Cold Facts About High Bills: Crisis Communications Tips for Angry Customers

/0 Comments/in , , , /by

electric cooperative high bills gerard braudBy Gerard Braud –

Today’s crisis communications tip looks at what happens when angry customers take to Facebook to complain about your company. Complaints on your Facebook page or complaints on a Facebook group page built for and by the complainers is creating public relations problems for companies.

All of us can learn from this perfect crisis communication lesson — It can be found at every utility company, where customers who are angry about their high winter bills and are venting their frustration and anger on Facebook.

Many utility companies do exactly what they should not do: They do nothing.

The men and women in leadership positions at both investor owned electric companies and rural electric cooperative companies have spent decades practicing the art of hope, as in, “I hope this just goes away.”

Hope is not a crisis communications strategy, especially in the age of social media.

However, engaging with these angry customers on Facebook can be problematic because social media is filled with traps.

Trap 1: If you comment on a post that is either positive or negative, it can lead to an exponentially high number of negative responses.

Trap 2: If you comment on any Facebook posts, it sends it to the top on everyone’s news feed.

What do you do?

Solution One: Fix the problem and/or make the anger and hostility go away. The reality is there will never be a refund for electricity used. And chances are, the customer has forgotten that their bill was likely this high during the coldest month of the year 12 months ago and just as high during the hottest month of the year six months ago. But they would rather blame their electric winter storm cleoncompany than to take personal responsibility.

The solution is to manage the expectations of the customer by eliminating the peaks and valleys in their bill by offering an option to have what many companies call bill averaging or bill levelization. It means the customer will see nearly the same amount on their bill every month. Often, it will reduce this month’s $400 bill to an easier to pay $250 bill, which makes the customer happier.

Solution Two: Take the discussion offline. In many cases, the best way to handle an angry customer is to have customer service pick up the phone and call them directly. Customer service is able to demonstrate the type of soothing, personal concern that would be lost on a Facebook post.

Make the Crisis Go Away

The problem with the, “I hope it goes away” philosophy is that the problem will go away within the next two months as spring arrives and many customers use little, if any heating or air conditioning. But the problem will return during the hottest month of the year, then go away, then return next winter.

If you have a solution that can make the crisis go away once an for all, then by all means do it.

When “It Hits the Fan: Effective Communications for Critical Times

/0 Comments/in , , , , /by

By Gerard Braud —

The need for crisis communication has never been greater. The need for speed in crisis communications has never been greater.

Williams ExplosionThe reality is that if you experience an incident that the public knows about, you should be communicating to them about it in one hour or less. The biggest problem with this one hour benchmark is that in a world with Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, that is still 59 minutes too long.

Look at this photograph. What do you see? Yes, those are workers running from a fireball as it is still rising. What else do you notice? Yes, when everyone should be moving toward safety someone stopped to snap a picture with a cell phone.

This event eventually claimed two lives and resulted in more than 100 reported injuries.

Williams FB pageWithin minutes of the photo being taken, workers built a complete Facebook page about the event. Meanwhile, the company took nearly three hours to issue the first news release. Other than the time of the event, there was nothing in that statement that was newsworthy or that could not have been written and approved three years before the event. It was boiler plate language. By the time it was released, the media and the public already knew every detail.

When “it” hits the fan in the age of social media, you have the option to control the flow of accurate information by releasing details faster than ever before. If you fail to do this you surrender control of the story to the general public, who may or may not have accurate information.

Granted, human resources needs to communicate with the families of the dead and injured. Granted, lawyers will want to avoid giving ammunition to the plaintiff’s attorney in your statement. Granted, facts need to be gathered by the home office. Granted, state police are acting as the primary spokespeople under a NIMS agreement.

But will you also grant this? The photo on Facebook and the Facebook page are providing more information to the public, the media, and plaintiff’s attorney than the official source is. And NIMS can provide a law officer to discuss evacuations, but a state trooper cannot express the necessary empathy that families need to hear, nor can they communicate the contrition that a community needs to hear.

What should you do? How can you get the upper hand?

Step one is to have an effective crisis communications plan that facilitates the fast gathering of information about any incident, combined with the fast dissemination of the details to key decision makers.

