JCH Enterprises - Community/Media Relations

QUICK TIPS FOR "KEEPING COOL"
A monthly e-zine on crisis management
brought to you by Judy Hoffman

Quote of the month: "The more difficult the obstacle, the stronger one becomes after hurdling it."

From "Apples of Gold" Compiled by Jo Petty

"TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE -- TOO BAD"

The Bad News Story

I read an article on CNN.com a few weeks ago that really bothered me. Here's how it went -- in this order.

A headline stated that 23 people were sent to the local hospital after an industrial accident (specifically a chemical release) occurred in Delaware.
A State Police spokesperson reported what the chemical was and related its dangers.
A local resident commented on what the release looked like and how it made her feel.
A representative of the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control provided the apparent cause of the leak and indicated that residents within a 5-mile radius of the facility had been advised to "shelter-in-place" (closing doors/windows/shutting down air conditioning systems). This person also reported, "I've been told it has stopped leaking, but it's not capped. It's not safe at this point."
The Delaware Department of Transportation person told which roads had been closed and reported the effect on the traffic.
The reporter inserted that she had found 23 people had been taken to the hospital complaining of headaches and nausea and that 21 had been released.
The Site Manager for the facility (whose name was given) told the reporter that the company would not make a statement until the next day.
The reporter researched more about the chemical involved on the EPA web site and again reported on the health effects.

What's Wrong with this News Story?

It was factual -- not sensationalistic. People were given most of the information that they would want to know if they were not immediately involved in the incident. If they didn't smell it or get the headache/nausea that comes from being exposed to a large concentration of this chemical, they probably went on with their lives unaffected for the moment. (NOTE: This does not mean, however, that they wouldn't come back to ask the company some very tough questions later on!)

But who was giving out all of this information? Not the company. They were so far out of the picture that their representative didn't even get mentioned until #7. Even then it was to say something only slightly better than the dreaded "no comment" which probably caused the readers to have a very negative reaction.

If all the other people mentioned earlier in the article had this information, surely the company did too. How much more responsible and responsive it would have appeared for the company to be the one making an initial statement! They could have told what had happened and what was being done about it, reported that the leak had been stopped and advised residents to maintain the "shelter-in-place" directions until notifed otherwise by the appropriate authorities. Additonally, they should have apologized for the incident, thanked the local emergency responders and environmental officials for their assistance, and committed to find out what had happened that caused this unusual occurrence so that corrective measures could be taken.

First Impressions

I can well imagine what happened in the meeting of the Crisis Management Team when they were discussing what to say to the reporter. "We don't have all the facts yet, so we shouldn't say anything." "It's late at night and we can't get the lawyers to approve a statement now, so we better wait until tomorrow." "We're too busy taking care of the leak to worry about how to word a statement to the press." "Our P.R. expert/media spokesperon isn't here on the off-hours; she can deal with this in the morning." Remember that old saying, "You never get a second chance to make a first impression?" This is VERY true in the world of media training. Even if the company came out the next day with a full and complete statement with all of the details and explanations of what happened, compliments to the responding parties, and apologies to the residents who were affected or inconvenienced, their poor showing immediately after the incident will stick in people's memories. This negative impression may well come back to haunt them later.

Improving YOUR Response

Organizations are usually not judged harshly because they have an incident. They ARE judged harshly if they do not respond to it properly. Even if this company did all of the right things operationally to address the incident, their communications were not as good as they should have been. I hope you will do better when it's you and your organization on the firing line! There isn't room here to go into all that you should do in detail. But to hit the high points, you should:

Expect that certain things can happen in your type of business and prepare a plan of how you would respond to each of the most likely ones. Consider carefully what you would need to say to the public through the media.
Compose a template of a response that covers the topics listed above. Tell (a) what happened (b) when it took place (c) what the public should do -- if anything (d) what you are doing to deal with the incident (e) who is helping you. Then (f) apologize and (g) announce when and how more information will be available (give an 800 number to call, etc.) (If you have my book, see the Appendix on page 223 for a sample generic stand-by statement where you can fill in the blanks.)
Get the generic statement cleared by your legal advisors -- they can help you word things carefully. Just don't let them tell you to say, "No comment."
Keep it in a handy place (both at home and in the office) where you can grab it quickly, fill in the blanks after talking to the people on the scene, and get it to your designated spokesperson to deliver -- either proactively or when called upon by the media.

If you do all these things ahead of time, you will be in a much better position to respond quickly and accurately and make a better first impression both for yourself personally and for your organization.

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Special Note: Whew! It is almost over...Now I know why the list of life's most stressful circumstances places moving your place of residence at the top of the list! Especially when you are moving out of a house you've been in for 28 years and are moving your home office at the same time! These are the reasons why the August e-zine didn't get published. But things are slowly returning to some semblance of order.

Here is my new contact information:

Phone: 1-800-848-3907 PIN 2145 or (919) 550-8302
Fax: (919) 550-8344
E-mail: jchent@earthlink.net
Web site: www.judyhoffman.com

'Til next month...KEEP COOL!

Copyright (C) 2006 JCH Enterprises

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