Corporate Reputation and Image Crisis Management: Insights to be considered

Corporate reputation and image crisis management: insights to be considered.

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Recently, I was asked: WHAT MEANS A COMPANY OR ORGANIZATION TO HAVE A STRONG REPUTATION? It’s an interesting question, as reputation itself depends on the outside perception of an individual or a certain group of people.

The perception of a given person or group of individuals also depends significantly on multiple factors, yet, depending on aspects that a person or group of people consider as being relevant.?It is an interesting aspect as the connection point between the given audience and the company are the common values they share; those values need to be measurable.

Taking into consideration a company that has strong environmental values, supporting multiple projects and activities with other organizations, such environmental competence might be perceived as a positive aspect to a certain number of organizations and individuals.?However, what if being environmental responsible is not an important factor to a certain person or group of individuals? In this case, a strong environmental responsiveness might be perceived differently, even as a negative aspect.?

Building reputation and managing risks are directly related to customer loyalty and stakeholders’ engagement; therefore, as to build a reputation, at first is necessary to answer some key questions: who is the target audience, what is relevant, how do they behave? ?It′s important to understand the context of your customer, considering the very expositive environment that we have today, being important not only to build reputation, but also to manage potential reputational and image crises that might happen – and they will certainly happen.

Independently on the size of the company, it is necessary to have a good perception on how to communicate with your customer and stakeholders, as well as to prioritize communication processes. Today, hyper-transparency is almost a common sense, as stakeholders demand immediate action on whatever is relevant.?Consumers became activists, for good or bad: frequently, we see media publications of (un)satisfied customers publishing notes and videos on the internet, giving public recommendations and complains on their day-to-day activities and situations experienced whenever consuming a service or purchasing products.?How should a company position itself whenever there is such exposition??If a customer is publicly recommending your company, that’s superb, it′s free promotion that supports the corporate image and reputation: it should be replicated. However, if a company gets a public complain from its customer, the risk of not responding quickly and public to such situation may cause a significant reputational crisis. In both cases, responses should be immediate. Stakeholders and consumers demand that.?Quick responses are perceived as being very positive, while late responses may be considered a threat to the reputation, increasing the potential risk level of any complain that the company might have received.

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Measuring corporate reputation

A strong reputation is synonymous to competitiveness, allowing a company to implement specific strategies within its customers and stakeholders.?But how can the reputation of a company be measured? Its important to establish KPIs as to permit the adequate analysis, even to compare among different periods of time, and if possible, to compare with competitors.?As a company establishes clear and transparent indicators, allowing customers to perceive the corporate responsiveness, that becomes a positive reputational indicator. By establish a long-term approach, the corporate maturity also tends to grow, permitting a more robust relationship to customers and stakeholders, and a stronger corporate image. Such maturity takes time. Strategic competitiveness is related to an integrated management approach, permitting the analysis of key aspects, such as external expectations, processes, ESG, communication management, and risk pressure factors (to understand the integration of the various indicators vis à vis external perceptions). ???

It’s not easy to communicate correctly, especially because is necessary to communicate not only with my intended audience, but also with other groups, particularly as to mitigate risk to corporate image.?How to communicate? This is very important as corporate image is directly related to trust, and if there is lack of trust and a corporate image crisis, the reputation of a company might be ruined very quickly. Trust is something that needs to be conquered, a very important asset. But to build trust, people need to know your best practices, increase engagement, and develop bilateral/multilateral relations.

Nowadays, it is not possible to deny the relevance of the internet, and how the communication processes have been changing quickly, particularly considering the growing relevance of the Z Generation as consumers.?What is considered as being of relevance? Which indicators are perceived as milestones in terms of building a strong reputation with the Z Generation? And, what about the other age groups?

It is a risk not to use digital communication tolls as to communicate with a broad audience, especially if we look to the future, which is expected to have even more digital platforms for communication purposes, shopping, and interactive activities.?How should a reputation be built if people don’t get to know the corporate best practices??What should be promoted, considering the message intended to reach the target audience? What might be the perception of the target group once the message is delivered??Such questions should be considered. ?However, it is important not only to consider the perception of the target group, but also other social groups, as previously said.?Hence, if my public is not into ESG (or any other important topic, just as to give as an example), before considering other topics of engagement as to build a strong reputation with customers and stakeholders, could that lack of engagement in ESG become a reputational risk considering the perception of other social groups that might question my corporate attitudes while comparing to concurrent companies? Which KPIs should be considered as to translate the corporate vision within my customers and stakeholders? How to measure that?

Communicating correctly with my audience is the most important aspect; but other social groups that are not my target audience should not be forgotten.

As an alternative, it could be asked if it would be eventually better not to communicate broadly corporate best practices, as to avoid corporate risks. Would that really avoid corporate risks??This might be perhaps the easiest; however, if you don’t communicate correctly, you may have poor results, probably reaching people that is not necessary your target audience, and probably not generating the necessary trust with stakeholders. Therefore, money and efforts would be spent for nothing. That’s okay if you have plenty resources, but why should you do something that is not effective at all? A poor communication might also bring internal problems, as it is not only related to customers loyalty, but also reflects on the process of attracting talents to work for the company. Important questions to be answered: would you work for a company that has a questionable reputation as it has difficulty to communicate best practices? Would you buy their products/services?

Independently on the size of the company, corporate values must be very well defined as to build a communication strategy that gives the correct message not only to the target audience, but to everyone.?And probably, it might be necessary to define multiple strategies as to best reflect the intended audience.?How should I communicate with my stakeholders? Should the communication process have different approaches? Certainly. Communicating with government officials is completely different on how to communicate with NGO representatives, international clients, and other social groups.?Again: how should I communicate and establish a good corporate image with a broad audience?

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Too many questions, and few answers. I know... Perhaps as guidance, considering my personal thoughts on reputation and risk management.? What are your thoughts on this topic??

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