An Action Plan

Here are some guardrails to put around your plan of action:

• Be honest.
• Be truthful.
• Act quickly.
• Don’t speculate.
• Put yourself in the shoes of your unhappy customers, voters, donors, volunteers or fans.
• Act with humility.
• Resist the urge to blame the victim.
• Understand that sometimes life is unfair, and social media may not be accurate.

It is important to build public trust and loyalty when things are good. People will hang in with you longer if doubts start to surface later. They will be more likely to give you the benefit of the doubt.

You should have several immediate goals:

• Don’t harm your company or organization’s long-term reputation.
• Don’t expose your company or organization legally or criminally.
• Build goodwill, support, donors, volunteers, users and customers.

Challenges, problems and even a crisis situation can in some instances actually result in more support from the public, not less. When people watch how a company, nonprofit agency or celebrity responds to allegations, product or service failures or criminal charges, it is an opportunity to set the record straight — and perhaps even strengthen support.