Speaker 1: Hi, my name is Mackenzie Merchant, and this is my presentation for Crisis Management and Managing Bad Publicity. Crisis management is the process by which an organization handles an unexpected event that threatens to harm the organization or its stakeholders. There are three threats that a crisis presents, and they should be dealt with in this order. First public safety, then financial losses, and then loss of reputation. To prevent these threats from becoming an actual problem, we can utilize all three phases of crisis management, which are pre-crisis, crisis response, and post-crisis. The first threat, which was to public safety, always comes first in planning and in the crisis response. Being prepared in situations like these can save lives. Here I have pictured the Route 91 Harvest Music Festival in Las Vegas where 58 people were killed and 489 were wounded in 2017 by a domestic terrorist. While organizers did their best to prepare and plan for an emergency, which is inherently difficult, there were a few things that could have saved lives had they been done differently. They have now implemented these changes for future events. The first was including emergency dispatchers and firefighters in the planning process. They were unaware that the event was even occurring, and as such, they weren't ready to handle a disaster that large. Had they been included in the initial planning, emergency personnel would have arrived much sooner and been more prepared. Ambulances, larger medical tents, and heavier security are also now required on-site. The next threat was potential financial loss. There are three main reasons for financial losses in the event of a crisis, and these are disruption of operations, loss of market share as a result of the disruption of operations, and lawsuits due to the crisis itself. These are often unavoidable, but can sometimes be managed so that they don't get out of hand. Almost any crisis will result in a loss of reputation because there will be an immediate negative connotation with your business that's unlikely to be avoided. An event like this also reflects poorly on an organization's ability to prevent difficult situations. However, if you respond properly, it's possible to salvage some of this by showing the media and the public that you were extremely prepared and handled it as best as you could. Pre-crisis is arguably the most important stage in any crisis management plan. How well you prepare determines how well your staff and guests will react in the event of an emergency and how the media will describe the situation to the public. The first part of your pre-crisis planning should be prevention. We want to avoid any negative situations if possible, and putting proper regulations in place will help us do that. Some examples of this might include making sure that a building is up to fire code or that medical personnel are always on site in the case of a medical emergency. While prevention is of course the goal, it isn't always possible, and in that case we need to create a detailed plan for if a crisis actually occurs. There should be crisis plans set up for every plausible emergency that might occur in your location. These might include exit plans in the event of a natural disaster, fire, or act of domestic terrorism. Once a plan is created, drills should be practiced at least once a year in order to make sure that everyone is familiar with what to do if something does happen. It's important that these drills are taken seriously and are treated as if a crisis is actually occurring. I included the picture from the office because, had they done their pre-crisis planning properly, they might have handled the actual fire a little bit better. Immediately after a crisis, there will often be media coverage, and how much depends on how big the event was and how well it was handled. No matter the situation, we need to be prepared to interact with the media in a way that minimizes negative publicity and shows that we did everything we could to prepare. It's beneficial to have a designated media team that has trained specifically for how to deal with this task. This team should also have messages drafted prior to an event so that the response can be swift and effective. The earlier a business responds to a crisis in their own words, the better. If a crisis does occur, do your best to stick to the plans that you set up in the pre-crisis phase. Things might not go as smoothly as you hoped, but that's often the case with unexpected events. During situations like this, communication is key. The CDC says that when communicating in the initial phase of an emergency, it is important to present information that is simple, credible, accurate, consistent, and delivered on time. Make sure that everyone on site knows exactly what's going on to prevent any confusion or lag in response time. And as we discussed in the previous slide, as soon as the crisis is over, meet with reporters as soon as possible. This is essential to saving your reputation and making sure that what happened is explained in your own words. The post-crisis phase is mostly about learning from what happened and doing your best to adjust what could have been done better. No one's response to a crisis is ever perfect and they can all be improved upon. The other part of this phase involves following up with the media, the public, and your stakeholders about what efforts you're making to prevent this kind of thing from happening in the future. This step is important in order to regain trust. This form of planning is necessary for several reasons, the first being the safety of customers and employees. These people are trusting us with their safety, a huge responsibility, and we should do everything possible to honor that. The next reason is maintaining image. In any industry, image and public opinion have always been important. This is the case now more than ever. If something terrible happens and you didn't do everything possible to prevent it, the internet and the general public might have your head, and you might deserve it. Here I have a picture of a cruise ship, which is in reference to the cruise ships this past spring that caused large outbreaks of COVID-19. This isn't surprising because they're also often responsible for outbreaks of other diseases to the point that norovirus is often directly associated to cruise lines. They were simply not prepared for a crisis like the pandemic, and because of it, many experts are saying that the entire industry may never recover. And obviously, as a result, if the entire industry goes under, their financial stability is non-existent as well. The nature of tourism, hospitality, and events management means that a crisis occurring is possible at any moment. Here I have listed some of the most prevalent issues that our industry is facing today. The first two are COVID-19 and domestic terrorism, which I discussed earlier with the cruise line outbreaks and the 2017 Vegas shooting. The next two are review sites and social media. I have a few pictures of bad travelocity reviews here, and in a hospitality-related field, just a handful of these might seriously hurt your business, even if they aren't accurate descriptions of what actually happened. This is a big problem because people often check travel sites for reviews before spending their money at a restaurant or a hotel, and just a single bad one might deter them. To make matters worse, bad experiences are frequently shared on social media, creating negative opinions that can spread quickly and be extremely difficult to change. One example of a crisis that a tourism, hospitality, and events management major might experience in their future careers might be an accidental building fire. In this case, I said that a guest at a resort forgot that they left their hair straightener on and left the room. The appliance later catches on fire, which spreads to the rest of the bathroom that it was located in. Thankfully, the resort has a crisis management procedure properly in place. Because of this, the alarm systems went off and the entire hotel was evacuated quickly. Emergency personnel were immediately alerted and arrived on time to keep the fire contained to one room, with minimal property damage. The resort had a media team already on site who spoke to reporters about how the event was quickly under control and that because of proper procedures, no one was hurt and damage was contained to one bathroom. Because the media was spoken to quickly, there was minimal damage to the reputation of the resort, and many outlets reported how impressive it was that the location handled the potential crisis so effectively. Finally, crisis management isn't an exact science. It's difficult to plan for events like these because there just isn't a way to know what kind of crisis you might experience. If there were, they would never happen in the first place. The best method is to have multiple plans in place for all kinds of situations so you'll be prepared for as much as possible. Despite it not being exact, this process is absolutely vital to the safety of your patrons, the success of your business, and the state of your reputation.