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The BCM Blogging Team
http://www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com/

AAA's Wrong-Way Reputation Management

Dishonest promotion causes reputation damage

We're always fans of businesses using charitable-type events or offers to promote their reputations. Run things the wrong way though, and you'll find yourself in crisis management mode instead of reaping in the praise.

When AAA announced its "Tipsy Tow" service for New Years Eve, a free tow service for those who celebrated a bit too much to drive themselves, it was heralded by members and non-members alike, but details quickly emerged that changed the picture, and people's perceptions, dramatically.

A quote, from the V3 Integrated Marketing blog:

Here’s the rub. And the part where the crisis looms — the information being reported is wrong.

AAA is NOT offering the Tipsy Tow service in every location across the United States (props to my other smart friend Allen Mirales, and numerous others afterwards, for messaging me on Facebook about this – you guys are awesome).

Unable to resist, I slipped on my trusty Sherlock Holmes hat (sorry, I’ve been dreaming of RDJ ever since the first movie came out) and got busy.

When I called 800-22-4357 (AAA-HELP) the number prominently featured in every article I read online about this promotion, I was advised by a harried operator that this Tipsy Tow business is not a nationwide offering.

She advised that the phones were ringing like crazy about this (no surprise there), and the AAA Tipsy Tow New Year’s Eve Service is only being offered California, Hawaii, Texas, New Mexico and Alabama. Really?

“Not in Florida where I see it reported in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel? “ I said. “No, not in Florida,” she replied.

“Hmmm, and not in Rhode Island, where I see it reported in the Providence Headlines Examiner?” I asked. “No, not in Rhode Island” says she, understandably annoyed by my questions. Scratching head, I thanked her for her help and hung up. I’m sure she was glad.

Lying by omission is still very much lying. By playing up a limited promotion to bolster its reputation in areas that were not in fact part of the offer, AAA drew the ire of customers (and potential customers), resulting in a significant amount of reputation damage.

The BCM Blogging Team
http://www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com/

Take Shelter!

Social media scare in Jersey

The unfamiliar noise from Jaclyn Boruch's cell phone startled her. She reflexively grabbed it. What she saw next scared her.

In bold red letters were the words "CMAS Alert" followed by "Civil Emergency in this area until 1:24 PM EST Take Shelter Now U.S. Govern." 

The emergency alert message took up her entire screen. It locked her Android phone for several minutes.

"I didn’t know if it was something happening in the ocean, some happening on land or coming out of the sky. I had no idea so that’s why it was so frightening," said Boruch, 22, marketing director at the Boys and Girls Clubs of Monmouth County in Asbury Park.

This quote, from an NJ.com article by Eunice Lee, describes an incident that sent residents of several New Jersey counties into a panic early last week. It was only hours before police had confirmed with Verizon that the message had been a test of their crisis management system, but not before local law enforcement had been inundated with calls from concerned residents.

One county, Monmouth, actually halted the crisis in its tracks with a message from its own text-based crisis management system, "THERE IS NO EMERGENCY. The 'take shelter' message that Verizon sent IS NOT a VALID message. DO NOT CALL THE POLICE."

The reaction from residents speaks well to the wide reach of these new crisis management systems and, as more and more are integrated into emergency services every day, we're sure it's not the last slip-up we'll see.

The BCM Blogging Team
http://www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com/

You Might Be a Crisis Manager If...

Jeff Foxworthy, eat your heart out. It’s easy to make jokes about rednecks. Try making jokes about crisis management! The Foxworthy influence MIGHT just be recognized in the one-liners that follow. I invite readers to add their own via blog comments. Please note that when you do so, you’re giving me permission to reprint them in my newsletter or other online communications as well.

You might be a crisis manager if...

…you realize your hair is on fire but know that it’s more important to dodge the truck about to hit you first.

…you can imagine yourself possessing the mind of someone from a completely different background or even a different sex.

…chickens running around with their heads off don’t bother you.

…you can translate legalese to plain English in seconds.

…you can train old corporate dogs to do new tricks

…you can persuade stoned protestors chained to your front gates that you’re their friend.

