What is a reputation crisis and how to get out of it

[shammis606]

Brand image management requires a strategic approach, constant monitoring and prompt response. Even with the correct choice of strategy, no one is immune from mistakes or information attacks that can seriously threaten the company's reputation and damage its finances. In this article, we will talk about what a reputation crisis is and how to get out of such a situation.

What is a reputation crisis?
A reputational crisis is a situation caused by one or more events that disrupt the normal functioning of a company and lead to the formation of a negative image of the brand or its products.

Even a minor event, such as a negative review from moj database a disgruntled customer or an emotional message from a former employee, can cause a wave of negative reviews. If the company does not take it seriously and does not respond, and other users or competitors pick up on this wave, the situation can turn out much worse, making it difficult to resolve.

Thinking that everything will calm down and the problem will resolve itself, ignoring the negative is impossible. Such news items often attract the attention of journalists and bloggers, which makes the situation even worse.

Stages of a reputational crisis
The emergence and spread of negativity.

User reactions and the situation getting worse.

Damage to the financial part.

The emergence of problems within the company.

Exit from the crisis and recovery.



How to act in a crisis
Assemble a team and assign roles. Successful crisis management requires clear coordination and prompt assignment of responsibilities. It is important to assign people responsible for dialogue with customers who are dissatisfied with the company’s products or services – these employees must have calm communication skills and the ability to manage conflicts. Meanwhile, the rest of the staff should be instructed to avoid publicly discussing the problems that have arisen, so as not to aggravate the situation.

Conduct an analysis and adjustment of the content plan and advertising campaigns. Carefully analyze the content intended for placement. Certain publications may not only be inappropriate, but may also cause additional criticism.

Neutralize the negative. Using special services and branded queries, analyze search results, social networks, and the media.

There are two ways to displace negativity:

Initiate communication with the authors of negative comments. Particular attention should be paid to justified criticism, such as messages from customers who have encountered quality problems with goods or services. In the event of trolling, the response remains questionable. In such situations, it is advisable to ask the author for specifics and strive to resolve the problem. During the dialogue, it is important to remain calm and correct, respond in a friendly manner and avoid template responses.

To reduce the visibility of unwanted information, actively publish other materials that can cover it. Most users rarely look at news feeds from previous days or look at the second and third pages of search results. Use this to your advantage by replacing negative mentions with more neutral and positive content.

Redirect your audience's attention.

After a short pause, it is recommended to attract the audience's attention with positive or neutral content. You can organize a promotion or sale, talk about the company's plans. To increase coverage, you need to use various methods of disseminating information: search engine optimization, SMM , contextual advertising. An important goal at this stage is to increase the number of positive mentions and change the perception of the company for the better.



Conclusion
A reputational crisis is a real threat to any organization, and therefore it is necessary to be prepared to prevent and overcome it. Only through consistent and competent actions can you restore your reputation and regain the trust of your target audience.