Your reputation can be buoyed or destroyed depending on how you handle a crisis, says Elizabeth Heusler of Heusler Public Relations, a doyenne of the communications industry who’s spent a lifetime working with clients to build and manage their reputations.
When bad news turns up on a Google search, the damage is already done and a hard-earned reputation ruined with the click of a mouse.
We use countless tactics to combat a crisis: from PR campaigns to fierce letters to Google Legal HQ. None of this is quick nor what you want to be grappling with in the midst of a disaster. However, if things do go wrong and you’re in the eye of the storm, you can turn the tide from a negative to a positive outcome.
Managing your reputation has become an art form: a hybrid of communication, negotiation, digital and media skills, a solid knowledge of regulations and a healthy respect for legal machinations.
Reputation management is the domain of specialists with success stories under their belts and a few flesh wounds. It’s around the clock. It’s high pressure. There’s much at stake when a clinician’s career and livelihood are on the line.
The most respected and solid medical practice is not immune to negative reviews, bad word-of- mouth or workplace blunders. While clinicians have the best intentions, there could be a misunderstanding, a keyboard warrior having a bad day or nefarious forces at work.
There will always be complaints and in the medical profession the stakes are particularly high. The pattern of year-on-year growth in complaints is now well established. For 2020-21, 8,702 complaints were received in NSW alone by the HCCC. According to the HCCC annual report, this is 10.8% more than the previous year and a 112.0% increase over the past decade.
The goal is to avoid the issue occurring in the first place. Or, if that’s not an option, at least mitigate the fallout.
Prevent an issue from becoming a crisis
Start with a robust risk assessment. Review practices and protocols. Mistakes often happen at the front line and regular drills are integral to communication training protocols. Role-play angry and upset patients, how the practice handles a social media snafu or a call from a journalist. It’s a good idea to call your own practice from time to time, to get the experience first- hand, or enlist a secret agent for genuine feedback.
We recently worked with a health practitioner who followed his personal mantra, ‘stand up to the bullies’, when dealing with online exchanges. This had worked well for him. Until it didn’t. Unfortunately, his language inflamed the trolls.
He couldn’t see where the online stoush was headed, the matter escalated out of control and we had to intervene.
In our opinion, he wasn’t actually being bullied; at worst, it was ribbing or baiting. However, he couldn’t step outside the issue and assess it objectively. This scenario could have been nipped in the bud with the most fundamental communication tactics before it developed into a full-blown crisis.
Manage the monster before it manages you
Take control from the outset and start to build a digital footprint before you need to. Think of this like a reputation trust account. As interest on your ‘deposits’ compound, your reputation grows.
Once a proper strategy is set up, there should be a plan that is easy to implement, measure and manage, with ‘manage’ being the key word.
Strategy begins with a vision. That leads to the tactics that encompass all communication touch-points from business development and profile to staff, clinicians and patient contacts. Your strategy should also include reputation management and communications training, together with compliance.
The strategy will provide economies of scale and consistency around collateral that’s owned (your website, marketing materials, socials and blogs), bought (advertising, sponsorships, memberships) and earned (third-party media). Each bolsters and affects the other. Working out how they all fit together is like a jigsaw puzzle and it’s easier if you have the jigsaw box with the big picture.
Toxic language
Media will pounce on poor images and copy. The wrong message, tone or voice repels potential patients, undermines credibility and demonstrates a lack of attention to detail – never a good thing in a medical environment.
Understanding and communicating with stakeholders and their varying needs is both a robust discipline and an art. So, too, is getting your point across without being dull or boring and avoiding toxic language or being quoted out of context.
To be fair, it’s not easy to see yourself or your practice objectively as they’re often intertwined.
We recently undertook some preventative maintenance on a client’s Facebook page that included a fair amount of the doctor’s lifestyle.
There are several ways lifestyle can be presented and there’s a fine line between trashy and tasteful.
Sorry is not that hard to say
Apologies are a minefield. There’s nothing worse than the half-hearted or insincere apology expressing the regret it makes the receiver feel. If you do apologise, own it.
Advisers will often warn of apologies being akin to admission – that’s not the case. Only the court can make that decision. Often an apology will diffuse the situation and prevent it from going to court. There are case studies aplenty when all the receiver wanted was someone to say sorry.
One of my favourite apology statements was from a company that hadn’t actually erred but chose to take responsibility. Paraphrased, the apology was, ‘This wasn’t our fault, but we are going to act like it was and make it up to every one of you.’
In closing, may your issues always be resolved behind closed doors! AMP
Elizabeth Heusler specialises in high-stakes media training. For more information contact 02 8354 1131, email heuslerpr@spin.net.au or visit www.heuslerpublicrelations.com
