Emergency marketing response: The crisis solution

Wham!

Something really bad happens, and you need to act fast.

It could be a horrible piece of publicity when one of your employees or subs is killed on a job site accident, your key client defects to a competitor (or worse, goes bankrupt just after you finish a major job but before you are paid), or terrorists hijack four planes and aim two of them for high profile public buildings in a market you thought you were succeeding in, and were about to expand. (For me, Washington Construction News, September 2001.)

Things happen in business and in life, and not everything is under your control.

You can plan for contingencies, but can you plan for everything?

To some extent, yes, but I would argue that outside of some common sense, you can't worry too much about the improbable or unexpected events that affect everyone. You'll be in a mess, of course, but so will everyone else around you. (And sometimes disaster equals opportunity -- I'm sure most contractors in Louisiana didn't fare too poorly after Katrina struck.)

The disasters you need to watch and prepare for are the ones which aim squarely at your own business, but no one else. These are usually self-inflicted. (It turns out I had business problems in Washington, D.C. which had nothing to do with 9/11 but were caused by my then lack of sufficient management controls and oversight of people/processes.)

Lets take the job site accident, for example. Are you observing all the relevant safety regulations, and do you have best-practices for managing and training your employees in the processes. (Skimping your safety budget to enhance your marketing is surely not a wise business decision, because when something goes wrong you will more than pay for the collateral damage.)

Is your credit and business management so loose that you would allow yourself to be caught when a major client fails, and are you too dependent on a single client, who will cause business havoc if he leaves? For the latter problem, some intelligent marketing to enhance your client diversification is as wise an an expense as appropriate insurance coverage and good safety training.

These preparations are helpful, but you need another quality to get through really bad situations. I call it a great stress instinct and am fortunate to be well equipped in this regard. When something goes wrong, I quickly figure out a response or solution, often within minutes, and get down to work.

You probably know if you have this trait yourself. If your business has been banged around by the recession and is still viable (or you lost your job in the hard times and managed to start, and succeed, at business in the current environment) you are okay.

Don't sweat the small stuff.

We're still in Washington, by the way. Issue number two of the Design and Construction Report will publish and go on line next Monday. But I have a client service crisis to resolve which I learned about at seven p.m. last night. I've already mapped out my simple and inexpensive solution.

Crisis, change and opportunity

Mel Lester's description in his blog entry, Success, for a Change, of how a company successfully changed its business model to make safety a high priority is an enlightening reminder that sometimes really good things can happen when you push through and do things differently.

But change is hard. In Lester's story, the change occurred when his company's major client made it clear that safety must be a priority or it would lose business. Few things can motivate executives and employees to 'get it' than to realize they are about to lose their client (or job) if they don't shape up, and quickly.

My own business is seeing some changes now, as I recover from one of my more expensive blunders of recent years. Thinking we had successfully overcome the last major crisis and were on the way to rebuilding a massively successful company, I let go of key cash and business management controls, relying on inadequate financial reporting and measuring resources.

Costs skyrocketed just as the recession began tearing into our sales volume; and (worse), I pushed forward with business expansion plans thinking that "one bad month" would not thwart our success.

Well, the four-letter-word indeed hit the fan, and we suddenly faced an immediate business crisis. The solutions are still under-way, but we learned some important lessons which you may find helpful in your own business.

Little things count. Not because you are nit-picking, but because tackling the little things (quickly and without much time/effort) allows you to see and resolve the big picture. On Monday, for example, I cancelled a bill for a cell phone number I hadn't used in two years. We are especially careful in monitoring the credit card billing statements, checking them online every day, for charges which need explaining.

Decisiveness is vital. I've had to make hard, tough decisions, which impact on individual employees. In one case, I asked someone who joined us after a lengthy selection process to leave within two weeks of joining the company (fortunately, we had not lured the person from a better-paying job, so didn't harm the individual.)

Fairness and respect are essential. One of our employees combines income from hourly pay and contract work, with the understanding (at the outset) that his hours would be variable. Alas, he felt the immediate brunt of the cost controls, but we've worked to feed him additional freelance work (at lower cost than we are paying other suppliers) to help him maintain some degree of income stability.

Openness is crucial. Our previous accounting and reporting system clearly didn't do the job, but we have maintained it because employees, in receiving the reports before and during the crisis, can see the numbers and that the problems (and solutions) are real. Through Open Book Management, employees also are receiving the new, much more detailed and forward-looking reports. This openness has helped us to maintain trust and respect and proven to the employees that superficial cost cutting measures are not enough.

