So, you’re United Airlines and Dave Carroll has socked an almighty punch to your brand reputation.

Of course, you wouldn’t be in this position in the first place had you not given him due cause to take his protest onto the international stage. But that’s another story. The big question is, what do you do now?

TIPS FOR REPUTATION DAMAGE CONTROL.

1. Accept responsibility for what happened. Be gracious, apologize and offer to make amends. (Look on the bright side. You’ve been offered constructive criticism that highlights an opportunity for you to do it better.)
2. Explain how you are going to ensure it doesn’t happen again. This means acknowledging the problem and fixing it. Then you need to communicate that the problem has been fixed and what people should do in the unlikely event it reoccurs. Depending on the industry you are in, you might hire your critic. If they are the one person who really knows exactly what’s wrong, they might also be the best person around to help you to fix it. You might even convert them to a brand champion in the process.
3. Walk the talk. Or don’t make promises you won’t keep. (You’ve already broken one promise, it’s what got you into this mess in the first place, so don’t compound your problems by breaking another one.) Now that the world is aware of what has happened once, customers and competitors will not be shy about saying something when it happens again.
4. Do not threaten, intimidate or any way force the person to retract, remove or change damaging content. Bribery, coercion and lawyers letters are the last thing that should be on your mind right now. You can’t shut up things on the Internet. Just trying to do it can lead to worse damage.
5. Implement a brand reputation program.

ELEMENTS OF A BRAND REPUTATION STRATEGY.

There is little more harmful than a flurry of negative press. And with the Internet offering far-flung strangers the opportunity to share opinions and scrutinize your performance, it’s even more imperative to manage the effects. Consumers in their droves are heading to the Internet to select which brands they will support and they are reading all the stuff that’s said about you.

The vehicle companies use to manage their reputations is a brand reputation program. It is essentially a hybrid of the traditional public relations model that incorporates a management component for activity online. It works like this:

Step One: Monitor what is being said.

You should be aware of what is being said about you, your products, brands and competitors. You can do this easily by using some tools that are freely available. Examples of these tools include Google Alerts, Yahoo Alerts, Google News, Technorati, BlogPulse or BoardTracker. Set yourself up to receive free alerts, or go to these websites (such as news or Technorati) and perform a search.

Step Two: Respond to Negative Feedback.

Here are the guidelines:

• Respond, don’t react. Be measured, positive and calm about what is being said. You don’t have to respond to absolutely everything. It’s a judgment call on your part whether you think you should engage.
• Figure out whether the feedback is genuine or competitor-driven. This will govern how you respond.
• If it’s customer-driven genuine feedback, be timely (don’t respond to old posts), transparent (say who you are) and honest. Thank them for feedback. Engage in an open friendly way. You can invite trial of your product or use some other form of inclusionary brand tactic.
• If you suspect it’s competitor-driven, don’t make accusations without proof. Use positive brand messages from other sources to use as links in a reply post. Be nice. Ask for their contact details so you can handle their issue personally. If they won’t supply it, it may impact negatively on their credibility not yours. You can report harmful or defamatory content and request its removal. Try to identify the person posting the content. Leave your lawyers as a last resort

Step 3: Build a Resilience Plan.

People are surprisingly forgiving. For the most part, brands can afford to make a few mistakes provided that they admit them, fix them, and don’t make mistakes all the time. To counteract the impact of negative publicity and feedback, brands need to build resilience against negative perceptions, and they can do this by:

• Creating on-going two-way conversations with customers. This enables the brand to better understand exactly what its customers want. Create a blog, engage in forums and groups, survey your customers or invite them into your premises. Get feedback from your sales teams. Try to understand what’s important to your customers.
• Writing regular news stories with positive messages that can be released to media, influencers and uploaded onto your own website. Smaller businesses can do this quite cheaply using PRWeb or another media distribution firm that also offers an editorial service.
• Thinking the value ledger concept. Build a repository out there of good things your brand thinks, has said or done. It boils down to having more good stories to outweigh the few bad ones.
• Encouraging active, influential brand champions to talk about you in the market. Credible bloggers and journalists can do a lot to help build your brand resilience. Implement a concerted campaign to win them over.
• Actions speak louder than words. Transparency and action build positive brand perceptions which in turn offer cover against future PR disasters. Spin doesn’t work. You have to be seen to be believed. Get involved in activities that ensure your brand is seen positively. For example, if you make a food product, be the first to offer transparency in labeling.

In a fast-moving, complicated world, no single PR strategy is going to enable you to escape some degree of brand attack. But what smarter companies do is plan ahead. By doing so, they are armed and ready to defend their good name.

See Related Post: How Goliath Gets Real.

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