Step two is to have a “First Critical Statement” document in your crisis communications plan. The First Critical Statement is a fill-in-the-blank document that can be modified in five minutes and then posted to your corporate website, emailed to all employees, emailed to all media, read to the media at a news conference if needed, and also used as a link on your corporate social media sites.

(Get a free sample and use the coupon code CRISISCOMPLAN)

Step three is to write a library of pre-written news releases with a more in depth system of fill-in-the-blank and multiple-choice options. Such news releases can be written on a clear sunny day, months or years before you will ever need to use them. The goal of the document is to answer every question you might be asked about a specific incident – ranging from fires and explosions, to workplace violence, to executive misbehavior. The pre-written nature of the release allows your leaders and legal teams to proofread the templates and pre-approve them. This saves time on the day of your incident. Usually, the pre-written document can be edited within ten minutes and approved nearly as fast. Once it is ready to use, it can be your script for a news conference, a post to your corporate website, an e-mail to all media and employees, plus a link on social media.

Check your calendar: It’s 2015. Check your computer and smartphone: Social media amplifies everything the public sees or thinks. Check your decision-making: It is time for you to have a modernized fast moving crisis communications plan.

The bottom line is that your reputation and revenue depend upon it.

Media Interview Training Tips from Jimmy Kimmel and the Oscars

/0 Comments/in , , /by

By Gerard Braud

Media interviews are jimmykimmeloften composed of opinion questions. Jimmy Kimmel Live provides us with today’s timely media interview perspectives, with interviews about the Oscars. As you watch and laugh at this, read on to the crisis communications tip at the end of this article.

Reports are infamous for asking leading questions. In media training classes, each potential spokesperson should be cautioned about not taking the bait when a reporter asks a leading question. In other words, when a premise is injected by the reporter, expert media training should teach the spokesperson to have the freedom to reject the premise.

Jimmy Kimmel live does a great gag called Lie Witness News, in which a fake reporter conducts what are known as “man on the street interviews.”

The Academy Awards is one of the most hyped events of the year. There’s a lot of pressure to have an informed opinion about the movies that are nominated. So, Kimmel sent a camera onto Hollywood Boulevard to ask people what they thought about some nominated movies and moments he made up.

What these people do is something you don’t want to do. They take the bait.

Be aware of another lesson that falls under the crisis communications category.

When your organization experiences a crisis, reporters will go looking for quotes and sound bites. If your company and your spokesperson fail to provide a fast sound bite or quote, the media will conduct man on the street interviews. These man on the street interviews are with uninformed individuals who have not had media training and are willing to take the bait to enjoy 15 seconds of fame.

Jimmy Kimmel creates some great laughs with his gag. If this happens to you in real life it is no laughing matter.

Crisis Communication & Media Hide and Seek: The ExxonMobil Torrance Refinery Explosion

/0 Comments/in , , , , /by

By Gerard Braud –

Where is the ExxonMobil news release for the ExxonMobil Torrance Refinery explosion? An explosion is a crisis, which requires expert crisis communications. The media would expect information on the corporate news release page. Media want it fast and easy to find.

But look what you find on the ExxonMobil news release page – A fluff release about a summer jobs program.

ExxonMobile-#1-No ReleaseReally ExxonMobil?

Oil may have come from the age of the dinosaurs, but public relations in 2015 shouldn’t be prehistoric in nature.

Is ExxonMobil playing hide and seek with their news release?

At the bottom of the ExxonMobil page I found three social media links. I clicked on Twitter and found a statement that I’ve written about before – the dreaded and preposterous, “Our top priority statement.” The Tweet says, “Our top priority is the safety of our employees, contractors and neighbors in Torrance.” Obviously it isn’t your top priority, otherwise you would not have had an explosion with four people sent to the hospital, right?

ExxonMobil-Twitter-TopPriority

Come on PR people: Enough with the bad clichés that you can’t defend. My top priority is to get public relations people to stop saying, “Our top priority.”

