Texting Apologies - Crisis Management in a Few Words

Beleaguered Chinese dairy companies have used an unusual method of apologizing to 300,000 children and their families in China harmed by milk tainted with melamine. China Daily reported that on January 1st, the Sanlu Group and 21 other dairy firms sent a text message apology to the mobile phones of millions of Chinese citizens. The message read:

"We are deeply sorry for the harm we brought to children and society. We offer our sincere apology and plead forgiveness."

In an email, my colleague Chris Gidez commented that "On the one hand, this demonstrates how technology enables direct-to-consumer communication. On the other hand, it can be seen as intrusive, gimmicky and insincere if the underlying problem isn't addressed."

As much as I believe that social and mobile media are undervalued as tools for managing crisis communications, and that apologies are essential to bringing about closure when harm has been caused, I have to agree with Chris that effective communication (online and offline) and sincerity are not enough to ensure an organization's reputation recovers from the crisis.

What else needs to be done? At a minimum, a company or organization must:

1. Demonstrate it has changed the process or behaviour which led to the damaging event and that it will work tirelessly to ensure it doesn't happen again;
2. Provide adequate restitution for the harm caused (in the U.S. this will likely be determined by class action suits anyway);
3. Be prepared to work openly and honestly with regulatory bodies to find sector-wide solutions and protocols to prevent and mitigate similar events;
4. Offer a recovery plan to demonstrate to other stakeholders -- especially the investment community if the company is publicly traded -- that its business and operations will be made whole again.

Although in some countries, like China, even this may not be enough. According to another colleague based in Hong Kong, the CEO of one of the Chinese companies involved is facing execution.

Comments

[Lisa Walker]

Great post. My immediate reaction to the email apology was positive, but then I started wondering what the companies had done to change their behaviour.

[Boyd Neil]

They have set up a compensation fund for the families. But the more interesting story from our Hong Kong colleagues is that the parents of children who died were planning to hold a media conference in Beijing and were detained and only released after 36 hours of detention. The Chinese courts have also apparently prevented lawyers from filing suits on behalf of parents.

[Ruth Seeley]

Meant to comment when you first posted this - better late than never?

This is such a tricky one - personally I would be really offended to get a text message from a corporation, knowing that it wasn't in any way personalized. The only way it would be acceptable to me would be if it expressed regret and at the same offered me an opportunity to talk to or meet with someone (e.g. announcing a public or town hall meeting on the subject, directing me to a specific toll-free line to discuss the issue). Maybe that's just me and text messages, but I don't think the dairy farmers' text message goes far enough.

[Boyd Neil]

Although unlikely in this case, the principle of offering to meet or discuss is an important one.