Lose people’s trust, and you lose it all.
Credibility is everything when it comes to business and reputation. If people can believe what you say about yourself or your product, then you’ll have an easy time selling. Start lying, however, and you throw that right in the garbage.
If a person or organization has little credibility, the press will be leery. It is even more important to take responsibility when possible. In the age of social media, in which everyone has a public voice, organizations are particularly vulnerable to becoming a negative meme for previously innocuous things, such as a poor customer service incident.
Remember: People and organizations with status, money, and power almost never come across well when they play the victim card. The more popular and wealthy you are, the more vulnerable you will be. The public is rarely sympathetic to a multinational corporation that is defensive. Humility, instead, goes a long way.
This quote, from a PR Daily article by Bob Conrad, hit the nail on the head. Not only are people going to feel no sympathy for a multi-million dollar company (or its leadership), but there are literally thousands of people who log into Twitter every day and search for hashtags like #fail, just to read and comment on whatever others have labeled.
As usual, it all boils down to Crisis Management 101. The rule isn’t “don’t make mistakes,” it’s “ADMIT your mistakes, and then FIX them!”
The BCM Blogging Team
https://www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com/