We took responsibility as a PR team to help halt the spread of the negative rumours that were spreading throughout the country, because people were exaggerating the whole issue, we did not give up even though it was already known by everyone, it was not too late for us to deal with the crisis. We had to accept the facts and make some clarifications, apologize and assured our customers that the billing issue is taken into consideration that was when the potential damage of our good image was minimized as we had a well trained, informed and prepared Public Relations Manager, so in short I could say managing a crisis is of high significance in each and every company and "with a strong commitment to good Public Relations and Crisis Management planning the results can be tremendous as at the end of the day we ended up solving the whole issue and moving forward, imagine if we did not have a strong commitment, something bad could have happened.
Monday, March 28, 2011
KEREEDITSE LUCT "with good commitment to PR and crisis management planning, the results can be tremendous".
A crisis can grow very fast and it is of high significance to make sure that you prevent the crisis from growing too out of hand in the first place. The most critical time for each and every company is when a negative event occurs which involves the organization, the industry sector and the public. January 12, 2011 was really a hard and hectic day for us at Botswana Power Corporation (BPC) as we were handling Billing System Crisis, which was caused by estimation of bills by the corporation due to a new project which was being done, installation of new meters known as Smart Meters, for easy billing. This is a project which took some months therefore the corporation did not have a choice except to estimate the bills in order to keep the process going, but the customers were well informed about this issue and were assured that by the end of the project those who have been over charged will claim back their money and those who has been charged less will have no choice but to pay the outstanding amount. Things can and do go wrong in the best managed companies and organizations therefore we realized that many customers were complaining of over charging and this was a huge problem as it was of "high interest" to the media. Botswana Television was interested and even went to an extent of interviewing the complaints, this was tarnishing the image of the corporation.
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3 comments:
Wow, what a great experience for you! Although it is something that a company never really wants to go through, crises do happen all the time and it’s up to the Public Relation team to act quickly and effectively in minimising the situation. So, it was really good that you were able to experience it first hand and work through everything we have learnt in our PR units at university.
I completely agree that the media do like to create hype and can exaggerate issues dramatically, therefore it is rather essential that the company in question acts quickly to explain the facts, apologise and most importantly reassure customers that the company is doing everything they can to minimise the issue and bring relief to those who suffered.
Crisis management is a vital role of Public Relation professionals and I agree with you in saying that companies need to have a strong commitment to good Public Relations and Crisis Management planning as contingency plans can prove to be of extreme use in times of chaos and distress.
You wouldn’t believe when I say I went through that too. Crisis can make you want to quit your job just for that day if you are not alert by all the times. Crisis are frightening events and yes you are right when you say it can happen to any organization regardless how big, small or successful they are. They threaten to overwhelm the organization.
We had the same problem at the Ministry of Finance in January, the system was down in the Revenue department in Mochudi ( a village 35km away from Gaborone, where Ministry of Finance headquarters are) and people were not getting paid and instead of the public complaining to us they called the media. Knowing the media, they started calling the Public Relations Office and threatening that they will publish some articles and even asking for interviews. I remember my supervisor told me not to say anything through the phone as they will quote me in their articles and end up in trouble. As an alternative, I asked them to forward all the questions they have through my email but trust me even if I told them so; they kept on calling asking if I saw their questions.
The system was only down for two hours but the media made it as if it was for two days! But I can say the role of communication should be considered within the overall context of crisis management. We knew how to communicate well, that is why there wasn’t even one article or issue on that crisis in the media.
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