When a crisis is already triggered, they refer, the first thing is to think with a cool head. Then act quickly, issue a public apology, accept the fact, show the brand’s position, reinforcing its values and DNA, and clarify the actions to be followed to correct the error, but always putting the consumer at the center of decision-making. The statement issued by the group does not comply with these points.
“Sometimes brands take a long time to react, and when they respond and think, memes start to spread like wildfire, when it could have been a content issue before it entered the public domain,” says Galván.
The specialist adds that, knowing that social networks can bury a brand’s reputation in seconds, it is crucial that companies have trained talent in their ranks to make quick and pertinent decisions.
Better safe than sorry
Every time Andrea Cortés manages the digital communication of a brand, the Director of Digital Influence at LLYC Mexico carefully chooses her team. In the selected profiles there are communicologists, marketers, sociologists, engineers.
It seems illogical, but it is not. Cortés assures that having a pool of diverse talent allows them to shield their clients to a certain extent. Before starting to work with them, they make a diagnosis to find out what their strengths and weaknesses are. With artificial intelligence, they analyze the conversations that are being generated on social networks and the trends in which the sector of each client is moving.
“If we have constant data analysis, we know who is talking about the brand or the company and what they are saying, it is also elevating the conversation. Anticipating this helps the crisis management team a lot to know when to go out, what words to use, how to react and on what channel,” he says.
In his opinion, there is still Many brands that They act like a monologue. They stand in the center they emit the message from their focus, they create the dialogue and the content, but along the way they forget that the message must be targeted and segmented. “You’re being attacked on Facebook and you put out a press release, when your crisis and the people who are mentioning you aren’t reading a press release,” she explains.
However, not everything that shines is a crisis, says Amílcar Olivares, senior director of Corporate Communications at LLYC Mexico. “One or two negative notes are not, but when the topic starts to grow and reach people who have influence and that can change the sentiment of the conversation and that the comments hit the reputation of the brand and the business That’s when a crisis can really explode.”
Not that there are formulas to avoid them. But there are several ways to better manage risks. Collaborators, for example, are those influencers and ambassadors that brands don’t always see. And having a manual of what to do in different possible scenarios is vital.
“We must always try to ensure that all communication actions and social networks that we manage are backed by a social listening and crisis management strategy. And even more so when it comes to a client, whose service it offers may have more risks”, warns Galván.
The impact for Sonora Grill
Baéz is convinced that the restaurant chain is unlikely to have a significant economic impact in the short term. Some potential customers may think twice about going to the restaurant, but this is not a general behavior that leads to a significant drop in guests.
Despite this, he points out, the case can have an economic impact in the medium and long term if the correct actions are not taken to prevent the issue from reviving and new incidents from arising, because something that the businessman Añorve must not forget is that the case that detonated the crisis touched on a sensitive social issue to which an internal follow-up must be given, in order to prevent a similar case from happening again.
Beyond its iconic beans, “today Sonora Grill needs the basis of internal and external communication that helps rebuild the brand’s reputation because, without a doubt, the impact here was greater, the crisis lasted several days even after the response of the company, and still continues. Crises are regularly events that involve many players, the union of talents is fundamental”, he concludes.