Welcome to a CIM talk

“Managing Reputation in a

crisis”

With Nicky Rudd and Ann Wright

Date

9.30am – 1pm

A reputation once broken may possibly be repaired, but the world will always keep their eyes on the spot where the crack was.” Joseph Hall

What is a crisis?

• How can it escalate?

• What are the implications of not dealing with it?

• How fast should it be dealt with?

Task 1: RHS Wisley

• Estimated 20,000 people walk through the door on an average day

• Facilities: 3 x cafes, 1 x shop and a plant centre

• Each assign yourself a role:• CEO• Head of comms• Head of customer service• Head of production• Head of health and safety• Additional roles: volunteer, social media manager,

student intern press officer, receptionist/switchboard

What kind of things might go wrong? Discuss

• Assess all potential emergencies

• Prioritise these in terms of likelihood and impact on your business

• Develop an action plan to deal with the most likely and the most damaging crises

• Decide who has responsibility for what role

• Develop key messages for use in specific/generic emergencies

• Establish your key audiences

What is a Crisis Audit (part 1)?

• Prepare senior management and key spokespeople to handle aggressive media interviews

• Share your crisis strategy with all staff in a crisis comms manual

• Ensure you have readily accessible contact details

• Ensure you have access to extra phone-lines

• Have a social media policy

What is a Crisis Audit (part 2)

Task 2: Wisley goes sick

RHS Wisley is holding a high profile Halloween Extravaganza Event, with children’s spooky trails & sleepovers, a Witches’ Brew BBQ and fireworks.

• 20,000 tickets have been sold

• The night before, there is an outbreak of Norovirus.

• 10 of the 12 restaurant staff, including the head chef, plus 3 key members of the event planning team, all call in sick

You have 5 minutes to discuss your strategy

Task 2: What is your crisis strategy?

• What would you do?

• Who do you need to inform?

• What is your holding pattern?

• Would you put people forward for interviews?

• Who would you put forward?

• What do they need to say?

• Consider the pros and cons of different communication channels

Key considerations:

Think about your different audiences

• Who needs to know what?

• How will you monitor events?

• How will you keep them updated and how often?

• Which communications channels will you use?

• Think about timings

The wife of a member of staff is saying on Facebook that cleanliness in the Wisley kitchens is an issue

• How do you respond?

Task 3: Managing a crisis on social media

Going viral

• Speed of information

• You can’t control the message as you would in a traditional comms situation

• Who is monitoring?

• How are you monitoring

• How do you remain neutral and in the conversation without entering into a slanging match?

Task 4: It hits the nationals

The Daily Mail follows up with this story and goes to print the next day.

Following an outbreak of Norovirus among staff at RHS Wisley, pictures of dozens of cockroaches in the kitchens of the restaurant have emerged.

Staff told the Daily Mail there have been four previous outbreaks of Norovirus in the past two years, but the management have hushed them up.

A spokesperson for the RHS told us: “We are very concerned the our staff are sick, but are confident we will be able to go ahead with our Halloween Extravanganza.”

Task 4: What do you do?

When dealing with the media consider:

1. How does a journalist think?

2. What do they want during a crisis?

3. How should you react?

4. What are your key messages – are they clear?

5. Have someone senior & trained

available to speak to the media

6. How to deal with interviews

7. CAC – Care, Action, Context

Task 5: Interviews

Radio 5 Live want an interview about the incident

1. What will you say?

2. Who will say it?

• Recap

• What are the key things you have learnt this morning?

Takeaways & learnings

Top 6 dos and don’ts

1. Don’t wait for a disaster to happen – have a crisis strategy in place

2. Know overarching key messages in advance

3. React quickly, factually, pro-actively & frequently

4. Chose spokespeople in advance & get them trained

5. Never relax!

6. Preparation, preparation, preparation

Questions and Feedback

We would be grateful if you could complete our feedback forms so we can keep improving too!

Contacts:

Ann WrightRough House MediaTel. 020 8332 6200ann.wright@roughhouse.co.uk@roughhouse01

 

Nicky RuddPadua CommunicationsTel. 01483 339311nicky@paduacommunications.com@nickyrudd01