A PR crisis is when a negative event or review related to your business gains traction in the public sphere. This could be related to an unhealthy business practice, a customer accident at your location, or an internal, employee-related issue. PR crises are significant because they can taint a large or small business’s image in the minds of their customers. What’s more important to understand about PR crises: You likely can’t control their outcome. Even though there are strategies that can be implemented to mitigate a crisis, once the information is out there, the business is going to have to roll with the punches and do its best to turn a wrong into a right.
While a PR crisis’s effect may seem intangible at first, it will definitely affect your business in the long run. Customers and clients want to interact with businesses they trust. If your company is caught in a PR storm, it puts that trust into jeopardy. While at first the issue may seem simple or small, if the PR crisis isn’t handled properly, it can grow into a major issue.
While no plan can completely anticipate each and every scenario, your crisis communications plan can outline the core principles that can help your team minimize the chaos and loss of trust that so many organizations find so challenging.
A company being honest and hard-working is not always enough to prevent a crisis – crises occur even in the work of the most outstanding organizations because no one is completely protected from the mistakes that are made due to human factor or other failures that cannot be foreseen.
In conclusion, in a crisis situation the most important factor is time, which is why we are prepared to help our clients 24/7 when it comes to an emergency. But most importantly we help develop an action plan for after the reputation crisis to support your company in regaining the trust of your target groups and partner organizations.