The link on Twitter sends me to this news release page, which did not appear in my initial search. Note the time stamp on the hidden news release – 10 a.m. ET on February 19, 2015. Now note the first sentence of the news release – it indicates the explosion happened at 8:50 a.m. PST on February 18, 2015. If there is an earlier release, it is hidden from me.ExxonMobil-2-release

I have to question, why does it take nearly a day for a news release to be posted? This is absurd. This is 2015 and we live in the age of Twitter. No corporation should go more than one hour before a news release is posted. And don’t blame it on your lawyers or your executives. An expert public relations leader must learn to deal with lawyers and executives before a crisis so that your crisis communications can move with haste and professionalism. Your crisis communication plan should be filled with pre-written and pre-approved news releases. Geez!

Even on Twitter on the day of the explosion there is no ExxonMobil Twitter post related to the explosion, yet citizens are posting images and details about the crisis trending on #torranceexplosion.
ExxonMobil-Twitter-Feb18

Now let us examine the news release as ExxonMobil plays hide the facts and details. Compare the ExxonMobil release that mentions an “incident,” to the headlines on Google, which uses words such as “explosion” and a host of descriptors such as “rips though refinery,” “rocked by large explosion,” etc.

 

ExxonMobil-Google

 

While ExxonMobil uses clichés such as “top priority” and “incident,” the NBC Los Angeles website describes, “Crushed cars, mangled metal, flames and a health warning.” Their lead says, “Hours after an explosion ripped through a Torrance refinery, residents for miles around continue to grapple with ash, a gas odor and concerns over poor air quality…”

Something tells me this was more than an “incident.”

 

ExxonMobil-NBC

In a crisis, it is important for official sources to provide official information. It is also important to control SEO. From a control perspective, the corporation should be controlling the flow of accurate information, rather than surrendering to the rumors and opinions for the public.

In the 2014 Fortune 500 list, ExxonMobil is listed as second. Some might wonder if their PR is second rate.

So what do you think about how ExxonMobil manages its crisis communications?

Anderson Cooper 360 on the Brian Williams Crisis

/0 Comments/in , /by
TopHatCnn

Gerard Braud talking to Anderson Cooper 2006

By Gerard Braud –

Anderson Cooper 360 is asking you on Twitter to respond to his question, “Do you think Brian Williams can ever return to the news?” My previous blog post outlines my latest take on the Brian Williams crisis and the conditions in which he could, but likely won’t return to the news desk.

With this photo of me and Anderson Cooper, I’ll make other observations.

Anderson Cooper and other media must proceed cautiously in their discussion of Brian Williams. The standards they hold Williams to will be applied to them as well.

Let us peak behind the curtain on how the media cover the news, based on my experience as a television news reporter for 15 years.

Many people have a flawed perception of the media based on what they think the media are. People fail to realize that being a journalist is a complicated job. Reporters must make complicated choices daily about what to put on television and what not to put on television.

Let me take you behinds the scene on an Anderson Cooper and Gerard Braud (Jared Bro) story that didn’t make the news.

The photo you see above is me, in the Top Hat and Tails with the large pink beads, talking to Anderson Cooper. Behind me is my brass band, and behind the band is a yellow cross that says, “Jesus is Love.”

This is Mardi Gras 2006, just six months after Hurricane Katrina. The events of this moment were not reported by Anderson Cooper because there was no conflict, even though moments before, six CNN cameras were moving in on my group as the cross-carrying-group taunted us in ways that set the stage for a potential street fight and some amazing news footage.

As I tell the story, think about these questions:

  1. What does this say about media coverage?
  2. What does this say about the judgments the media make every day?
  3. What might this say about Anderson Cooper and all media who try to tip toe into and around the Brian Williams crisis?

I’ll answer those questions after I give you this brief side note on who I am when you don’t see me in my professional capacity.

Gerard Braud Jester

Gerard Braud as the Krewe of Mid-City jester.