I can't say all of the decisions we've had to make have been easy, and some of the toughest choices are imminent. But I'm now optimistic we'll pull through. You can, too, if you take charge and do what you need to do, while working openly and forthrightly with your employees to solve the problems.

Ready for change?

This istockphoto.com image is a little distant from this article's theme, but I like the questions the photo raises from a Construction Marketing Ideas perspective.

Mel Lester makes an excellent point in his E-Quip blog when he reports that hard times may be the key catalyst for important and necessary changes in your business and life.

But sometimes change is imposed upon us, and we're forced to respond in ways we were unable or unwilling to do previously on our own unprompted initiative. Economic downturns can do that. Hard times can be just the catalyst we need for needed change. Rahm Emanuel's comment "never waste a crisis" was politically motivated, but that's not bad business advice.

One of the most important truths of organizational change is the following: "If the pain of change is greater than the pain of staying the same, change will not occur." There are many reasons change initiatives fail, but this is the most common. There is too much discomfort in changing, not enough in staying the course. So the status quo prevails, often despite elaborate plans and valiant improvement efforts.

I agree. It is hard to change when things look like they are working well, even when they aren't. Sometimes you need a real scare, a real crisis, to provoke the necessary change. But there is an important precurser for success in these situations: You need to have the knowledge and insight to be aware of what you need to do, and why.The best example I can give of this quality is how I made it through the early 90s recession, about three years after starting in business. I remember heading home from the office one blustery March day, thinking all had been lost -- if you added the negative equity in a dumpy property I owned, I was effectively bankrupt -- single, no girlfriend or family, nothing much to show in life for a 38-year-old.

But a couple of years earlier, in a trade-out deal, I had obtained some Brian Tracy motivational tapes, and one thing he suggested was to affirm "I am responsible for myself", and for some reason, on that dismal day, this thought stuck in my mind. Sure, things were bad, but no one but me could solve the problem. Two years later, I married the woman of my dreams (I had known her as a friend for 13 years) and my personal standard of living skyrocketed as my business recovered.

It is easy to say that this magical turn-around occurred because I purchased and listened to some tapes by a motivational guru but that is too simple. Other choices, decisions, and responses shaped and continue to challenge my assumptions. So should you.

You will best be prepared for change with the bedrock of your values, and your accumulated knowledge of what is right and necessary. Then, when hard times hit, you will respond naturally and effectively to the crisis and make the changes you should have made long ago.

Little things and big things

Book publicist Maryglenn McCombs did her work properly yesterday, reporting to her publisher client the little flaw I found on Brand Harmony author Steve Yastrow's Brand Cafe website.

It is good to put things into perspective. We spend much of our time worrying about little things, and then discover something truly major dwarfs the apparently minor concerns. So, for example, is my last posting -- where the company president at a family-owned business decamped for the competition -- just ahead of the previous post, where I noticed, in lamenting my own failings in Brand Harmony, that marketing guru Steve Yastrow's organization had itself failed in a minor (but significant) way to manage brand harmony by allowing a dead link at a key ordering point for his book.

Losing a website link is one thing; (possibly) losing the market driver for a well-established family business is another. But there are important correlations between the two entirely different levels of concern here.

First little things can create big connections -- I enjoyed Steve Yastrow's personal comment and email last night where he explained how the bad link occurred. He promised to send me a copy of his new book: We: The Ideal Customer Relationship.

Second, little things, unchecked, can become big things -- and little things, handled in perspective, can be corrected easily. When I discovered the website flaw, I quickly found a public relations/communications link on the same website, which worked, and contacted book publicist Maryglenn McCombs. She acknowledged the situation and escalated it -- to ensure the problem is fixed. Yastrow's prompt personal response ensured the flaw I discovered is compensated by the overall brand harmony. When you have good harmony and systems in place, you will find self-correcting mechanisms.

Third, big crises can become big opportunities, if you pull together your resources, think rationally, and act quickly. It is best to avoid the crisis in the first place; and second best to have a good plan in place to deal with the situation. When all fails, however, it is wise to be humble enough to ask for help.

With the limited information at hand, I responded to the contractor in the previous posting, and will follow up with a call today. I also forwarded the story to my network of connections, to see if they have any suggestions (obviously protecting the contractors' privacy in the process -- I make it a policy never to name businesses in distress in this blog.)

Here we find how a simple missed link on a website and a mammoth business crisis find their place on the same page; little things count, cumulatively they can become big things.

The huge crisis: When things go very wrong . . .

