Crisis Management

For many Americans, the arrival of a second government stimulus check can’t come soon enough. The payments began arriving in eligible citizens’ bank accounts this week, but not all are available for immediate access, and that has some people very upset. On Jan. 4, many H&R Block customers took to social media to complain about delays in getting their stimulus check.

If you are a crisis consultant, 2020 was your banner year. When we look back at the year, clearly there were societal changes that contributed to a proliferation of attacks on brand reputation.

Those who thought PR crises were finished for the year probably hadn’t counted on Hilaria Baldwin’s identity issues popping into the news just days before 2020 ended. OK, so Ms. B. isn’t who she’s claimed. Instead of coming clean, she and her husband have made things worse. Fast, someone, get them a PR pro!

Given the breadth of the recent SolarWinds hack, PR pros’ 2021 crisis plans would do well to include a cybersecurity response. To file away for your reference when (not if) that day comes, here are some communications takeaways from organizations responding to the hack to date, including Microsoft and CISA.

Vaccines for COVID-19 have arrived and logistics for distribution seem to be in place. Now another hurdle exists: convincing enough of the public that the vaccines work as advertised and that they’re safe and necessary. Reciting data and statistics to bolster trust will work only to a point. The communication piece of the vaccine effort must proceed carefully, speaking to people in language they can understand.

This week on LinkedIn Live the PRNEWS staff gave its 2020 wrap-up. They talked about notable campaigns, missed opportunities and changes for 2021.

In a sense, the public has become inured to data breaches. Everyone seems to have one. Yet when one of the world’s top cybersecurity companies gets hacked, it’s a very serious situation. Fortunately, cybersecurity leader FireEye was transparent in communicating its breach, which it said occurred “recently.”

Unfortunately for many organizations that use the MobileCause platform, its GivingTuesday outage caused challenges. Worse, it took too long to find out what was wrong on the biggest giving day of the year. While the company provided updates via Twitter, it did not release its first email statement to users until hours later.

A PR crisis is bad enough. It’s worse when one occurs on a holiday and potentially ruins your customers’ holiday. That’s the time to act promptly, apologize sincerely and attempt to win back loyalty and trust. Apparently, that’s not how Boston Market is managing its turkey of a Thanksgiving.

[ Editor’s Note: Having a plan is the minimum requirement for crisis pros. That’s not always possible as veteran brand communicator Bobbie Carlton tells us in this Q&A.] PRNEWS: Give us the scenario