Seeds of Crises

[Multi-Industry Customer Complaints]

The first time many PR pros are aware of a pending crisis is when we're informed that an organization is threatened with one or more lawsuits whose genesis was in statements such as these:

* "You said that nothing would be built next to our house!"
* "You claimed that if anything went wrong, you'd fix it."
* "I didn't know that's what I was agreeing to when I signed your contract!"
* "You promised X but now I have Y and I don't like it!"

[The Beauty of Hindsight]

Where did the problem really start? Most typically, as a result of one of the following causes:

* Over-eager, perhaps greedy marketing/sales reps make promises just to make the sale, knowing at a gut level they may not be true. Or, in some ways even worse, they make promises out of ignorance about what can or can't be delivered.
* The organization makes operational decisions that modify the delivery of goods or services, but fails to inform marketing/sales and/or the customer.
* The organization's disclosures about the possibility of change, substitution, etc., are not written in plain English and/or marketing reps do not help ensure that they're understood by also delivering them verbally.
* Senior management, philosophically, MAY believe that it should always "do what it takes" to correct errors but does not truly empower customer service in terms of resources, direction or decision-making authority.
* Organizational management has not fully considered the marketing and PR implications of operational decisions and, hence, is blind-sided when there is subsequent backlash.

[Preventing the Crises]

* THOROUGHLY train and CAREFULLY supervise marketing/sales reps to ensure that they "stick to the script" when making commitments. ONE-TIME TRAINING IS NOT ENOUGH. It should be a topic raised very frequently.
* Use plain English and redundant delivery mechanisms (written and spoken) to communicate legal caveats, disclosures, terms, etc.
* There should be a check-and-balance system to monitor for breakdowns or conflicts between "operating philosophy" and "operating reality."
* MOST IMPORTANTLY: every major operational decision must be evaluated in terms of its potential long-term marketing and/or PR impact on all important audiences, internal and external.  There should be marketing and PR representation on the executive/decision making staff of any organization.