10 Effective Ways for PR Crisis Management

Nearly 70% of business leaders report experiencing a crisis within five years. The average number of crises these companies faced during this period was three.

Brand reputation, cybercrime, and rumors are some areas that make businesses feel most vulnerable. These are the reasons you need a PR crisis management team.

Is your business facing a PR crisis? Are you looking for best practices for managing crises when they occur?

We’ve got you covered as we discuss the most effective ways to to manage a PR crisis effectively while maintaining public trust and keeping your company’s reputation intact.

Stay on Top of Regular Reputation Management

As the saying goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of care.

Reputation management is crucial to any successful business strategy. It involves monitoring, responding to, and, when appropriate, removing customer reviews from various online sites.

These sites can include Google, Yelp, Apple Maps, and Waze. They can include local directories, industry review sites (think BrightLocal), and consumer review sites like G2 and Capterra. If you’re in e-commerce, you’ll probably also have reviews on Amazon, TikTok Shop, and more.

Engaging with reviews is vital to showing consumers your appreciation and how you handle more challenging situations, such as unhappy customers. It’s tricky since negative reviews can hurt a product’s visibility in Amazon’s search algorithm and give competitors an advantage.

For public companies, they may even affect stock prices and investor confidence. If you can resolve the issue with the customer, that would be great! If not, you must follow the platform’s policies and procedures to remove the review.

Removing unfair or invalid negative reviews helps contain potential PR crises, provides a more accurate representation of product quality, and demonstrates a commitment to customer satisfaction.

For example, removing negative reviews on Amazon is crucial for reputation management, as they directly impact brand reputation, sales, and customer trust, impacting your bottom line.

Now that we’ve gone over how best to avoid PR crises, let’s dive into how to manage them when they’re unavoidable.

10 Top Tips for PR Crisis Management

Here are some strategies and actionable tips for effective crisis management in public relations.

Develop a Detailed Crisis Management Plan

The first step in crisis management actually occurs before a crisis occurs. That step is creating a policy that details what your team should do when something goes wrong.

This includes outlining communication protocols, key messages, and contact information for internal and external stakeholders.

A good PR crisis management plan also outlines a crisis response strategy for different types of crises (e.g., product recalls, data breaches, scandals).

Another thing to consider is creating a crisis communication kit that includes essential resources and templates for different crises. You can create templates for press releases, social media posts, and internal communications that you can quickly customize during a crisis.

Assemble a kit with contact lists, media guidelines, and crisis management checklists. Regularly review and update the kit to reflect new information and lessons you’ve learned from past crises.

You can have all these protocols in place, but the plan falls flat without the proper team to carry out your strategies. So, designate a pr crisis team with clear roles and responsibilities. Include members from PR, legal, HR, and senior leadership.

Use the Right Technology

PwC’s Global Crisis and Resilience Survey reports that 75% of organizations say technology has improved coordination among their crisis response team.

So, consider leveraging technology to manage crises effectively, streamline communication, and track developments.

Use media monitoring tools to track media, social media platforms, and other channels for any signs of emerging crises. Monitor social media conversations and sentiment.

Consider partnering with web app development companies and creating a custom web app, or using a mobile app for real-time updates, information dissemination, and stakeholder engagement.

Employee scheduling apps can also help in PR crises by ensuring that the right team members are available at the right time to address the crisis.

Timely and coordinated responses are critical during a PR crisis. An employee scheduling app can help immediately mobilize the PR team and other essential staff, ensuring that everyone who needs to be involved is notified promptly.

This allows for a rapid response, which is often crucial in mitigating the effects of a PR crisis. Additionally, these apps facilitate seamless communication among team members. That way, everyone is on the same page and can collaborate efficiently.

This improves coordination and helps in delivering a unified and coherent response to the crisis. You can improve your ability to respond swiftly and effectively, minimizing potential damage and maintaining your brand’s reputation.

Act Quickly & Decisively

Take swift action to address the crisis and prevent it from escalating into a PR disaster.

