How can you rebuild trust after a crisis?

Something bad has happened.

Your organisation is in crisis media management mode and has been making headlines and trending on social media.

How can you convince your customers to trust you again?

Trust can take years to build and can be lost in a day if a crisis is poorly handled.

And rebuilding it is an often-overlooked part of crisis communication. But customers are not always forgiving.

And that’s why it was the focus of a masterclass for members of The Media Team Academy.

Sean Ryan, a communications expert and former Sunday Times journalist, led the session.

And he began by exploring the value of trust with a quote from Erin Meyer, from INSEAD, a leading business school in France.

She said: “You can’t buy it, you can’t sell it, you can’t even see it.

“But if you have more of it, your employees would work harder for you, and your customers would stay with you longer.

“Trust is one of the most valuable intangible assets that a company can have.”

 

So, how can you rebuild it?

“You have to take control to rebuild trust,” Sean said. “The worst thing you can do is to be passive and defensive.

“You have to acknowledge there is a problem and take responsibility for it. You have to apologise and show you mean it.

“You need to commit to credible change – don’t just say ‘safety is now our top priority’, show the mechanics of what you are doing to improve it.

“And keep generating positive stories so your coverage is not dominated by what has gone wrong.

“If you can do these things, your brand will stand a better chance of recovering.”

Let’s look at this in more detail.

Sean identified Facebook as a company that has struggled to rebuild trust following crises.

He said: “During the 2016 election battle between Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton, a lot of fake news was circulating on Facebook, most notably the claim the Pope had endorsed Trump, which got a million reactions and is still believed by some people.

“When Mark Zuckerberg was asked about this after Trump’s surprising victory, he said, “the idea that fake news on Facebook, which is a very small amount of the content, influenced the election in any way, is, I think, a pretty crazy idea”.

“In other words, he dismissed it.

“Now fast forward to the past couple of weeks where Facebook has been at the centre of the inquest into the death of Molly Russell, a 14-year-old girl who tragically took her own life after reading thousands of pieces about self-harm and suicide on Instagram – owned by Facebook – and Pinterest.

“The coroner summoned someone from Meta – the new name for Facebook – to appear before him. Elizabeth Lagone appeared, rather against her will, and started in a defensive position. She said the information Molly had seen on Instagram was safe for children and was, by and large, within the permitted regulations of Instagram, with perhaps two exceptions.

“And this position caused outcry, some aggressive questions from the QC cross-examining on behalf of the family and criticism in the press.

Instagram ‘wellbeing’ chief insists posts viewed by Molly Russell before death were 'safe' LBC

Meta defends 'safe' Instagram posts seen by Molly Russell Sky News

“So, the next day, she grudgingly apologised. Having started by saying we don’t allow content that encourages self-harm, she said she was sorry Molly had seen any material that wasn’t complying with Instagram regulations.”

Facebook’s response lacked compassion, empathy and accountability. Compare it to how Pinterest has responded to similar crises.

Sean said: “Pinterest had a similar problem to Facebook with misinformation when the covid pandemic began. It was being used by the anti-vaxxers to spread misinformation about the dangers of vaccines.

“It decided to take immediate action, blocking searches for the word ‘vaccination’, so people could not get through to the anti-vaxxer propaganda.

“And it referred searches for ‘covid’ to the websites and Pinterest boards of global health organisations, such as the World Health Organisation. It saw there was a problem and quickly fixed it, and it has been given a lot of credit for that.”

Pinterest was also involved in the Molly Russell case because some of her exposure to self-harm content happened on its site.

“Pinterest sent Jud Hoffman to the inquest, and he took a different view and struck a different tone to the Meta representative,” Sean said.

“He said he deeply regretted Molly was able to access some of this material. He said he wouldn’t have wanted his children to see it, which added a human dimension and added a degree of sincerity.

“We wait and see what Pinterest will do to take this material off its site, but we know already it has taken firm and decisive action on misinformation.”

So, what can we learn from this?

Sean said: “What you can draw from this in terms of rebuilding trust is that you have to acknowledge the problem and accept accountability.

“You have to apologise in a way that resonates with the audience you are targeting.

“And you have to fix the problem and stop it from happening again.”

 

Short and long-term fixes

Sean believes there can be short and long-term fixes for rebuilding trust.

“You may remember the amazing Academy Awards of 2017 when the Best Picture award was given to the wrong film,” he said.

“This mistake lay with PWC, one of the big four accountants, who were responsible for the envelopes backstage.

“It issued a classy statement almost immediately.”

That statement said: “We sincerely apologise to Moonlight, La La Land, Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, and Oscar viewers for the error.

“The presenters had mistakenly been given the wrong category envelope and when it was discovered, it was immediately corrected.

“We are currently investigating how this happened and deeply regret that it occurred. We appreciate the grace with which the nominees and Academy handled the situation.”

PWC’s investigation revealed the person who handed the wrong envelope to the presenters was on his phone at the time. And that no one noticed the mistake until a minute or two after the celebrations began.

Sean said: “What PWC decided to do was to ban its employees from using phones backstage and to make them memorise the winners of every Academy Award so that if there was a mistake again, it would be immediately realised and corrected faster.

“It acted quickly to restore trust and it has retained the trust of the Academy, presiding over the envelopes for the 2018 Oscars.

“So, that was a pretty impressive recovery on their part.”

But another brand recovery took much longer. You may remember the crisis at Alton Towners where 16 people were injured on a rollercoaster in 2015. The company was fined £5m a year later for breaking health and safety regulations.

Its CEO Nick Varney said “a far bigger punishment for all of us is the knowledge that on this occasion, we let people down with such devastating consequences.”

Despite that excellent crisis media management response, problems continued.

“Every time a car stopped on an Alton Towers ride, someone would take a video and sell it to The Sun,” Sean said.

“So, there was a need for Merlin to rebut false allegations quickly and point out that the cars are designed to stop if a sensor is triggered – that is a safety feature of the rides.

“When it is checked out and deemed safe, the ride can continue."

Again, to their credit Merlin reacted quickly and decisively.

Sean said: “They decided to set up a website called Backstage which included stories about how they have improved various safety features.

“And they trained their staff at all the attractions they run around the country to respond and quickly rebut false stories appearing online.” 

Following media stories reporting the routine stoppage of Oblivion, here is Operations Director Francis Jackson to explain what happened. pic.twitter.com/U0Uo48RF3q

— Alton Towers Resort (@altontowers) July 25, 2017