As much as your business strives to be trustworthy, there might still be instances where you need to carry out PR damage control. This could come from laying off employees, or following a misjudged press release or social media post. In a time where anyone can post their opinions about anything, you can quickly find yourself caught up in a firestorm that is difficult to recover from. No matter the disaster, it is imperative that you know how to enact crucial damage control, and here are four tips to make that possible.
Reaffirm Your Business Values
Terrible PR can have a severely detrimental effect on your business, so you need to act fast to reaffirm your personal brand values to stop things from getting worse. While your existing customers may be okay with what has happened, it is those who are not familiar with your brand that can cause problems. By highlighting your values immediately, you can clear up any misconceptions and cut down on misinformation that could spiral out of control.
Own Up To Any Mistakes
Companies that try to sweep issues under the rug often put themselves in an even worse position. Customers are intelligent, and they know when a business is attempting to deceive them. This can affect your reputation score and make it impossible to recover. The result could be irreparable damage to your reputation, which means you will fail to get new customers, which will significantly impact your growth potential. A public statement, whether on social media or a press release (ideally both), will set the record straight and show that you understand frustrations, which could return some of the goodwill you may have lost.
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Reassure Your Customers
Reassuring your customers is another issue that you mustn’t ignore. These are the people that have helped your company achieve everything it has so far, so it doesn’t matter if it is a faulty product or a data breach, you must let them know that you are working on the problem and will solve it as soon as possible. This is especially important for e-commerce companies, as you do not have the face-to-face relationship that brick-and-mortar stores benefit from. The faster you reassure your customers, the easier it will be to ride out the storm until you solve the problem.
Work With a Consultant
Small businesses are unlikely to cope with severe damage control alone, particularly if they have never faced something like this before. There is no danger in asking for help from professional PR consultants who know how to best repair your image and rebuild your reputation. Their experience will help avoid further problems. They can also take the stress out of dealing with everything yourself, enabling you to focus on other aspects that demand your full attention.
Controlled
Hopefully, you never need to deal with severe damage control, but should that time come, these tips will enable you and your employees to set things right. Doing so will stop your reputation from plummeting and will keep customers, stockholders, and investors happy.
Photo by Hassan OUAJBIR