Crisis management in a digital world – lessons from the latest RBS PR disaster
The communications team at RBS has had plenty of opportunities to refine its crisis management strategies recently.
IT issues have given RBS a PR headache
This year alone the beleaguered bankers have been dealing with the Libor fixing scandal, allegations that small businesses were deliberately forced into financial trouble, and now, another IT systems failure that left customers unable to use bank cards on the biggest online shopping day of the year.
The reaction on social media was as understated as it was predictable, with tweeters accusing RBS of ‘ruining Xmas’. And never one to be upstaged when it comes to faux outrage, the Daily Mail managed to track down the mother of an RAF pilot who couldn’t use a Natwest card to pay for his crew’s dinner in the Falkland Islands. “The least RBS/Natwest could do would be to fly some ‘Christmas cheer’ down to them," was her valuable contribution to the debate.
The way that social media works alongside traditional news sources to fuel the speed at which stories spread is highlighted in a new report published this week. Research by Populus/Open Road showed that Twitter has become a key source of information for opinion formers, particularly as breaking stories develop. More than half (55 per cent) of opinion formers polled said Twitter had become a regular news source, up from just 28 per cent two years ago.
The growing importance of social media channels is clearly demonstrated by the RBS story. News of the IT outrage began to circulate as disgruntled customers used Twitter to vent their frustrations, and when journalists picked up the story and contacted the bank for comment, it seemed to take the press office by surprise.
As mainstream sources reported the news, so more customers joined in the fun, causing RBS to trend. The jokes inevitably followed, and 24 hours later, a search on the #natwest hashtag finds almost as many journalists looking for people to quote as it does actual customers with complaints.
So how can brands plan to deal with crises in a world where the interaction between mainstream and social media creates stories that reach critical mass at breakneck speed?
The Populus/Open Road report cites Tesco’s response to the horsemeat crisis as the best by a company faced with a reputational issue in 2013. As part of the cross-agency team who developed the supermarket’s strategy, Zone built a dedicated website within days of the story breaking.
Launching the website gave the brand a platform from which to publish the latest information. An email campaign gave millions of customers a link to the site. Responsive design made the site fully accessible via mobile phones, which meant that customers and staff in store could always access the latest data. And a focus on both paid and organic search made sure Tesco had a presence in relevant search results.
Crisis management in 2013 requires an understanding of the digital world – which means digital expertise sitting at the top table. So it’s ironic that years of
under-investment in IT seems to be the underlying cause of RBS’ latest PR disaster.
Jon Davie is managing director of digital agency Zone