For professionals who are dedicated to the world of Social Media one of the worst things that can happen to us as managers of the community of a brand is to suffer a crisis of online reputation.
A reputation crisis means the loss of the client’s trust in our product or service that affects indeterminately, depending on the situation, our Branding, that is, our brand image, which is neither more nor less than the way in which other users and customers, whether potential or real, generate a perception of it.
It can also cause, as we know, great economic losses, since the client stops trusting in us and in our product, causing, in addition, other possible collateral damages.
For this reason, companies usually have a Plan that includes the protocol of action in the event of a situation of this kind, aimed at minimizing the impact of the adverse situation as much as possible, although, as has always been said, it is better prevent it to heal.
A reputation crisis is a challenge for professionals and management teams. Online reputation is now more than an essential asset for brands. But what are the keys to managing it properly? How should you act and how to deal with it? What are its side effects? Should companies and brands be prepared for it?
Oscar Del Santo offered us some guidelines for this in a recent interview. “If we have a good monitoring strategy and we are aware of the conversation that is taking place about our product, service or brand, we will be able to respond with greater anticipation and avoid that a simple criticism becomes a snowball that descends through the mountain and is acquiring mass to become a full-blown crisis that threatens to seriously damage our reputation and image.The collateral effects can be very serious and include sales declines, boycotts to our products, negative publicity and many more.”
“Due to the immediacy brought about by Web 2.0, the crisis plans that we applied in corporate communication 15 years ago are now totally obsolete and can even be counterproductive, everything is happening in real time and our response must be faster and agile: admitting guilt when appropriate and denying or proving the falsity of the accusations against us when this is the case, I am concerned about the ‘good’ attitude of not being firm in defending our interests and our image and seeking a conciliatory attitude when In fact, we have been unfairly accused, I repeat: each case is unique and deserves an intelligent and appropriate response.”
The truth is that this type of crisis can begin, often, with some aspect to which we have not given enough importance. At other times the reasons are of a sufficient nature to turn on all alerts. Nobody is exempt from suffering a crisis, but we can try to prevent it
It is essential that the brand is prevented, and prevention is based on analyzing the entire environment that surrounds the brand itself wherever it is present. When it comes to establishing a crisis management plan, we must never forget that we are addressing people, with their experiences, feelings and emotions; we must put ourselves in their place and correct the damage caused as soon as possible.