How to Survive Your 2017 PR Disaster

When your customers know what you're going through they're more likely to support what you decide to do about it. My apartment complex came with very liberal guesthouse usage rules when I first came. This made us all very happy. Two years later, these things are gone or restricted and most tenants are up in arms. Then there were those like myself who saw these privileges get abused and the company's countless attempts to kindly redirect destructive behavior. Then I realized this.

Customer loyalty erosion, PR meltdowns, and market alienation are all signs of a broken chain of mutual understanding. It's good to understand your customers, but equally important for them to understand you.

Q1 of this year was all about the PR disaster. Failed attempts by companies to communicate a change, an intention, a need, or a concept. Misfired intentions blowing up in their face. As the winds of social media blew the nuclear debris around the world at an increasing consistency, we've decided to step back and revisit the following.

Has secrecy lost it's value in business? In the past , minimizing transparency has allowed companies to paint the exact image of themselves that they want. You were who you intended to be to the public. Today, company images are molded more by reaction than intention. In the economy of the share and the review, imagines are now a co-opted asset. Companies are now co-owners of their imagine and share this intimate space with an increasingly empowered customer. Therefore the goal isn't to put out the best image possible, but to receive the best possible reaction. Is this possible?

Absolutely. If a company has to make a hard or unpopular decision, communication is the only thing that can save you. If customers understand why you decided to do what you're doing, their reaction will be more contained and favorable. Why? Because context is shelter in the age of the reaction. A deeper understanding of your story and intention is only possible once a company sheds the assumption that customers simply 'won't understand'. As the decision was made by people, it will be understood by people. But if everyone in the boardroom understands a decision, and everyone outside doesn't, do the following.

Let them in the boardroom. Create a more durable relationship by allowing the outside world in on the process. Place a premium on being understood. Intent without context is acidic in the digital economy. Too many companies are drowning in their own secrecy.

The context I was given during my apartments crackdown helped me understand the decision. It put me in the decision makers room. Gave me the opportunity to consider making that decision myself. When it was made, the empathetic connection I had made with the company allowed me to support a decision that hurt me in many ways.