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Pinpointing BP's Pitfalls: 8 Ways to Reconnect After a Disaster
| Guest post by: Maribeth Kuzmeski |
Article Overview: Maribeth Kuzmeski offers advice on how they could have better connected with the public throughout the spill-and explains the lessons you can learn from them. For the past two months, our eyes have been glued to news of the Gulf Coast oil spill. And with each barrel that gushes into the Gulf, our anxiety and frustration rises exponentially. Much of our ire is aimed squarely at BP. With each day that passes, the oil company is buried deeper in a disaster that will surely be difficult to overcome. And according to Maribeth Kuzmeski, what makes the situation worse is how BP has chosen to connect with the media and the public during these critical days-resorting to misleading information, poor communication, and neglect in order to dodge responsibility for the spill.
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Pinpointing BP's Pitfalls: 8 Ways to Reconnect After a Disaster
Maribeth Kuzmeski offers advice on how they could have better
connected with the public throughout the spill-and explains the lessons
you can learn from them.
For the past two months, our eyes have been glued to news of the Gulf
Coast oil spill. And with each barrel that gushes into the Gulf, our
anxiety and frustration rises exponentially. Much of our ire is aimed
squarely at BP. With each day that passes, the oil company is buried
deeper in a disaster that will surely be difficult to overcome. And
according to Maribeth Kuzmeski, what makes the situation worse is how BP
has chosen to connect with the media and the public during these
critical days-resorting to misleading information, poor communication,
and neglect in order to dodge responsibility for the spill.
"The way BP has handled the oil spill should serve as the standard
to avoid for any company facing such a disaster in the future," says
Kuzmeski, author of The Connectors: How the World's Most Successful
Businesspeople Build Relationships and Win Clients for Life (Wiley,
2009, ISBN: 978-0-470-48818-8). "Obviously, it would have been best for
the company to have prevented the spill, but once the damage was done,
the company could have mitigated some of the backlash it received." In a
disaster, you expect public opinion to be at its worst immediately
after the event, Kuzmeski points out.
With the BP spill, backlash has gotten increasingly worse-and
continues to get worse because the company hasn't communicated
effectively. And it's not just BP's image that has suffered, she adds.
Poor communication has also negatively affected the public's view of the
government.
"People are looking to the president for solutions and until his
recent national address they had been mostly disappointed," says
Kuzmeski. "Neither BP nor the U.S. government has been able to
successfully connect with the public since the spill began. When it
finally stops, both could be left with irreparable damage in terms of
public opinion."
Obviously, few companies are likely to be involved in disasters of
the magnitude of the BP oil spill-few have the capacity to wreak such
immense physical and environmental destruction. But bad things can
happen to any company-a financial scandal, a contaminated or faulty
product, a high-profile lawsuit. What's essential is how you react and
connect with your most important publics.
Kuzmeski is an expert at helping businesses and individuals create
strong business relationships and repair broken ones. Below she offers
advice for how companies can mend relationships and immediately start
reconnecting with their customers and the public after a disaster.
Practice full transparency and full disclosure. Until it makes the
decision to lay all the cards on the table after a disaster-to be
upfront about its decision making process and solutions-the company in
question is stuck behind a roadblock. It is impossible to begin
rebuilding relationships with customers and the public in general if you
aren't being honest and upfront with them about what has happened.
As BP has found out, a lack of transparency attracts closer scrutiny
and suspicion.
"At different stages of the event, it has been revealed that BP
wasn't being completely truthful about the spill," says Kuzmeski. "At
one point, it wasn't allowing the media to get close to the site. And it
turns out the company had a higher quality video feed much earlier than
previously revealed. By not being fully transparent and disclosing what
they know, BP officials have affected their believability. As it stands
today, I think a lot of people are wondering if they can trust any
communication the company puts out there.
"By not being fully transparent, I think the U.S. government has also
missed an opportunity to get the public fully on board with them," she
adds. "People want to hear that the government is doing its part to stop
the spill. They want to hear what the government is working on, and
what the government plans to do to help the citizens of the Gulf Coast.
It wasn't until just recently that we began to receive a clearer picture
from the president about what he thought the government's role should
be."
Get out in front of the disaster. There is no better example of this
than Johnson & Johnson and Tylenol. After several people died from
taking cyanide-laced Extra-Strength Tylenol in 1982, Johnson &
Johnson immediately accepted responsibility. The company immediately
recalled all Tylenol products (even though it likely was an isolated
incident) and developed a tamperproof seal. They began showing the
public that they were doing everything in their power to protect the
public and fix the problem.
"When you get in front of a problem, it doesn't make the problem go
away, but at least it shows people that you are doing something about it
and that you care," says Kuzmeski. "Caring is a key point of
connection. Your public has to see that you care enough about them to
forget your own company's well-being for the moment and instead do what
you can to restore their safety and their well-being. So much of it is
perception.
"Because BP was slow to accept responsibility and show they care
about what the spill is doing to the Gulf Coast, I don't think people
perceive that the company cares much about them," she adds. "And that is
something that can be very difficult to overcome when you are trying to
rebuild relationships with a public that feels it has been wronged."
Step up and take responsibility. An important part of reconnecting
after a disaster is accepting responsibility. Johnson & Johnson's
quick acceptance of responsibility is one reason the company was able to
recover so handily after the Tylenol scare. Unfortunately, in the case
of the BP spill, the company has only reluctantly taken responsibility
for what happened.
"Especially during the early days of the spill, there was a lot of
finger-pointing between the companies involved in the spill," says
Kuzmeski. "No one wanted to say it was their fault. BP should have
recognized that no matter whose fault it was it was going to come down
to them to fix it. They should have taken responsibility from the get-go
and said, 'There was an accident. It's horrible. We apologize for our
role in this disaster, and we are committed to doing everything we can
to fix it as quickly as possible.'