I was born in New Orleans on Monday, February 10, 1958. Mardi Gras day was just eight days later. Mom says she held me at the hospital window as the parades rolled by. I’m a Mardi Gras nut through and through. I volunteer as a board member for the Krewe of Mid-City parade. The Krewe is one of the 34 self-funded, non-commercial parades that roll down a 60-block parade route through the neighborhoods. We roll past screaming children on ladders waiting to catch a bead or stuffed animal from me, as their parents manage picnics and bar-b-ques. I’ve been a parade King and serve as the Krewe Jester. And truth be known – 12 hours before this photo was taken I lead a comedy sketch in which I portrayed the ugly “Queen Katrina Duvet Debris” (which is why I can never run for Congress). I’m also the founder of the Krewe’s Gentlemen’s Top Hat, Tails and Cigar Stroll, in which, accompanied by a brass band, we walk through the French Quarter bestowing beads and smiles upon those who have come to New Orleans to experience a slice of our culture.

On the day in the photo, our Gentlemen were smiling as we headed down Bourbon Street with our band and the crowd was smiling with us. After Hurricane Katrina, everyone in New Orleans needed a reason to smile and we were there to do just that. As we approached the Royal Sonesta Hotel, the out-of-town-cross-carrying-group that shows up every year to condemn everyone they see, began to shout at us over their megaphone. They were marching toward us with aggression. (And don’t get me started on how these people obviously missed the part where Jesus talked about not throwing stones and loving thy neighbor. #hypocrite )

They began to shout condemnation toward us via their megaphone. Anderson Cooper and his crew jumped to their feet. Anderson grabbed his video camera and hurried toward me. Cameras on booms came floating down from the balconies above us. Producers were getting excited. They were likely writing mental headlines about The Mardi Gras Melee that would lead tonight’s broadcast. You just can’t beat a headline with alliteration!

The crisis management guy and former reporter in me stopped our group, as I saw the story CNN wanted to tell, but which I was not going to let unfold or be told.

I gathered my guys and the band together. I asked if the band knew how to play Amazing Grace. The band members huddled and worked out the key. Meanwhile, I instructed the Gentlemen to line up in straight rows across the street. The instructions were for everyone to smile and to make no verbal or physical contact with the cross carrying group. The band struck up Amazing Grace and we walked peacefully through the angry cross carriers, demonstrating the irony of “the sinners” were acting more like saints than the self-anointed loud mouths.

There was amazing disappointment on the faces of every member of the CNN crew. In the photo, Anderson is rolling video tape, asking me, “What just happened?” “Who are you guys?”

We chatted, knowing that a potential story just evaporated into thin air for CNN.

What does this say about media coverage? News is generally negative. 99% of what is shot on videotape is thrown away.

What does this say about the judgements the media make everyday? If it is not negative, is it not news?

What might this say about Anderson Cooper and all media who try to tip toe into and around the Brian Williams crisis? There are millions of people who have encounters with the media, who are ready to tell their side of the story regarding their interaction with reporters. The more the media cover Brian Williams, the more those covering his story could find themselves being scrutinized over what they have covered or not covered in the past.

Anderson Cooper didn’t cover my story because I intentionally made it a non-story.

King_Gerard_Allen

With Allen Braud, my dad, on February 25, 2001 when I reigned as King Mid-City LXVIII.

Anderson made the right call that day, but I can also hear the cries of those who would think he should have made a news story out of it anyway.

(If you don’t hear much from me over the next few days, it is because this is the weekend of the Krewe of Mid-City Parade on Sunday, and the Gentlemen’s Top Hat, Tails & Cigar Stroll on Saturday. I hope we get to share a smile together.)

P.S. In keeping with my Brian Williams blog from two days ago, the above story is true to the teller.

 

Brian Williams Suspended: Layers of a Media Crisis for NBC & Williams

/0 Comments/in , , /by

Brian-DailyBy Gerard Braud —

Leave it to Jon Stewart to once again be the expert voice of reason in modern media. He clearly points out in this crisis that there is the “Brian Williams Anchorman” persona, and as I pointed out previously, the “Brian Williams Storyteller” persona at public events where he appears as a celebrity speaker or guest.

At question is the brand – credibility.

At stake is reputation – damaged.

At the heart of it – two layers. A crisis for Williams the journalist and a crisis for NBC, the corporation.

I think Williams did the right thing to apologize, as mentioned in my previous blog.

NBC, in imposing a six-month suspension without pay for Brian Williams, has created a scenario in which I do think Williams can recover. In other words, I would be surprised if he ever returns to the anchor desk at NBC Nightly News ever again. I would not be surprised to see Williams announce his resignation.

