Haidilao is praised, but Didi is in trouble. Let’s learn about the DISCO principle of public relations crisis management

Many companies have recently encountered crisis challenges. From the Didi Taxi incident to the Hongmao Liquor incident, improper crisis handling can cause heavy damage to a company.

Why do seemingly identical PR actions lead to completely different results? Why was Haidilao able to reverse the tragedy within three hours, but Didi and Hongmao Liquor could not escape the disaster?

This is the secret of corporate crisis management. Proper crisis management can not only help a company get out of crisis, but also build a good reputation for the company in the long run!

Since crisis management is so important, the editor will take you to open the think tank box today! Let’s take a look at the DISCO principle that encompasses the basic essentials of crisis public relations !

Let’s review the whole story of the Haidilao crisis:

On August 25, 2017, Legal Evening News went viral with an article titled "Secret visit to Haidilao: rats crawled into food cabinets and hot pot colanders were used to clean sewers." The report pointed out that there were rats running around in the kitchens of Haidilao's two stores in Beijing, and that the mop and colander had to be cleaned together, among other hygiene issues.

For a while, Haidilao was pushed to the forefront of public opinion.

Unexpectedly, within just four hours of the crisis breaking out, Haidilao’s official Weibo account issued a public statement on the matter. It was also because of the sincerity and responsibility of its statement that Haidilao successfully reversed public opinion and gained the forgiveness of netizens. Some netizens even gained a good impression of Haidilao through this public relations event.

In just three hours, with just an apology letter and a statement, the hotpot industry leader reversed a serious health and safety crisis. Haidilao’s public relations are a masterpiece .

In fact, there are traces of crisis management routines. Let us analyze the details of this crisis management in combination with the DISCO principle.

1. Dual Path Process

(1) Communication and management go hand in hand

After a crisis occurs, before a company takes any communication action, it should think about: What kind of management actions are needed to prevent the damage from further expanding or to stop the crisis?

Taking Haidilao as an example, after a hygiene problem occurred in the kitchen, the first thing to consider was how to investigate the hygiene problem and how to compensate the consumers who dine there.

Although enterprises cannot consider everything in a short period of time, they need to arrange some management practices to control the crisis first. In addition, communication with consumers can not only control the evolution of the crisis but also calm consumer emotions. This two-pronged approach will be helpful in dealing with the crisis.

In fact , crisis management actions and communication actions do not conflict with each other. Companies should appropriately mention some specific response plans in their statements. This will provide real solutions to the crisis on the one hand, and on the other hand, tell consumers that "we are taking action", thus playing a communication role .

(2) Haidilao’s solution

After the kitchen hygiene problem occurred, Haidilao released the following specific measures in a short period of time in the handling notice:

1. Hire a third-party company to check for sanitary blind spots.

2. Pest control and store rectification work.

3. Publish the position, name and even contact number of the specific person responsible for a series of rectification measures.

The original statement is shown below:

Haidilao uses a method that combines communication and management simultaneously. Not only did they issue a statement to inform the public and stabilize public sentiment, they also took concrete actions to control the crisis situation. The two-pronged principle can be said to have been applied very effectively!

two. Immediate Response

（1）Speed ​​is everything

After a crisis occurs, how quickly should a company respond in the first place?

Faced with the current situation of explosive information dissemination, once negative information is exposed, the consequences of the crisis will be difficult to predict. So, there is no fastest, only faster.

Enterprises should seize golden time as much as possible , speed is everything ! Immediate communication at the first time will have a great impact on the outside world's senses.

From something as small as an official Weibo post or a statement to something as big as a media interview, these means of communication can help in subsequent crisis management and prevent the crisis from spreading or escalating.

What issues should the company pay attention to when responding to its first response?

1. Always put the interests of consumers first

2. Be sincere and cautious in your response

3. Response content: At least explain what happened and what the company is doing to make up for the crisis.

(2) Haidilao’s solution:

After the health and safety issue was exposed, it took three hours to respond to the incident, and then issued the following 7 handling notices:

It was this quick response statement that brought about a reversal of public opinion. Haidilao successfully seized the "golden four hours" of public opinion, determined a solution and made it public. Firmly grasp the time node of public relations and control the situation of the crisis! It can be seen that in crisis management, if you grasp the principle of the first time, you are halfway to victory!

3. Stakeholder (principle for determining the communication priority of stakeholders)

(1) Reasonable judgment of stakeholders

The stakeholders of corporate crises include media, consumers, government departments, channel partners, internal employees, etc.

Usually, the first stakeholder a company chooses is the media. In fact, other stakeholders are equally important to the company in a crisis environment, and often have a stronger influence on the resolution of the crisis.

Therefore, when a crisis occurs, the company first needs to determine who the stakeholders are based on the situation and decide the order of communication.

