Speaker 1: Ensuring message consistency when it comes to communicating in times of issue and crisis management is essential. You need for your communications, the approved messaging, to be communicated consistently for every single stakeholder across every region and department, etc. This is essential. However, I want you to pay particular attention to the measures, the protocols and policies that you put around ensuring this consistency because that can be your downfall. I recently gave a guest lecture and at the end of the lecture, a student raised her hand and said that she works for one of the biggest brands in mobile technology. She works as a sales representative at one of their storefront locations. She said that this location in particular is very, very prone to grabbing runs. So people come in, they grab merchandise and they run out. As a result of this, the other customers that are around that witness this come to the sales representatives, clearly, and ask them questions about it. It happens so often that the company has issued a protocol that says you are not to answer their questions. You are to send them to the corporate website, to this webpage that has a Q&A for them to answer their questions. She raised her hand and she said, everything that you've just shared with us about crisis readiness and putting people first and all of these wonderful things, validating emotions, doesn't align with what we're supposed to do when these customers come to us feeling concerned and a little bit scared and we're just kind of sending them, shooing them off to a website. Her big question was, what do I do about that? First and foremost, I want to say that I understand where this comes from. I understand where this protocol comes from. It comes from leadership who says, we have thousands upon thousands upon thousands of employees on our front lines in each one of our store locations, many of whom are students who are part-time and seasonal. We can't ensure that if we have a regular issue, that the messaging that we've approved will be communicated so the safest bet to ensure that message consistency is for us to tell those customer service representatives, those employees, to send the customer to the website. I understand where it comes from. Doesn't make it okay, but I understand where it comes from. It doesn't make it okay because now I want you to put your minds, yourselves, in the shoes of those customers. You're at any location and a theft happens right in front of your eyes. You're with your child, maybe. You're by yourself. It doesn't matter, but it scares you. You walk up to the representative, the customer service clerk, and you say, does this happen often? What just happened? What do you do about this? Your mind is thinking, next time if this happens often and next time I'm in the store and I get in that person's way, am I at risk? Am I going to get stabbed to get out of the way? People are scared. They're concerned. And then the response that they're met with is, go to our website. We have information there for you. What is the sentiment attached to the brand that is left with those people as they leave the store? It's not a positive one. They don't feel validated. Their concerns are not addressed. They're probably not going to go to the website and they may very likely not come back to that store location ever again. Here's what I said to the student. I explained this. I explained the reason behind this thought process. And then I said, the way that you deliver something, people need human interaction. So why don't you go to that website and read and understand, learn the language, learn the approved messaging that is used on purpose throughout that page. And then the next time this happens and somebody, a concerned customer who's worried and feeling apprehensive, comes to you and says, does this happen often and what do we do about it? You have the precise language to use. You use a little bit of it. You deliver it in a way that is compassionate with your tone and your body language that helps them feel validated, heard, and their concerns cared about and addressed. And then you say, we have more information on this page on our website. Think of now the impact that that has on that consumer. That consumer who is now leaving that store feeling validated, feeling heard, having his or her concerns addressed, and walking out with a more positive experience in a less than ideal situation. Message consistency is essential. It's so critically important, but so is the way in which that messaging, those communications are delivered to the people who matter to your brand. And here's the other thing. Every single new employee goes through an orientation of some sort. They need to learn how to use the products and how to sell the products. Why is issue management and these types of protocols and education not a part of that orientation? I understand where the thinking comes from. I understand where the intent comes from, but that doesn't make it good enough. When you are looking at your message consistency or just your messaging in times of issue and crisis management, it is so important that that messaging connect on a human and compassionate level that validates the emotion of the stakeholder for which they are intended. Sending somebody robotically to a website when they are concerned for their safety is not good enough. It does a disjustice, it does a disservice to that human. Pay attention to all aspects of the why behind what you're doing. Put yourself in your different stakeholder group's shoes and ask yourself, how would I receive this? How would this make me feel? What questions would I have? How can we look at every dynamic, every aspect of this goal of message consistency and delivering it in a way that increases the trust and credibility that you share with those who matter most to your business? That is the whole point of crisis readiness, right? When something bad happens, whatever it be, issue straight through to catastrophic crisis where you come out of it, it's well managed, mitigate long-term impact on the brand, and also build that brand equity. Build those connections, those relationships with those who matter most. For more information on what it means to be crisis ready, how to become crisis ready, and build out your brand's invincibility, go to MelissaAgnes.com and or pick up a copy of my book, Crisis Ready, Building an Invincible Brand in an Uncertain World, which gives you the entire roadmap for building out your brand's invincibility by becoming crisis ready.