As you may know, National Grid is an international gas and electricity company that provides energy to millions of customers across Great Britain. They are known for doing this in a safe, reliable and efficient manner. But this wasn't the case in December last year.
On 22nd December 2008 engineers were working to repair a gas leak in Lancashire when disaster struck. The gas ignited and caused a 'jet-fire' fuelled at a gas pressure 200 times more than we have in our homes. The flames were so intense; they partly melted a nearby pylon and overhead wires. As a result, local power supplies were cut off and 18,000 homes were affected just days before Christmas.
National Grid needed to react quickly, not only for the sake of the residents but also to avoid damaging the reputation they have worked so hard to build. Somehow, they needed to turn the crisis into a 'good news' story.
What did they do?
First of all, they apologised to all of the residents who were affected and explained that they would be helping vulnerable customers first. They recognised the need for frequent progress updates and made sure to keep all of the residents informed about what was going on. NG stressed that public safety was their utmost importance and they discouraged the residents from tampering with the gas supplies themselves.
Other staff; managed the media, conducted hourly conferences, co-ordinated interview requests, issued press releases, updated the web and liaised with government departments.
Because of the scale of the task involved, the National Grid team were presented as heroes; they came from all over the country to help out and worked around the clock, reconnecting all of the gas supplies over the Christmas period and sacrificing their holidays.
97% of news coverage was favourable or highly favourable. Employees played a huge part in turning the crisis into a positive news story but what other elements do you think made the campaign so successful?
In your view, what are the three most important things that companies need to consider when carrying out a Crisis Communications campaign?
Thanks for stopping by; I look forward to reading your comments...
Companies need to be transparent
ReplyDeleteThey need to respond to their clients quickly with accurate information
They need to continue to provide their services to the best of their abilities during a crisi
Companies need to have a coherent crisis plan which is put into action quickly;keep their clients and the media fully and accurately informed - with regular updates and draw up a
ReplyDelete'contingency plan' to deal with possible 'spin-off' problems
It was so successful because they ensured that people were kept informed at all times, If something like that happened to me just days before xmas I would want to have all the information I needed and have regular updates. I also think the fact that they apologised and didn't try to blame it on something else really helped with their reputation. No one likes companies who try to shift the blame.
ReplyDeleteThe three most important things that companies need to consider when carrying out crisis management is to keep key stakeholders informed at all times, honesty and communication.
I agree that it is incredibly important to be transparent in your communications during a crisis, partly because organisations have a moral duty to their affected stakeholders to keep them correctly informed.
ReplyDeleteIn this case, consumers appreciated the efforts being made to contact them individually and explain what was happening. Their appreciation perhaps even overshadowed their annoyance with the situation. In turn, the media printed positive stories about the organisation because there was a shortage of riled customers complaining.
The communications team were also very lucky in the way that the organisation was working incredibly hard to fix the problem in time for Christmas, meaning that they could push out positive messages to the media.
It is important to act quickly, however only to act when in full possesion of all the facts and not make false promises.
ReplyDeleteBe aware of all external influences at the time in order to maximise on positive spin, i.e time of year, other high profile events in the media and general "feeling" of the nation. In this circumstance the crisis was perfectly timed for a "feel good" and "happy ending" situation reflecting humanity.
Be coherent and do not revert to "management speak"
Hannah Macdonald
Adoption of CSR among the blue-chip companies has lead to increase investment and satisfied stakeholders. To fulfil their responsibilities it is necessary companies are transparent open and honest when faced with problems such as National Grid.
ReplyDeleteThis has also been reflected in the financial world with changes in the IFRS encouraging companies to be more open in their reporting.
Hi Cat
ReplyDeleteI run a pallet distribution company supplying pallets to the food and manufacturing industry.
We had a similar crisis in Portsmouth in the summer of 2003,we used to burn the off cuts of wood that were left over from our pallet repair shop.It was a very hot and one of our employees decided to put some empty boxes onto the open wood fire.One of the boxes lifted with the heat of the fire and landed on a huge stack of pallets,unfortunately it had already ignited.With the hot weather and a breeze it took hold,and was soon out of control.One of our forklift drivers, who was a very brave man tried to move the pallets that were still intact.Catastrophy struck one of the pallets that he was moving from the path of the fire, broke and then the whole stack collapsed onto the diesel tank,making it topple over into the path of the fire.Complete mayhem broke out.Gas bottles exploding 50,000 pallets blazing people running for there lifes.The main power cables for Hayling Island were above the pallet yard.The extreme heat from the fire melted the pylon causing it to collapse and cut off all the power to Hayling Island.
As you can emagine we were very unpopular.Every fridge and freezer was defrosting, costing millions of pounds in insurance claims.It was a couple of years before people started to forget about the fire.If only we had hired a public relations proffesional our hate mail would have stopped a lot earlier.
It was interesting to read your blog on our award and the comments you have received on it. The thing which best helped National Grid turn a very negative story into a positive one was team-work. Two regional communications advisers were busy on site and covered the incident by working a shift system (very long hours!) and we were ably supported by members of our Communications team at our head office in Warwick and Corporate Affairs collegues in London.
ReplyDeleteThe two regional comms advisers managed the media present on site while the Warwick team dealt with media calls and issued regular press updates. Our internal comms team were also involved and Corporate Affairs colleagues kept the local MP and Westminster politicians and government offices posted.
Team working also extended beyond the in-house Comms function. The two regional advisers on site have good working relationships with operational personnel and so were trusted with key information and with translating this into the vital messages which company spokespeople were tasked with getting across in interview.
All in all, a tense but interesting experience but one I'm not hoping to repeat this Christmas.
Jeanette Unsworth
Communications Adviser NW
National Grid
Interesting to get the view from the "horse's mouth" in the sahpe of the National Grid's comunications adviser! As ever, I found it interesting how much importance she put on the public affairs side of things. Keeping politicians informed is KEY. Too many young and inexperienced press relations people can over-emphasise the press, when in fact the public affairs stakeholders are just as if not more important.
ReplyDeleteI think being so transparent with the different stakeholders was what made them so successful in their communication because they didn't make false promises about how long it would take and about the consequences. They managed to turn a crisis into a good story that was turned into a positive message by the media.
ReplyDeleteIn general, I think effective crisis communication can be performed by being informative, engaging and honest. I belive the reason to why they won gold, was they they were quick to acknowledge the problem and then they managed to communicate effectivly with their key stakeholders. This allowed the affected to feel taken care of and general trust was established.e
ReplyDeleteNational Grid made sure that all of their key publics were kept informed and up-to-date with the developments of the crisis. They built up a good relationship with media because they realised that the media shape the attitudes of the residents and influence their thoughts on how the crisis was being dealt with.
ReplyDeleteTo me transparency, reactivity and log and activity logs are the major things a company should consider when facing a crisis.
ReplyDelete1 - Transparency involves clear communication with each of the stakeholders that are directly confronted with the issue. There is no need to lie or deny when facing a crisis. it just get things worst!
2 - It is important that the company stays aware and up to date with any up coming events and therefore become very reactive.
3 - Finally, activities log of each actions undertaken during the whole crisis management should be kept for preventive purpose. Then, it allows the company to be pro-active or more effective when being confronted with future crisis.