Although I think this book Crisis Management: Planning and Media Relations for the Design and Construction Industry is designed for external, rather than internal, crisis situations, it has rather good Amazon reviews and I think is worthy for your bookshelf.

Today, I received this email (I am of course not disclosing the sender's name or anything that would give a clue about the business's identity):

Mark – Saw an article you wrote online called Seven Tips for Construction Marketing….
I have just taken over as the Marketing Director for my dad’s 25 year old construction company, and thought I would shoot you an email just out of curiosity.

We have recently lost our President to a competitor, so Marketing for us now is CRUICIAL. Are there any other articles by you that I can look at for my information?

Thanks so much.

Wow. What a mess! Of course, the questions not answered in this inquiry are crucial, and I cannot pretend to know exactly the best solution to this mess. But I post it here to open the doors of dialogue and thought.

What would you do if something like this happened to your business? And what would you do to prevent something like this happening to your business?

Forgetting the details: the cost

This afternoon, driving at the speed limit, I noticed a police car in the next lane. I thought nothing of it, until a few blocks later I noticed the flashing lights behind me. Turns out, I had been driving the car illegally for, get this, seven months. My license tags had expired in May 2007!
There are moments when one has a truly sinking feeling, and this moment could have gone from bad to worse very quickly -- because I had left the insurance renewal papers at home. So, effectively, I was driving without proper license plates, and without proper insurance documentation.
Clearly, one of my weaknesses (see previous posting about Marcus Buckingham's argument to focus on strengths) is attention to detail. Last May, I must have 'assumed' that I had renewed my license properly and blithely just driven the car for more than a half year.
Fortunately, one of my compensating strengths is a solid crisis response attitude. I knew right away to accept responsibility for the problem; the police were doing their job, I had erred, and now the challenge would be to make things right, as quickly as possible.
The police issued $220 in fines. I asked the officer if I could safely drive the car to the motor vehicle licensing office to fix things. The officer, in a stern "police type" response, said: "You are not supposed to be driving this car until it is properly licensed, but I am 'clearing' the area and leaving the scene." I took the message clearly that he wouldn't charge me again if I drove off!
So, I drove straight to the licensing office, only to face another problem. The licensing bureau will not renew the license without insurance documentation, and that material is at home, about two miles away. Somehow, driving home to fetch the documentation did not seem to be a good idea under the circumstances. My wife was away, and I was supposed to pick up my son from winter camp in a couple of hours. So calling taxis and going back and forth to the home to get the paperwork seemed rather a bad answer. The solution: I called my insurance broker. The broker's agent said she could fax temporary insurance paperwork to me. And the licensing bureau clerk gave me the licensing office fax number!
So, as I stood in line waiting for my turn for service, I heard my name called, and received the fax with the paperwork needed to renew things. Problem fixed, in under an hour. I quickly affixed the new sticker on the car, and went off for some vigorous exercise.
These experiences reminded me of principals of attitude and responsibility.

• As the crisis unfolded, I put things into perspective. Outside of the error in driving without proper tags, had I committed a major crime? Not really (the car had proper insurance). I would pay the fine, accept responsibility, and move on.
• Do people have discretion and the ability to develop creative solutions in situations which are all-too-common? Certainly. Insurance brokers can issue temporary paperwork by fax, and at least some motor vehicle licensing offices are reasonable and will give out their fax numbers!
• Should people play their 'roles' in situations? Certainly. If you expect a police traffic officer to be jocular and friendly when he is issuing a ticket, you are living in another world. The best you can do in these situations is to behave courteously and with respect. The officer could have thrown the book at me -- instead he charged me $220.

Finally, you should appreciate that the other person's crisis is your opportunity to show respect and care -- and when you do, you have a perfect 'sweet spot' for marketing. I'm not sure if the reference is correct (I think it is in a book by Jeffrey Gitomer), but the marketer recalls seeing someone at the airport struggling with an ATM. Seems the machine wouldn't accept the guy's bank card, and he desperately needed a little cash to complete his travels. The marketer preoffered $100 and invited the other person to repay when he could. Turns out the businessman at the ATM was in the market for the saviour's services -- and, with trust firmly implanted, did more than $100,000 in business with the representative who saved his skin.

P.S. A note about branding success: I am not sure 100 per cent if the positive story described above is indeed Jeffrey Gitomer's tale (I read many business books). But he gets credit and recognition here. That is the nature of great branding. If you ingrain a positive and relevant perspective in people around you, you may be able to take credit for good things that possibly have nothing to do with you!