Years to build a good business reputation, minutes to lose it

25 November 2024

Picture the scene. You’ve worked incredibly hard to start a business, coming up with the idea, putting in the graft, working long hours, and invested lots of money. It’s taken you years to build a good reputation but uh oh, suddenly an unexpected bump in the road happens, and in a matter of minutes all that goodwill and good business reputation you have built up disappears.

Firstly, give yourself a little bit of slack, as all businesses will experience issues and crises, so it’s not just you. An issue or crisis can range from a customer complaint uploaded to a social media channel that gets traction and may even go viral, to a disgruntled employee who leaks information to the media, or a weather-related disaster that is out of your control but affects the day-to-day running of your business. How you deal and navigate these tricky times affects how well your business reputation stays intact.

That’s where a robust issues and crisis plan comes in. PR can act as a protector of business, brand, and charity reputations and we like to call ourselves undercover firefighters – preventing an issue that starts to spark from becoming an uncontrollable fire and crisis.

Here are three key points all businesses, brands, and charities should adhere to:

  1. Preparation, preparation, preparation

Of course, there are times when an issue or crisis happens that is so unexpected that you don’t quite know how to respond or have a robust plan in place. However, there will be some scenarios that are more likely to come up where you can prepare in advance. Think about what issues could affect you and your business and pull together a plan and some communications messaging in advance. All businesses should have resilience and business continuity plans in place so make sure PR and comms is given a chapter.

  1. Make sure you communicate to all your stakeholders

Every business has a different set of stakeholders but make sure when an issue or crisis hits you are communicating to all those that affect and rely on you. This can range from your staff, customers, investors, suppliers, media, and the local community you operate from.

  1. Communicate effectively 

Make sure you remember to follow these principles:

  • Concern – Express concern regarding what has happened and apologise if needed. Remember people first, property and profit second.
  • Control – Demonstrate that senior management is engaged in managing the situation and is investigating the facts.
  • Commitment – Promise commitment by helping those affected, cooperating fully with the relevant authorities, establishing the cause, and acting to prevent a recurrence.
  • Communicate transparently and quickly – Speed is essential with the first hour critical.

To learn more about the issues and crisis training and support we provide businesses, brands and charities then get in touch.