…you can launch a blog, post multiple social media messages, and eat lunch…all in a half hour.

…you can make lemonade with ANYTHING you have on hand.


Have fun with this!

Jonathan Bernstein

Did Someone Break the Delete Button?

Sometimes there's no option but to delete

Retailer Lowe's is in the midst of a social media breakdown, as thousands of racist comments flood a post on their Facebook page explaining why it's pulled advertising from the TLC show, "All American Muslim."

Media across the country caught wind of the situation, resulting in even more reputation management troubles for the company, as you can see in this quote, from an AdWeek article by Ben Popken:

"If Lowe's was concerned about spreading hate speech, you would think that they would filter and delete the worst [comments]," says Ibrahim Hooper, communications director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). "It's hard to tell if leaving them up is intentional or not." CAIR sent Lowe's CEO Robert Niblock a letter on Monday requesting a meeting to discuss the pulling of ads from the TLC show but has received no response so far. Late Tuesday, CAIR plans to release a statement condemning Lowe's for allowing the bigoted speech to remain on its Facebook wall.

Edit: Lowe's finally wiped the post on Wednesday, after it had stood for five days and gathered 22,000+ comments.

While we typically discourage "Delete Button Crisis Management," when things go beyond passionate discussion and turn into defamation and outright hatred, it's time to pull the trigger.

The BCM Blogging Team
http://www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com/

PayPal Loves Cats, Hates People

Weak crisis response leads to reputation damage

Early last week, PayPal found itself on the receiving end of a Facebook beat down when it suddenly put a halt to the "Secret Santa" charity drive being run by Regretsy.com (careful, content is NSFW at times) because they had used the wrong button to collect donations.

Regretsy's staff had quite a go around with several PayPal staffers, and posted quotes from the conversations on their site, including this gem:

PAYPAL: Only a nonprofit can use the Donate button.
ME: That’s false. It says right in the PDF of instructions for the Donate button that it can be used for “worthy causes.”
PAYPAL: I haven’t seen that PDF. And what you’re doing is not a worthy cause, it’s charity.
ME: What’s the difference?
PAYPAL: You can use the donate button to raise money for a sick cat, but not poor people.

Angry users flocked to PayPal's Facebook page, flooding it with images and comments for over 12 hours before the company woke up and started deleting posts like no tomorrow, looking all the more guilty for it.

So much for social media monitoring and strategy, eh?

PayPal finally calmed the fire with its first smart crisis management move of the entire situation, a blog post that gave a very generic explanation, but did well in discussing PayPal's support of charity, commitment to customer safety, and not only admitted error, but also explained what would be done to fix it.

Overall, a weak crisis response from PayPal that's already cost them in reputation damage, lost customers, and lost fees, all of which could have been avoided with some quality customer service and a bit of flexibility.

The BCM Blogging Team
http://www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com/

What's Your Reputation Worth?

Putting a price on complacence

Mismanaging your reputation is almost guaranteed to cost big bucks, yet even multi-billion dollar organizations tend to gloss over this crucial part of crisis management.

The main reason corporate execs offer is that they believe the results of an investment in reputation management "can't be quantified". Well, here's some quantification for you, from an article by Issue Outcomes' Tony Jacques titled, "When Share Price Puts a Value on Brand Reputation:"

Cause and effect is sometimes hard to assess when it comes to the share market, but the cost of mismanagement can be brutal. For example, Google has long been one of the world's most valuable brands (ranked fourth in the latest Interbrand rankings), and earlier this year new CEO Larry Page was expected to explain to an analyst's conference why quarterly revenue was well under forecast. Instead the CEO spoke less than 400 words of general optimism, then signed off. Wall Street hammered the stock, wiping $US15 billion off the value of Google in a single day.  

How much would it have cost Google to bring in one reputation management expert and one media trainer the weekend before the conference? The highest paid in the world wouldn't have made a scratch compared to the $15 billion loss the weak presentation caused.

Quantified? I think so.

The BCM Blogging Team
http://www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com/