How to do 315 crisis public relations?

Tomorrow, CCTV’s annual “selecting troops and generals” game - “315 Gala” is about to kick off.

The "315 Gala" is an event that tests a company's public relations capabilities, and is also a "tribulation day" for advertising and public relations dogs. That night, some were happy while others were sad. Some were happily beating drums and gongs, having fun all night long; others were cursing their parents, doubting their lives, and unable to sleep all night.

Facing 315, facing the crisis public relations that may be caused by being on the list, or the public opinion crisis that may arise in daily operations , there are already various analyses and methodological guidance on the Internet, but they are generally theoretical and difficult to understand.

Today, Master Su will use the story of "Erzhuzi selling watermelons" to tell you about the 315 crisis public relations .

Erzhuzi’s watermelon is on “315”!

One morning, a notice board at the entrance of the vegetable market read in large letters "Severe criticism of Erzhuzi watermelon" , which attracted a crowd of onlookers and a public opinion crisis was imminent.

When Erzhuzi saw this, he became anxious and sweat broke out on his neck. Don’t be in a hurry. Before taking action, you need to understand why you are on the list.

• If it is because of inferior products, such as watermelons injected with hormones, which are harmful to human health, then don't do any crisis public relations, arresting them is the best solution;
• If it is an isolated incident, such as being in a bad mood with your wife for a few days, having a bad service attitude towards customers, or some watermelons are not sweet or have worms... as long as it does not involve issues of principle, it can be saved.

What are principles? Watermelon is not injected with hormones and is healthy and delicious. The product complies with national standards and the promotion is consistent with your product. This is the bottom line of the principle.

Don’t think about anything else, first thing: apologize!

Before I apologize, let me first talk about the speed of response. There is a famous rule in the public relations industry called the "Golden 24 Hours" rule , which states that after a crisis breaks out, it is necessary to respond and suppress it within the most precious 24 hours to prevent public opinion from fermenting and getting out of control.

Because the longer the time is, the more secondary and multiple transmissions will be generated. The information-hungry audience is crying out for food, urgently needing explosive news to fill their impoverished lives, and the public's ability to spread misinformation has never disappointed anyone. Today they say that watermelon was injected with hormones, and tomorrow they dare to say that Erzhuzi was cheated on by his wife... Things that could have been explained in one sentence become increasingly unclear as time goes on.

Of course, this was a statement made in the cable TV era. In the mobile Internet era, people can no longer wait for 24 hours, so the industry has come up with the "golden 4 hours" rule.

Ok, no matter the response is fast or slow, the first thing to do is not to explain, but to apologize! Apologize! Apologize!

You must admit your mistakes without hesitation. If it is your own fault, you must make it clear that you will investigate it thoroughly and punish severely. If it is not your own fault, you must also first declare that you are sorry for the negative impact on society.

Because, ultimately, crisis PR is essentially about managing public emotions . Negative news is not a crisis. A crisis is public anger at you for doing something wrong. This anger is emotional and not necessarily based on facts.

Just like when you are with your girlfriend, when conflicts arise, she will first assume that you have made a mistake, and she will have the mentality of whipping you on the butt, wanting to press your neck and make you admit your mistake. Do you want to explain? No, don't explain. No matter whose mistake it is, admit it first.

Because you have to let her see your attitude first. If you forcefully explain the truth to your girlfriend and reason with her and gain the upper hand, she will yell back: "How dare you yell at me! Don't you love me anymore!" This sentence turns the tables and directly rises to the level of political direction. Even though it was her fault, your life will be difficult in the future.

The event is not important. People's emotional attention to the event exceeds the truth itself. There is a fashionable concept nowadays called "truth decay" . When you are with your girlfriend, feel her well.

So after Erzhuzi saw the announcement, the first thing he had to do was to apologize to the uncles and aunts who were buying vegetables on the spot, and then take the next action based on the content of the announcement.

After apologizing, what should I do next?

We assume that the content of the announcement is "Erzhuzi sells watermelons with less weight" and develop a response plan based on this.

First of all, the apology should be sincere, without any trace of luck, dissatisfaction, or pretending to be ignorant or indifferent. Any small flaw of yours will be magnified ten thousand times in public.

