How to Deal With a PR Crisis Much Better Than Equifax
The Equifax data breach , which has hacked 143 million accounts and could have long-term consequences for consumers, was historic in scope and potential damage. But it’s also notable for how extremely poorly the company, at least in terms of public relations, handled the aftermath.
At a glance, the company had at least a month to prepare, offered an anemia cure in the form of one free year of credit monitoring – but only if you waive your right to file a claim – and waived the freeze and unfreeze fees. … and then the deadline for accepting even these rather pathetic remedies was constantly changing. There was no lead person, no hotline, and no readily available information on how to assess if someone had suffered a break-in. EIC Lifehacker had to resort to Twitter to get the company’s attention. News broke yesterday that Equifax has been directing customers to a fake phishing site for almost two weeks now .
“It was a worst-case model imaginable,” says Davia Temin, president and CEO of Temin and Company , a crisis and reputation management firm .
If you are running a business, crises are inevitable. How you deal with them will determine whether you remain relatively unscathed, lose clients, or even stop working altogether. I spoke with a couple of experts in the field about how they could better handle the Equifax hack.
1. Consider the point of view of the victims
“The reaction Equifax was overdue, messy, left consumers in the dark and did not have empathy,” says Ben Labolt, who treated TRATEGIC communication and crisis management for individuals and companies, such as Barack Obama and Fortune 500 executives, and is a partner at Bully Pulpit Interactive , by email.
Temin echoes the theme of empathy: “You have to think about the victims and let that guide you. I hope you have a good crisis manager because the crisis manager also represents the voice of the victims. “
2. Apologize
Temin points out that the allotment of time before the announcement is not necessarily terrible, and law enforcement may even require it. “Before you edit the answer, you better put your ducks in a row. Make a plan for what you are going to offer. I don’t find it unwise to waste a month, but [Equifax ]’s reaction has been cool and emotionally disconnected all this time. Are we disappointed ? No, you’re “very, very sorry.” They did it about them, not about the people they hurt. It was not an apology. “
3. Make a plan for remediation
Your planning should include a concrete plan to remedy the situation. “Give them real help,” Temin says. It seems likely that no one from the public relations department or Equifax crisis management read the fine print of the deal they were proposing. I ask Temin: “If they hired you, would you read every word of the contract to anticipate problems?” “Are you kidding me?” she answers. “Of course I would.”
Ben LaBolt also notes that the company’s plan and communication were extremely weak: “Equifax should have taken immediate steps to determine the scale and scope of the crisis, communicate it to regulators and consumers, and then provide consumers with understandable information. contacting the online hub “. In other words, no one has to tweet you to tell you what’s going on.
4. Learn from past disasters
LaBolte notes that we can learn from companies that have dealt with similar crises in the past. “Many companies, from Target to Sony, are not good at dealing with data breaches. But Anthem is a good example of a company that delivered information to customers ahead of time and on their own terms, while creating a one-stop online hub with full information about the steps consumers can take to protect themselves. ” A good crisis manager will assess what comparable companies did wrong and did the right thing in similar circumstances. If you don’t have one, start doing your own research.
5. Prepare better for the next time
Crises are inevitable, and in some industries even crises are predictable – for example, sometimes plane crashes. Data hacking falls into the “predictable” category. “In 2017, all companies must be prepared for a data breach, especially companies like Equifax that keep sensitive consumer data close at hand. This means building a crisis team and developing a plan long before the onset of the crisis. “
As the New York Times recently reported , there is such a thing as a “PR fire drill”: the newspaper hired a simulated crisis firm to create a simulated disaster, complemented by a social media frenzy, a barrage of phone calls from the media, and a hacker threatening to infect them with a virus. …
Both Labolte and Temin emphasized that sincere compassion and humanity are the keys to surviving a mistake of this magnitude: Temin said, “If you are sincere, people will weaken you a little.”