Issue a timely statement acknowledging the issue. Even if you don’t have all the details, this shows that you know and take the situation seriously.

To truly understand the importance of swift action, let’s look at an example of a company that failed to do this and the consequences.

In July 2017, Equifax discovered a data breach that could have exposed millions of customers’ sensitive information.

Yet, the credit bureau waited several weeks to announce the issue publicly. This led to even more distrust of the company. It’s one thing to have a breach in the security of customer data, but it’s another to fail to alert these affected individuals immediately.

As a result, Equifax faced severe legal consequences. It ended up having to pay up to $700 million in damages for mishandling the breach.

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Maintain Professional & Effective Communication

According to a survey by Capterra, only 49% of US companies have a formal crisis communication plan. That means most businesses aren’t ready for the next crisis.

Effective crisis communication is crucial for managing public relations crises. One essential step is to ensure all communications are professional and credible.

Always use a business email for official communications to maintain professionalism and consistency. This helps establish trust and ensures that your messages are taken seriously by stakeholders, the media, and the public.

Using a personal email can undermine your credibility and lead to confusion. A business email provides a unified front, making it clear that the communication is official and trustworthy. By maintaining professional email practices, you can manage the crisis more effectively and safeguard your organization’s reputation.

You should also ensure consistency in messaging. Align all team members involved in the communication with these messages to avoid mixed signals and confusion.

Other tips for effective communication in PR crisis management include:

• Use a professional tone to maintain credibility.
• Train your team to make sure they understand the crisis management plan from beginning to end and their roles and responsibilities.
• Ensure timely responses to keep the problem from escalating, prevent misinformation from spreading, and demonstrate that your business is proactive and in control of the situation.

Develop Key Messages & Talking Points

Establish clear, consistent key messages and talking points for all communications during the crisis.

Outline and document the main points (or ideas) you want to convey, focusing on facts, empathy, and action. Create specific talking points for different scenarios, including media interviews, press conferences, and social media interactions.

Make sure all your spokespeople use the same key messages and talking points to maintain a unified response.

Implement a Social Media Crisis Strategy

When a crisis happens, chances are, your audience is on social media talking about it.

This is why using a social media monitoring tool is so important. These tools do all the heavy lifting: keep track of mentions, monitor sentiment, and manage your brand reputation.

You should also assign a team member to respond to social media comments, questions, or concerns.

In 2017, UK potato chips brand Walkers Crisps ran an online competition for Champions League tickets.

The competition involved people sharing tweets of selfies that would be featured in an AR video with English football legend Gary Lineker.

Somehow, users discovered no one was monitoring the videos they sent in. The video generator accepted any photo with a human face, so people started sending photos of notorious criminals and other offensive images. This content ended up on Walkers’ official social media accounts.

The company apologized and immediately removed the offensive content from its social media channels.

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Conduct Crisis Simulation Exercises

Prepare your team for a real crisis with regular simulation exercises.

Do this by mimicking real-world crises like data breaches or product recalls. Start the simulation with a triggering event (e.g., a breaking news story or viral social media post).  This involves creating mock news articles, TV news segments, and online news updates.

You can also leverage fake social media accounts to post updates, comments, and reactions that your crisis management team must respond to.

Introduce escalating elements, such as fake news reports, customer complaints, or stakeholder queries, to mimic real-world crisis dynamics.

Add unexpected twists or developments to challenge your crisis management team’s ability to adapt. Maybe a key spokesperson is unavailable. Or, maybe some new information has come forward.

Assess how well your team handles the simulations and identify areas for improvement. Use the insights you gained to refine your crisis management plans and procedures.

Be Transparent & Honest

When it comes to hotels and hospitality, first impressions matter. According to a Cloudbeds report on current trends affecting the travel industry, a well-known crisis situation was when Airbnb was attacked for false advertising.

They boasted of offering low prices, but customers paid more than expected as extra fees were added to the final price, making the pre-stay experience quite unpleasant. To improve the hospitality customer experience, the company opted for transparency by showing the total price with fees included from the beginning.