After that, the following series of actions should be performed:

1. Find out the cause and call the emergency plan

A professional public relations team will prepare corresponding emergency plans before an incident occurs in case of emergency. For example, in the case of "shortage of weight", the solutions that can be prepared are:

• Temporary workers (you can see this often);
• The scale is broken and has been inaccurate for a long time;
• I was careless for a moment and made a mistake;

In addition, corresponding plans should also be prepared for other possible problems.

2. Clarify the communication object and expand it from multiple aspects

When a public opinion crisis occurs, it faces not only the public, but also company internal personnel, government, industry associations, media, and other social organizations.

When facing different groups, the focus of communication is also different:

• Internally, we need to motivate employees, rectify management, and shout slogans; (In the future, look carefully at the scale! We must provide services with both quality and quantity! If we can give five taels more, we must never give less than half a catty!)
• We must make clear our social responsibilities to the government and how we will shoulder these responsibilities; (Village head, everyone in our village knows how good I am! I am the most honest person in the village, and my watermelons are big and sweet without hormones, just to boost our village's economy!)
• We should tell the industry associations to strengthen self-management and improve the industry standards; (We are all vegetable and fruit sellers, we should all be more conscious and serve the neighbors well, and don’t let people look down on us vegetable sellers!)
• I have to admit my mistakes to the media, and everyone is welcome to supervise me; (Second uncle, I was wrong! I didn’t know it was broken at the time, so I will send you a new one tomorrow, free of charge. If something like this happens again in the future, please tell me so that I won’t make the same mistake again!)

Next time something like this happens, check to see if it is the same.

3. Unify external statements

There may be many real reasons for the incident, but they must be unified when communicated to the outside world. This requires that the company itself, from the manager and chairman to the store clerks and dealers, all use the same rhetoric.

Avoid people saying "the scale was broken", "it's a temporary worker", or "his wife went to get her hair done and Erzhuzi was anxious and made a mistake"... For corresponding examples, you can search "Why is the CEO of Bawang Anti-Hair Loss Treatment suffering from baldness?" to see what the boss, e-commerce customer service, and media responses say.

The inconsistency in the statements given gives the public the impression that the company’s internal management is chaotic and has many problems. Therefore, it is very important to have a unified caliber (marked in red and bold).

4. Maintain the media

Let your voice be heard. The most important communication partner is the media. This goes without saying.

Find the village chief, the village party secretary, Aunt Li who likes to gossip among the neighbors, and the person in charge of the bulletin board at the vegetable market, and ask them to say good things about you. Of course, why would they say good things about you? You know the reason, this is the naked rule of market operation.

5. Provide solutions

After admitting the mistake and finding the cause, the most important thing is to provide a solution.

Don't say that you didn't expect such a thing to happen and think of yourself as a young, helpless and ignorant victim. A negative example can be seen in Bao Beier’s response after he made trouble for the bridesmaids at his wedding.

If you still want to do business, provide clear solutions to prevent it from happening again:

First, compensate the damaged consumers;

• If the scale is broken, replace it with a new one of good quality.
• Temporary workers have been dismissed, and the employment standards will be improved in the future;
• We were careless for a while, so we will strengthen management and self-supervision in the future;

Explanatory actions are also a way to show your attitude and regain consumers' confidence in you.

6. Review and summary

If this incident can be resolved smoothly, we need to think about which is the most critical factor and what we should do in normal times; if it is very difficult to handle, we need to find the important reasons and how to avoid them in normal times. I will not go into details about this.

The above is Master Su Lao’s summary of his work and thoughts on crisis public relations. I hope it will be helpful to you.

Finally, let me say a few more words. Public relations does not require you to be clever, compete with the public in wits and courage, or learn the industry's unspoken rules and operate behind the scenes. The people's eyes are sharp and the market is ruthless. All unconventional practices and tricks will only hurt yourself in the end.

When something goes wrong, admit your mistake honestly and solve it seriously. “To err is human,” and the public can give you a chance to correct your mistakes. Work hard to improve your products and services and perfectly meet the needs of consumers like you.

This is public relations at its most basic level.

The author of this article @苏佬师 is compiled and published by (Qinggua Media). Please indicate the author information and source when reprinting!

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