Crisis management requires finesse. A crisis response too little or too late is bad. A crisis response too large makes the crisis worse and creates a series of secondary crises.

Think of crisis management the way you might think of parenting – let the punishment fit the crime. If your child leaves their bike in the driveway behind the car, a proper response is to take away their bike. Taking away every toy they own would be too extreme.

The offenses by Williams appear to have been primarily in celebrity appearances. Hence, the proper vehicle for NBC would have been to prohibit the celebrity Brian Williams from making celebrity appearances. By making such an announcement, NBC could have focused on where the sins were committed, yet opened the door for redemption by putting Williams back on the air after his self-imposed one-week suspension. This announcement should have been combined with my previous suggestion that Williams appear on the Today Show Friday with some of the soldiers who called him out. Such an appearance would have put a punctuation mark on the crisis that defines its end.

NBC, by suspending Williams for six months will remove this story from the headlines quicker. However, the harsh penalty means that if they return Williams in six months, the story will regenerate.

My opinion is that NBC News went too far.

Likely, the only way Williams could return to the anchor desk is if the veterans who called him out for his errors rallied to his side to support him, asking NBC to return him to the air very soon. My crystal ball doesn’t see that happening, although I wish it would.

Selecting the Right Spokesperson: Should it be Multiple People?

/0 Comments/in , , /by

DSC_0114Who should be your media spokesperson? In this series of blogs, we have reviewed the argument for the CEO serving as the spokesperson and the PR person serving as the media spokesperson.

Consider option 3: Should a Variety of People Should Serve as Your Media Spokespeople?

A subject matter expert, with proper media training, can be a great spokesperson. In fact, an expert in the subject is often the most credible with the media and the audience.

Numerous people should be media trained as spokespeople, with each ready to go when called upon.

In a crisis, the PR person should speak during the first hour of the crisis, as explained in our previous article. By the end of the second hour of the crisis, a subject matter expert should serve as the spokesperson. If needed, the subject matter expert can remain the spokesperson if the crisis is ongoing. The final news briefing of the day may be the best time to feature the CEO as spokesperson, as explained in our previous article.

Think of your spokesperson selection process the way sports teams operate. You have stars and strong people on the bench, ready to step in as needed.

Media training helps identify your star players and secondary players. Most of all, never let anyone speak without intense training. Media play hardball. Don’t send out an untrained person with little league skills.

Train your CEO. Train your PR expert. Train multiple subject matter experts. The number of experts you train is based on the type of organization you represent. A hospital, for example, could have multiple doctors from multiple fields, as well as one or two nurses. An electric company could train multiple supervisors and line workers, as well as someone who is an energy conservation expert.

The key to effective media training is to help these subject matter experts learn to put their daily jargon aside and learn to speak at a level that a sixth grader could understand. This is especially true for persons with an analytical mind, who have a propensity to focus on tiny, technical details, rather than focusing on the big pictures.

Who will be your media spokesperson?

About the author: Gerard Braud, CSP, Fellow IEC (Jared Bro) is a media training and crisis communications plan expert. He has helped organizations on 5 continents. Braud is the author of Don’t Talk to the Media Until… 29 Secrets You Need to Know Before You Open Your Mouth to a Reporter. www.braudcommunications.com

How to Select the Right Spokesperson? Should it be the PR person?

/0 Comments/in , , /by

CrisisDrillGerardBraudWho should be your media spokesperson in a crisis?

In a recent blog, we reviewed Argument #1: The CEO Should Always Be the Spokesperson.

Now we can review Argument #2: When Should the PR Person Be the Spokesperson?

The public relations person is an excellent choice as a spokesperson in the first hour of the crisis when media might be just arriving. But your PR guy or gal doesn’t need to be the spokesperson throughout an entire crisis, nor would I suggest they be your only long term spokesperson.

The best argument for using your public relations expert in the early hours of a crisis is because other members of the crisis management team are likely responding to and managing the crisis. Also, those other experts will rely on the PR team to provide them with the words, talking points, and key messages that need to be communicated.

