Poor preparation results in reputation damage
Bank of America caused a major uproar early this month when it announced that the majority of its customers will be charged $5 per month for debit card use. The reasoning behind this, at least according to BofA, is that new regulations have raised the cost of offering debit services, so in a classy move the bank has immediately passed this expense onto their customers.
When you know you’ve got bad news to announce, it’s extremely important to properly prepare, as BCM president Jonathan Bernstein remarked in a recent Ragan.com interview:
Bank of America ignored what Jonathan Bernstein of Bernstein Crisis Management calls “the most basic precepts of crisis prevention.”
“Any seasoned PR practitioner knows that an organization needs to do the research necessary to anticipate and mitigate public reaction before they implement a major operational decision,” he says. Other banks should take note, Bernstein argues.
Bank of America had to know that there would be a backlash after its announcement, yet the canned and, I suspect to the affected customers, rather offensive responses (example: “The economics of offering a debit card have changed with recent regulations.”) show that it was unprepared for crisis management.
At some point every business has to share bad news, it’s how they do it that exacerbates, or mitigates, a crisis.
The BCM Blogging Team
https://www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com/