No one welcomes a corporate reputation crisis. Uncomfortable and difficult to predict, a crisis can have disastrous consequences for your brand image. However, it is possible to limit the impact of a crisis by properly managing your crisis communications.
Our agency’s expertise goes well beyond press relations. We have managed hundreds of crisis communications challenges and are well equipped to limit your company’s reputational damage in such an event.
We can support you before, during and after your crisis:
- Before: anticipate risk situations to build an effective crisis strategy and play out different scenarios depending on the various stakeholders.
- During the crisis: act and monitor the crisis in real-time to react in the best possible way.
- After: learning lessons and taking stock to avoid future crises.
We anticipate your crisis situations
You probably hope that your company will never have to face a crisis. While crises are unpredictable by nature, it is vital to prepare a structure for handling them so that you can respond in the best possible way.
In reality, the aim is not to evade the crisis but to actively and effectively manage it by engaging all stakeholders. What matters is how your company responds.
Our crisis management team recommends that you design your crisis communication strategy in advance to be prepared and react as quickly as possible. The surprise effect can lead to a few hours or days of immobility, aggravating the crisis. It is so important to anticipate worst-case scenarios and prepare messaging to better control it.
To help you anticipate potential crises as effectively as possible, our agency’s crisis communications team will identify potential risks. And for each of them, we will define the elements of crisis management:
- The nature of the potential crisis
- The consequences
- Who the targets are
- Who needs to be warned
- Who should speak out and when
- Which media outlets or journalists should be considered
- What key messages need to be conveyed to the media
The aim here is to prevent the company from reacting on the spot so that it can control the brand image as effectively as possible.
The challenges of crisis communications
Your company needs to be aware of the challenges of crisis communications:
- Limiting the negative impact of the crisis on the company
- Controlling the flow of information to avoid spreading rumours or leaked information that could make the situation worse
- Maintaining a bond of trust with your customers and stakeholders
- Implementing problem-solving measures
- Minimising the impact on your results
By reacting appropriately to a crisis, you can preserve and even strengthen your brand image. Every year, we support businesses around the world with their crisis communications.
To sum up, to resolve a crisis quickly and limit the damage, it is essential to be prepared by implementing crisis communication protocols. This is precisely where Ballou Agency can help, with its wealth of experience managing and defusing numerous crises.
Our agency helps your company control its reputation in times of crisis
The day your company faces a crisis, our crisis communications agency will be at your side to help you respond appropriately.
To achieve this, our communications specialists will strive to understand the context of the crisis. Only by measuring the human, economic, and technical stakes can an overall view of the scale of the crisis be obtained, which is essential for adjusting your company’s response.
Crisis communications cannot be set in stone. We anticipate it as best we can, but you need to know how to adjust your actions in real time depending on the fallout in the press and on social networks. Media monitoring is essential to measure the impact of the crisis on your company’s reputation.
Get support from crisis communication experts
Take advantage of our media and communications expertise to stay one step ahead of any crisis your company may face.
Over the past twenty years, our communications agency has worked with nearly 800 companies, from startups to major groups. Our team has managed several crises related to human resources, legislation, health, mobility, and investment.
Depending on your company’s needs, we can offer you a wide range of crisis communications services:
- Developing a crisis communication strategy: studying potential risks, identifying targets, key media and journalists, constructing a problem-solving scenario, implementing a message grid and Q&A sessions, and more.
- Media training: teaching managers and spokespeople how to better manage their stress and control their verbal and nonverbal communication. Ensuring spokespeople are properly prepared for the different scenarios and feel confident interacting with the media, even in times of crisis. This is essential for delivering the right messages and strengthening the company’s reputation.
- Setting up a crisis unit: This involves creating a team that may be comprised of communications directors, legal experts, social media specialists, and stakeholders affected by the crisis.
- Liaising with lawyers, lobbyists and analysts: Supporting the various communication levers to manage the high-risk situation.
Finally, as a PR agency, we have an extensive network of journalists specialising in tech, business, and innovation, whether online, press, radio, or TV. We can connect you with the most prominent media to take back control of your message.
With the support of Ballou’s crisis communications experts, your company will stay in control, even in the most complex and challenging situations.