch some sort of Crisis Communications “template” be budgeted for in 2008. This template would be available to be used by our CUs here.
I’m certainly no PR expert, but I notice a lot of CUs clam up when bad news comes calling … which of course is the exact opposite of what they should be doing.
Hopefully, a little emphasis in this area by the League will help the smaller shops cope with issues like fraud and embezzlement.
Wish me luck as I suggest this for next year!
JH
Regardless of whatever else happened at the White House, Libby was convicted of perjury.
Also, I will be the first to admit that an existing relationship with a CEO or somebody you’re covering is desirable, important … golden. But when you cover the entire credit union movement and something pops up, you can’t build a relationship of trust when you’re sitting on the East Coast and you have to ask the tough questions of a CEO three time zones away.
By definition, transparency doesn’t play favorites. The three points are especially important because a CU can’t count on receiving calls just from reporters they already know.
I have been there and there are usually two possible scenarios. 1) smoke and mirrors (misunderstanding) and there is no problem (most common) 2) real problem …
In both cases the key is Ammes # 7. Honesty and truth … never deny, even if you are unsure if you have an issue, because if you are unsure you probably have a problem.
1. you can talk to what you are doing to prevent that problem, but be sure you are doing the things you say …
2. this one I am luckily less familiar with. But I have been around it, and honesty, dates, timelines, and how the door has been closed to further situations are key. But be sure that new processes, or technology are in place to counteract.
Lastly … this entire scenario is a classic situation for a blog. This will kill Corporate Communications, but turning the problem into a conversation with those affected, will always be better than a series of 1984 style press releases.
Final comment – what “really” happens. Series of high level meetings take place, and decisions are made on what to release, and how to make it as positive as possible. If possible, say nothing, and hope it doesn’t make mainstream press …. oops .. did I just say that out loud!
I’m a professional emergency manager and I’m happy to help this CU if they need it. Feel free to pass them my mobile number (206.755.3739), I’m available to go to them if required. My bio and resume information are available here.
Here’s my standard procedure for the first few hours:This person should be called the “Incident Manager” or “Incident Commander”
They should not provide sensitive or confidential information, but should be clear when there is such information that is not being disclosed and the reason why it is not being disclosed.
My point (to respond to B Rogers’ last comment) was that, look, you have to admit it: Sometimes a reporter has an agenda, and is looking to make a story bigger than it is or should be.
And while no reporter in the CU space could have a strong relationship with every firm, reputable reporters should be known by the communication director of a CU.
If the response of that comm. director to a reputable reporter is a smokescreen, then I couldn’t agree with you more—the CU is at fault.
Trey:
Nice to meet you via Own Your Brand. A couple of useful resources for crisis communications (alas, I’ve had to use my training twice in my career):
1. Jonathan Bernstein Editor, Crisis Manager President, Bernstein Crisis Management LLC www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com 626-825-3838
Jonathan’s newsletter is informative and useful. I’m sure his site holds a lot more information that you could use.
As for preparedness: a must!
2. Karen Friedman http://www.karenfriedman.com/
She’s a former news anchor and a frequent speaker at communications and PR events. I know Karen and I can tell you her nuggets of advice are quite powerful.