How not to get caught out in a crisis

COMMENT In the past few weeks two property companies have gone viral for all the wrong reasons. Savills and Landsec are both facing potential reputational damage and fallout from two incidents that spread across social media and required swift investigation and senior-level responses. What would you do if your company went viral for all the wrong reasons? Do you have the right policies, crisis communications plans, people and tools in place to enable you to take the right action at the right time? Or do you still think a communications crisis is something that happens to someone else? Having worked for many leading property and construction firms as an integral part of their crisis communications response teams, some of the things I have seen first-hand include: Employees in company-branded hi-vis filming site “banter” and pranks that were shared with friends, passed on and then went viral. If you have ever had to stand alongside your group board as the viewing counter on a viral film goes up and up by thousands in minutes – it’s not great. Employees going “rogue” and approaching the media. Security breaches happening in real-time on social media. Incidents at Christmas parties spilling over to the press. These events have led to me having to conduct investigations, seek legal counsel, manage statements and wider communications, as well as provide evidence that has sadly led to the eventual dismissal of employees. There are so many things that can go viral and/or go against company policy. And if there’s one thing the past few weeks has clearly shown, it is that a communications crisis can quickly escalate, and not only cause major reputational damage, but result in clients jumping ship if your investigation or response is deemed inadequate. All property companies should be prepared for the unexpected. Here are some things you can do now so you are prepared should a crisis occur in the future: Make sure you have an up-to-date crisis communications plan. It should be actively managed and given the same level of attention as you put towards other risks in your business. Be prepared to react out of hours – a crisis can happen at any time. Include your HR director and legal representation as part of your 24/7 emergency team. Seek external counsel if you don’t have the skills in-house. Define your communications approval process as this will govern who is authorised to share information internally and externally. Identify your key spokespeople and make sure they are fully media-trained. Have clear roles and responsibilities. All employees should know who to contact in an emergency and who should be notified from a communications standpoint. Make sure your customer experience and account teams are fully briefed. They should be integrated into the communications process and have consistent but tailored messaging that reaches your customers. You don’t want your customers hearing first of the incident on social media or the news. Be honest and focus on what you are doing to resolve the issue and protect their reputations over and above your own. Don’t leave social media as an afterthought. Have a robust social media policy and ensure all employees are aware of its existence and understand what is expected of them. A good rule of thumb to start from is to be professional and not say anything online that you wouldn’t say in-person. Pause all scheduled social media posts and/or ads. You need time to carry out your investigations and prepare your response. Your social media policy should be part of your company-wide policies and shared with all new starters as part of your onboarding process. Have clear internal communications processes as part of the overall communications plan. Ensure your employees are on-message as they are the ambassadors and face of your brand. Make sure you have social listening in place so you are one of the first to find out as soon as the crisis starts. Post-event, take time to reflect and feedback on how things went after a crisis. It is too easy to close the door and try to forget about it. But it’s better to hold a review so you can improve your plans for next time. Consider running an annual crisis communications test incident. This will show you how things are likely to work and if there are any areas where your plan needs strengthening. The past 18 months have shown that the unexpected can happen. All companies, as part of their overall business continuity and risk management, should have a robust crisis communications plan and protocol in place to weather any storm. As the old saying goes: “If you fail to prepare, prepare to fail.”   Ayo Abbas is a marketing communications consultant at Abbas Marketing