"The government too has seemed to try to deflect responsibility for
its role," she adds. "It was almost two months before the president
openly acknowledged that the mismanagement of the Minerals Management
Service played at least some role in the events leading up to the rig
explosion and the spill. Until someone takes responsibility for the
disaster, the public doesn't feel like there is anyone fully in charge
of fixing the problem."
Remember quantity and quality of communication count. In a crisis,
quality of communication is important, but so is quantity. Any company
facing a disaster must stay in front of the public and keep them
constantly informed. In the case of the oil spill, the U.S. government
too needs to be steadfast in its efforts to stay in front of the
people-after all, it stands to damage the livelihoods of U.S. citizens
in addition to the long-lasting effects it will have on the environment.
"When there is a lack of sufficient communication, the result is
anger," says Kuzmeski. "And when you are dealing with a disaster, anger
is no good. The anger causes a major roadblock and makes it difficult to
connect. Even if you eventually get it right, it takes a long time for
that anger to subside. Both BP and the government would be well served
by beginning to release steady updates regarding their efforts to stop
the spill and then begin the recovery process. It is time for both
parties to begin communicating effectively exactly what they are doing
and how they expect those efforts to make a difference."
Don't shy away from tough questions. There is nothing easy about
reconnecting after a disaster. Regardless of the situation, there will
always be tons of difficult questions that people want answered. Make
sure you're prepared to answer them.
"BP executives have almost seemed annoyed that people are questioning
them," says Kuzmeski. "The company's spokespeople, including its CEO,
Tony Hayward, often come off as dismissive. When dealing with a
disaster, if you have to answer a question a thousand times, just answer
it. When you're dismissive or act like you don't want to answer a
certain question, you diminish the public's trust in you.
"BP has tried to avoid answering certain questions, and it has turned
out that things were worse than BP was putting forward," she adds.
"It's another example of how the company has actually made things worse
for themselves by not being upfront about all the issues."
Be authentic-but please think before you speak! When a disaster
strikes, too often companies will go to the script. That's
understandable, because you naturally want your communication to be
well-thought-out. But it's important to understand that your
communication also has to be authentic. Remember, people connect with
other people-not with scripts. So be sure to take a break from the
"official" party line from time to time and let your human side show.
There is one important caveat, however, notes Kuzmeski: don't be
"authentic" in the ill-advised way BP's executives have!
"For the most part following the spill, the company has stuck to
scripted apologies and statements," she says. "One of the few times
Hayward went off script, though, he angered people by saying he wanted
his life back. Sure, he was being authentic, but the statement
definitely took away from the scripted apologies the company had
previously offered. If your level of authenticity does not match up to
your scripted statements, then it might be best to stick to the script.
If you do choose to speak your mind, choose your words very carefully.
"And BP serves up another great example of not thinking before you
speak," adds Kuzmeski. "In the company's recent talk with President
Obama, it was revealed that Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg mentioned BP's
concern for 'the small people' being affected by the oil spill.
Naturally, it was a statement that rubbed many the wrong way. The
takeaway lesson is that people need to feel you truly mean what you are
saying, but what you are saying needs to help your cause, not hurt it."
Couple your communication with action. You can be providing people
with the best communication possible, but if you aren't also backing up
that communication with action, you won't get anywhere.
"At the moment, I think this point might be a bigger struggle for the
government than BP," says Kuzmeski. "I think as time passes and the oil
continues to flow, Obama's talking about how angry he is isn't enough.
It's time for that anger to be coupled with action. Thankfully, with the
announcement that he negotiated a $20 billion payout from BP, it does
seem like he is starting to hold BP's feet to the fire. That kind of
concrete action needs to continue. You can't be all show and no go. You
have to have clear communication followed by activity.
"Johnson & Johnson serve as another good example here," adds
Kuzmeski. "After the Tylenol scare, they communicated to the public that
they were taking responsibility for what happened. Then they recalled
their Tylenol products even though it was a huge cost to the company."
Make the public part of the process. A way to connect with people is
to involve them in the process. When your company is dealing with a
disaster, you must assess who you should be collaborating with, who can
help you, and how they can help. When you do so, it shows people that
you are working toward solutions, and they become a little army on your
side.
"When I consult with companies, I make sure that all of the decision
makers and managers are involved in what is going on," says Kuzmeski. "I
want everyone in the room together collaborating, because when someone
is left out and new initiatives are implemented, they feel like they are
being given directives. But if they feel like they have been made a
part of the process, then they make sure they are part of the solution.
"There is an opportunity with the oil spill to get the people of the
Gulf Coast and even outside the Gulf Coast involved in the clean up, and
perhaps this is where the government can take some initiative," she
adds. "People want to help. Obama successfully used social media and the
Internet to mobilize voters during his presidential campaign, and I
think these methods could be used effectively to organize the people of
the Gulf Coast and any others who are willing to help with the clean-up
process or even just to donate money to those being affected by the
spill. By taking advantage of that help, the government and BP can bring
these people on their team. They bring people into the solution, and
people can better see what the plan is. People become insiders rather
than outsiders whose only weapon is to criticize what they are seeing."
"The bottom line is that BP took a terrible situation, and, via poor
communication and mismanagement, they made it even worse," says
Kuzmeski. "It is now much more than an oil spill. It's about the way
people have been treated. It's about the fact that many people feel they
have been victimized even further by the way the disaster has been
handled.
"If BP and the U.S. government want to come out of this situation
with the ability to salvage public opinion of them, they must start
working toward reconnecting through honest and open communication right
away," she adds.
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