The 3 Steps to Handling a Crisis

Amid the “19 Kids and Counting” scandal, there were a few missed opportunities for TLC to use handy PR tricks to help save face. During these tough times, it is important for companies to stay ahead of the issue at hand in order to restore their image and the faith their stakeholders have for their company. These are the steps TLC should have taken to handle the crisis/scandal/issue

1.   Communicate the issue. Once these types of scandals break, the media will be all over you looking for comment. Although there is no rush to provide one, it is not good to completely ignore the media outlets. This will allow other people to speculate your stance on the issue and create new opinions that could distance them from your service. People need to know where you stand on the issue.

2.   Apologize. Everyone is human, and humans are not perfect. Regardless if your company is in the wrong, you should always apologize for the situation at hand. It shows that your company is compassionate and cares about the people who are involved in their business.

3.   Be transparent. Be available to stakeholders to voice their opinions and concerns, and take serious initiative to make change. Every scandal presents a company with the opportunity to make positive changes and be more open and honest with its constituents. Companies should share as much as they can with their constituents to prove that they are taking the necessary steps to make changes.

All of these steps help companies deal with crisis issues and help solve them quickly and swiftly.

This guest blog post was written by PRowl staff member Rene Cosides.