Show Empathy & Understanding

Brands tend to respond to a crisis in ways that protect their best interests. Even though this is what you should always do, never forget about the emotional impact the crisis has on customers, employees, and other stakeholders.

Consider this example. Your company is in the food and beverage industry. And you just discovered that one of your products is contaminated.

Here’s an example of a statement you issue that solely focuses on the consequences of the recall on your business:

“We have recently discovered a potential issue with [product name[ and are initiating a voluntary recall as a precautionary measure. Our top priority is ensuring the safety of our customers and compliance with all regulatory requirements…”

At first glance, it doesn’t seem like there’s anything wrong with this response. It demonstrates compliance and control, proactivity, reassures customers about safety measures and minimizes legal exposure. These could all lead to positive outcomes for your company. But “company” is the keyword here. While customers are a consideration, they’re not the primary focus.

For a more customer-centric approach that directly addresses customer concerns and shows empathy, you could say something like this:

“We have recently discovered a potential issue with [product name[ and are initiating a voluntary recall as a precautionary measure. We understand how this may be concerning or cause an inconvenience for you, and we sincerely apologize for any disruption to your daily life…

Then, you can provide clear, actionable steps to demonstrate that you’re putting their needs and concerns first and foremost.

For example, you could direct them to your website or encourage them to contact you for detailed instructions on returning the product and getting a replacement or refund.

Develop Post-Crisis Rebuilding Strategies

After the immediate crisis is over, plan for long-term recovery and rebuilding efforts. That means, before breathing a sigh of relief and saying, “Crisis averted,” you develop strategies to restore your brand reputation and rebuild stakeholder trust.

Volkswagen did this after the Dieselgate scandal. In September 2015, the EPA discovered that many Volkswagen cars in America used a “defeat device” in diesel engines that could detect when they were undergoing testing.

Then, they would “trick” the test by changing their performance to make it seem like they were passing emissions.

Volkswagen admitted to “screwing up” and breaking the trust of their customers and the public. To show their commitment to winning back the trust of the VW Group, the German car manufacturer recalled millions of cars worldwide after the scandal.

It also offered affected customers a $500 loyalty card, a $500 Volkswagen Dealership Card, and free 24-hour roadside assistance for three years.

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These actions garnered some pretty positive sentiment across the web. Many people commended the company and agreed it made the right move by admitting its mistake.

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But the brand didn’t stop there to rebuild its reputation. VW focused on long-term strategies, including investing in electric vehicles (EVs) and committing to new environmental standards.

An Example of Successful PR Crisis Management: The Tide Pod Challenge (2018)

Any time someone uses a product in a way that’s not intended, the company needs to respond. Or, it could reflect negatively on the brand.

Procter & Gamble, the maker of Tide Pods, didn’t take any chances with this when teenagers started biting into the Tide Pods laundry detergent packets as part of a social media challenge.

The “Tide Pod Challenge” went viral on social platforms, garnering a huge number of engagements. However, this publicity was bad for P&G.

Consuming Tide Pods poses significant health risks, including poisoning and chemical burns. So, if someone suffers severe health consequences from consuming the product, P&G could be liable.

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To keep the situation from escalating and prevent any legal consequences, P&G launched a public awareness campaign to educate and inform people about the dangers of ingesting laundry detergent.

It even responded to comments on social media to apologize, explain how to use the product safely, and what people should do if they ingest the detergent.

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Be Ready for the Next Crisis

What are the key pillars of successful public relations crisis management?

1. Proactive communication
2. Transparency
3. Empathy
4. A focus on the customer
5. A commitment to “make things right” to keep the disaster from happening again
6. Invest in a media monitoring tool like Mention to get ahead of crises before they get worse

Don’t be an Experian. Be like Procter & Gamble and tackle any public relations issues even before you notice negative sentiment. This will show your target audience that you’re in control, proactive, and dedicated to maintaining their trust.

To prevent crises from happening, monitor your brand with Mention!