In this SmallBusiness monthly series of Lessons Learned, Jennifer Janson, author of The Reputation Playbook and chairman of Six Degrees, will assess how a company recently in the news has handled a crisis, and provide top tips for small businesses to handle a crisis in the best way possible:
The worst possible kind of crisis is one where someone loses their life. It may seem callous to think about a communications plan in such instances, but it is a critical part of balancing the support and empathy for the families of those involved, and satisfying the needs of the media – who will no doubt be aggressive in the pursuit of answers about what went wrong.
The incident that took place in theme park Drayton Manor, which lead to the death of an 11-year-old girl after she fell out of one of theme park’s water rides, should be a lesson to all business owners, that how you react in a crisis is a true reflection of who you are as a company. And it warrants thinking about before a crisis happens.
In a matter of minutes, such a devastating and public event will have people talking about it on social media, followed quickly by mainstream media. What practical lessons can we all learn from the way this crisis has been handled to date?
Act fast
From what we can tell, it appears that as soon as the park became aware of what had happened, the ride was shut down and emergency updates were posted on all social media platforms. The company kept these communications channels open purely for communication about the incident.
They used language that was human, sincere and showed empathy and deep regret. As a result, the company mitigated the risk of speculation and incorrect information about the incident being spread online. It quickly established itself as the first and only source of accurate information.
CEOs, this is your responsibility
Throughout this tragedy, the director of the park, George Bryan (grandson of the founder) stepped up to be the face and voice of the company. His deep regret over what happened has been evident for all to see – it is clear that this ‘incident’ is about the death of a child, not the impact on his business. From an outsiders’ perspective, he does not appear to have gone into defence mode in an effort to limit liability.
The park remained closed for several days and once re-opened has also restricted access to rides that overlook Splash Canyon (where this took place) out of respect for the victim’s family. This sounds like a CEO taking direct responsibility and putting his customers first.
Learn from your mistakes
Shortly after the story broke, a mother claimed that four years ago, her son had fallen in the water, the same way Evah did. She claims that she warned the park’s staff with no effect. Of course, we don’t know the detail, but the lesson to learn here is about prioritising the continuous improvement of your product or service. Do you learn from customer feedback? Do you take action? Do you regularly look at where risks within your company might lie, and mitigate them?
There can be little quite as devastating as the death of a child. One can only hope that there have been lessons learned by the leadership at Drayton Manor that will prevent this from ever happening again.
Further reading on reputation management
