Quote of the Month:  The happiest people do not necessarily have the best things.  They simply appreciate the things they have.

– Warren Buffet

One of the very best ways to survive a crisis that lands you in the glare of the media spotlight in your local community is to have worked hard ahead of time to establish credibility with your major audiences there.  Public relations professionals refer to this as “depositing credits into the Bank of Good Will.”  Then, when something bad happens to your organization, you can draw out some of this Good Will to help you deal with the crisis so that your corporate reputation is not too badly damaged.

Make no mistake.  It takes time and effort to develop and nurture the relationships with those people whose opinions will be sought as the media writes the story.  In my 17 years of working for a chemical manufacturing company in New York, I spent a good 90% of my time doing things to enhance our corporate reputation through community relations efforts related to the five major audiences highlighted below.  But also know that, in my opinion, it was only because we had expended this time and effort that we were able to survive the fact that we had occasional releases of product that smelled like rotten fish at 12-21 parts per billion!  We sometimes also had other issues - a bomb threat, a regulatory fine, an employee who almost severed a hand, an on-site hazardous waste disposal problem from years previously, a railcar overturned, etc.

I encourage you to print out this e-zine.  Fill it out, giving yourself a score from 1-10 on each of the questions.  For your own good, be brutally honest.  Even better, make some copies and distribute it to a cross-section of your employees, from senior management to entry level positions.  Ask them to fill it out anonymously.  It’s surprising how you can get a wide variation of opinions.  Low scores or discrepancies in responses can point out some areas to which you need to pay more attention to help improve your community relations and, at the same time, prepare your organization for a crisis.

OK, here we go.

EMPLOYEES

_____ When asked, most of our employees would convey to friends and neighbors that this is a good place to work.

_____ Our employees are well informed about the company’s mission, goals, and plans.

ELECTED OFFICIALS

_____ We proactively contact local (and, when warranted, county, state or federal) officials to keep them informed of unusual events or important initiatives, activities and programs.  In other words, we don’t just call them when we want to lobby for something.

_____ Local officials know our senior management people by name.

EMERGENCY RESPONDERS

_____ We conscientiously provide opportunities for them to become familiar with our operations e.g., invite them for walk-throughs, inform them promptly of new hazardous materials on site, etc.)

_____ We hold joint drills with them frequently so both of us can be confident if they ever had to respond to an incident here.

MEDIA

_____ We have a working relationship with the media people who cover us (i.e, we know who would probably come to us on a story and we have talked to them before an incident).

_____ We feel sure that the media would at least call us for our statement on a story about us.

_____ We are confident in the abilities of our identified spokespersons and crisis management team to represent us well when dealing with reporters; their most recent media training took place within the past three years, at a minimum.

PUBLIC-AT-LARGE

_____ The general impression is that our facility is a good neighbor and an asset to the community.

_____ Company spokespeople, including the highest-ranking official on site, have established personal credibility in the community, i.e., they have been involved in community organizations and
activities.

_____ We have a good safety record with regard to our employees and the environment. (Note: the more recent a memorable incident, the lower the score must be.)

ADD UP YOUR SCORES.  If they total 96-120, you are doing well; 48 - 95 means you have some work to do, especially in those areas that were low rated; 0 - 47 is an indication that your corporate reputation is in serious jeopardy and a crisis could spell real trouble.

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SPECIAL NOTE:  If you would like a copy of the full-blown “Community Relations Health Check-Up,” please e-mail me and provide me with your snail-mail address or fax number so I can get it off to you right away.  With even more questions for you to answer, it will give you an excellent assessment of where you are and provide you with ideas on how you can improve your standing with your important audiences.

As always, if you’d like to share this e-zine with colleagues and friends, feel free to do so and encourage them to sign up for their own copy at my website www.judyhoffman.com

Until next month…KEEP COOL!

Judy Hoffman
(919) 550-8302

JCH Enterprises, 116 Nelson Lane, Clayton, NC 27527, USA