Crisis Management and Blogging

I just interviewed Tom Taulli, a blogger (www.taulli.com) and also a columnist at Forbes.com on crisis management and blogs. Over the years, he has started several businesses – one which was sold to InfoSpace. He is also the author of seven books, on topics like M&A and IPOs. Transcript follows:

Tom, What’s your experience with crisis management?

I’ve run several businesses. And, needless to say, every day seems to have a crisis. But, we deal with it internally.

Of course, sometimes the crisis hits the public and you have quick decisions to make. What if a negative article comes out? What if your product is buggy? What if there is misinformation?

Even just a few years ago, it was much easier to handle these things. However, with the ease of the Internet, bad news can spread like a virus – exacting much damage to your company.

I recently was the subject of a blog attack. In fact, the original blogger who attacked me was actually not working with accurate information. Even though I was able to deal with it, the message spread quickly. But, in the end, I was able to get an apology for the whole thing.

What can companies do when a crisis hits?

Since the spread of information is at lightening speed, you need to react at lightening speed. Actually, you need to be prepared for a crisis. Do your employees know how to respond? How about your corporate bloggers? What if the crisis erupts during the weekend?

In other words, you need to do some planning. And communicate this with all employees.

What if a company truly did blunder? How can blogging help?

I think a great example is Salesforce.com. The company is a leading provider of Customer Relationship Management software, which is delivered over the Internet. Companies rely heavily on this software. In other words, it is absolutely critical that Salesfoce.com provide almost perfect service.

Well, they had some outages, which affected some of its users. Of course, the bloggers quickly spread negative sentiments.

Salesforce.com could have done the typical corporate thing and say it was “doing everything possible” to ameliorate the situation.

Well, Salesforce.com took another approach. They were honest about the situation and recognized the problem – through blogs. And, to show how serious they were, they said they would be completely transparent with their customers. So, the company setup a Web site at http://trust.salesforce.com/. Basically, this shows in real-time how well the Salesforce.com online system is performing.

In a way, Salesforce.com was able to turn a negative into a positive.

How can blogs be useful in giving a company’s viewpoint in a crisis?

I think companies should think broadly. The beauty of a blog is that it is a web page. In other words, you can use charts, pictures and even videos. For example, in the case of Salesforce.com, having a chart of how reliable the system is can be quite powerful.

What about monitoring the blogosphere?

This definitely must be part of the crisis management plan. It’s ironic but many companies do not know they have a crisis. They do not realize what many passionate people are saying about the company’s products and services.

There are many products a company can use to monitor the Web, such as Technorati.

OK, what if a blogger is spreading bad things about your company?

I would engage with the blogger. I would definitely not be hostile. That is likely to result in much more damage.

Interestingly enough, engaging with the blogger may result in making a new ally. By being upfront and spending time, the blogger may get a better perspective on the company.

Another approach is to post a comment on the blogger’s site. Again, be professional and straightforward.

Now, keep in mind: whatever you say may – and is likely – to be blogged. So, make sure it’s something you want for public consumption. Don’t assume it’s “off the record”!

Thanks Tom for your time and perspective.

Tags: [crisis management]

Comments

[CRM Expert]

Yeah Right. Salesforce was not honest at all! They lied to customers about it, and what you call trust.sales... was released only after the outages last december.

Also, other rivals such as Netsuite, Salesboom.com and Salesnet actually offer a Service Level Agreement with a refund!

[Kingsley]

It's true, the trust.salesforce.com website was a response to customer complaints - since when was that a bad thing? We also have a blog at blog.crmsuccess.com and public readable forums at forums.crmsuccess.com. I won't contest the comment about SLA's but I'll note that most of our customers would rather we just worked on better uptime. And our record has been pretty good for the last 2 months.