Only by identifying the most critical stakeholders can you find turning points that can be used for your own benefit.

In addition, companies often pay attention to the media and the general public, and the most easily overlooked are internal employees . In fact, the handling of internal relationships plays an important role in crisis transformation . Employees represent the company. Helping employees build confidence in the company and jointly resist external pressure will also help the company overcome difficulties quickly.

(2) Haidilao’s solution

Haidilao is very good at handling relationships with internal employees. In its "handling notice" of the kitchen hygiene and safety crisis, Article 6 stated: " The cadres and employees of the two stores involved in the suspension do not need to panic. You only need to make rectifications in accordance with the system requirements and bear the corresponding responsibilities. The occurrence of such incidents is more of a deep-seated management problem of the company, and the main responsibility lies with the company's board of directors ."

The original statement is as follows:

In the statement, Haidilao did not fire the employee for the incident, but instead attributed the cause of the incident to the company's management system and protected the employee in public . On the one hand, this gives employees a sense of belonging, and on the other hand, it allows everyone to see its corporate culture of "serving employees as customers." For a company that cares so much about its employees, how bad can its service and integrity be? For such a responsible company, why not forgive it once?

4.Containment (control development principle)

(1) Controlling the crisis

The most difficult part of crisis management is not only responding to the crisis, but also requiring companies to consider the impact of decisions on subsequent developments.

The principle of controlling the development of the situation is to take action to alleviate the crisis, control the situation and prevent the crisis from spreading before it has a devastating impact.

What issues should companies consider in the follow-up control of crisis events?

1. Post-crisis changes

2. Best and worst outcomes after taking crisis management actions

3. Is it possible for companies to end the crisis by doing this?

(2) Haidilao’s solution

In a statement released by Haidilao four hours after the crisis broke out, they also provided a link to the previous food safety inspection notice, in order to tell everyone that "food safety issues are inevitable, but we are always correcting and taking action."

This behavior, which seems to be actively exposing one's own problems, actually gives consumers a good impression of handling problems with a correct attitude. This also eases public opinion and controls the spread of the crisis.

The following are Haidilao’s previous food safety inspection notices:

5. Ownership (principle of taking due responsibility)

(1) Crisis management requires responsibility

"The public cannot tolerate mistakes in corporate values, but management mistakes can be remedied."

If companies can remember this and not avoid problems but take on their responsibilities head-on, crisis management will be half successful.

During the crisis management process, companies may have three types of responsibilities: emotional, rational, and legal. Emotion refers to the responsibilities that the public expects enterprises to assume, reason refers to the responsibilities that enterprises should assume for improving management, and law refers to the responsibilities that enterprises should assume under legal constraints.

Normal crises will not involve legal liability. Companies only need to make more efforts and take more actions on the emotional and rational levels, give consumers practical actions and communicate more with them, so that the crisis can be turned around. If a company is willing to act based on reason and the interests of consumers, consumers will always give you the green light.

(2) Haidilao’s solution

In just three hours of preparation and response, Haidilao was able to change netizens' attitudes from "disgusting" and "outrageous" to "I still choose to forgive it." This change in consumers' attitude is inseparable from Haidilao's sincere apology and courageous sense of responsibility.

From the excerpt of the statement below, we can see that " the problem is true " and " willing to bear economic and legal responsibilities " both demonstrate the responsibility of this company. .

Haidilao’s responsibility of “ supporting employees ” is the most crucial point in turning the worst situation around in an instant.

Haidilao took the initiative to take the blame and be responsible for its employees. "I will take the blame, I will correct the mistakes, and I will support my employees." - With such courage, Haidilao quickly turned around from the crisis and regained the love of consumers.

summary:

The DISCO principle of crisis management can help public relations professionals clearly sort out solutions to crisis events in the shortest possible time. When encountering a crisis, companies should not panic. Just sort out a plan that suits them and act steadily!

Finally, let’s briefly review how Haidilao achieves these principles:

1. Issue a statement and communicate with consumers in the shortest possible time (respond immediately)

2. The statement contains a specific solution (communication and management in tandem)

3. Proactively disclose the company’s past statements on hygiene issues and solutions. (Control the development of the crisis and take responsibility)

4. Support employees and take responsibility. (Internal management, order of stakeholders, responsibility)

actually. Haidilao's public relations victory was not only due to this crisis management. The reputation it has accumulated among consumers in the past also potentially affected people's tolerance for it. Therefore, companies should regard good reputation and word of mouth as their eternal pursuit and always maintain an upright and honest business philosophy. Only in this way can you give yourself a room to maneuver when a crisis really occurs.

So, that’s all for today’s DISCO principle of crisis management. Have you learned it?

This article was compiled and published by @梅花网(Qinggua Media) when reprinted. Please indicate the author information and source!

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