Peace and calm has now been restored to our household. But for a while there it was touch and go. My teenage daughter’s phone was out of action due to the O2 network having crashed earlier in the week.
The ramifications of a technical failure by one of these global network providers is massive and surely demands a rigorous crisis strategy to swing into place should such an event occur. But no – a small statement from O2 outlining the problem with a very flimsy attempt at an apology was dished out on Wednesday.
Not good enough is the cry from a sizeable number of their 23 million customers. Yet another example of a commercial giant that rules our universe yet fails to react quickly enough with the right kind of response. It does what happens so often in these situations - the company statement is rolled out with all sorts of dull, corporate language which means nothing to you or I.
So a few helpful tips to avoid this kind of PR disaster. Always demonstrate concern, care and compassion in your press statements. Here at Media First we like to call theses the three C’s of crisis management.
Empathise with your customer that you understand the nightmare that this is causing them. Show that you are really doing the very best you can to fix the situation. It takes no time at all for the tweets and blogs to start whizzing round the airwaves with negative comments. You have a very short window to get the right message across and retake control. Having a spokesperson that can come out and put a personal stamp on this corporate problem is also very important. If they have been media trained then they will understand why it is so good to agree to doing interviews rather than hiding behind the boardroom table!
If you need help with your crisis communications strategy the Media First team would be delighted to hear from you. Get in touch here.