In most cases, your public relations person has a natural gift for words, both spoken and written. These are usually natural gifts that other members of the crisis management team do not have. Usually the C-Suite is heavy on analytical thinkers who are better with numbers, facts, and figures than with words.

If you weigh your options and look at the variables, the senior member of your public relations team is a perfect first choice, especially when a spokesperson is needed in the first hour of the crisis.

Also, always make sure a PR person is on the crisis management team. Additionally, they should serve as leader of the crisis communications team.

Many companies are slow to communicate in a crisis because:

1) they wait until they know everything before they say anything

2) they are waiting for the CEO or a senior manager to free up long enough to speak

My best recommendation is that you should speak within the first hour of a crisis, even when only a few facts are known. You can tell the media what you know now and add more details later.  A “First Critical Statement” is the document that I use in every crisis communications plan I write. It should be in your crisis communications plan also. To download your free copy of my First Critical Statement, use the coupon code CRISISCOMPLAN when you select the item from my shopping cart.

When few facts are known, it allows the PR person to:

1) Acknowledge the crisis

2) Provide basic facts

3) Say something quotable, while promising more information at a future briefing

Our previous blog about speaking with one voice and relying on the CEO explains my belief that multiple spokespeople can speak on behalf of the company and SHOULD speak with one voice.

In our next blog on this topic, I’ll give you a third option as you decide how best to select the right spokesperson for your company.

By Gerard Braud

Crisis Communication Lessons for the Super Bowl Bound New England Patriots

/0 Comments/in , , /by

deflated foot ball gerard braudWhy are we still talking about deflated footballs days before the Super Bowl? Best in class public relations, expert crisis communications, and expert media relations can be personified by not letting a little issue grow into a big issue.

If a small weed grows in my garden, I pull it right away so it doesn’t grow into a bigger weed with deep roots that sucks the life out of everything around it. Corporations and football teams alike need to wake up and realize that same metaphor applies to nipping a small crisis in the bud rather than letting it grow.

Deflate Gate started on Sunday, January 18, 2015. Here we are 10 + days later still talking about it.

The reason the crisis lingers is because days passed before coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady even spoke about this little crisis that has grown into a public relations black eye. This isn’t surprising, but it is bush league. We see corporations do it all the time. We’ve seen the NFL do it all season. Usually, behind the scene there are lawyers who presumably believe they are protecting their clients. Meanwhile, the court of public opinion is convicting their client, damaging both reputation and revenue.

The sooner you address a small crisis, the sooner it goes away so you can focus on what is most important.

The longer you let a crisis go unaddressed, the more it becomes a distraction to the things that are important.

Geeze. Some people never learn.

By Gerard Braud

Did New York City Overreact? A Crisis Communications Case Study

/0 Comments/in , , /by

junoYesterday’s crisis communications blog regarding the winter storm Juno and the #Blizzardof2015 promoted the idea of managing the expectations of those who will be affected by a crisis.

Today, some critics are saying New York City overreacted.

Two observations:

1) The people who complain about “overreacting” are idiots. These would be the same people who would criticize their leaders if things had gotten worse than predicted.

2) One way to proactively address the potential critics during your initial media statement before the storm is to use language like this:

Experts tell us this may be the worse storm we have ever faced. As a city (community) we believe the best course of action is to err on the side of caution, rather than to have anyone get hurt or put in harms way. We are putting safety measures in place based on the best information we are getting from experts at this hour. However, ultimately mother nature is in charge. Sometimes she sends us weather worse than we expected; sometimes it is not as bad as we expected. For that reason, we ask your forgiveness and understanding in advance, if we institute safeguards and ultimately those safeguards are not needed. However, at this time, the best information we have indicates that we should shut down the city…

I’ve noticed several government officials on the news already defending their position, as they should. One governor pointed out how few accidents took place in his state. New York City quickly re-opened this morning after being shut down. Meanwhile, locations in New England are getting slammed, as predicted.

As I’ve learned as a storm chaser in pursuit of hurricanes, the slightest change in tracts means the difference between safety and disaster. If the eye of the storm moves just 10 miles off of the predicted tract, it makes a huge difference.

The bottom line is communicate often and communicate forcefully. Communicate before the event, during the event, and after the event.

By Gerard Braud