Top tips for dealing with bad press

In a free webinar presented last week in conjunction with Franchise New Zealand, some invaluable tips were presented by Pete, who runs media training programmes for franchises. If you missed the webinar we are pleased to be able to offer a chance to see it replayed in full - just register your name and email to gain access to the full presentation - Webinar Replay.

Here's the background to the webinar

A series of Facebook adverts placed by the Te Aro franchisee of the Quinovic property management business recently targeted landlords as prospective clients, but in a way that offended many people. The adverts made front page news on both the New Zealand Herald and Stuff websites, with comments on both the sites and their social media pages opening the whole brand up to abuse. The controversy gave an often-anonymous platform for those who wanted to share negative stories about their own experiences with Quinovic, whether those stories were real or exaggerated. Read more about this story here.

As always happens in these situations, ‘Time will tell what it does to the company’s bottom line, but its reputation could take a long time to repair,’ suggests Pete Burdon of Franchise Media Training. Most issues that end up catching the media's attention and subsequent negative public commentary will certainly not be the franchisor's fault - they may arise from mistaken allegations or completely fabricated circumstances, or as a result of an accident or a simple mistake by a franchisee or their employee. For an independent business owner, he or she is the only person journalists and social media trolls can usually get to for comment. In a franchise system, however, the media can also turn to franchise headquarters staff, and other franchisees for contributions to the story. If something goes wrong, are you and your team ready and prepared to present a united front on what to say, how to behave and what actions to take?

Things can quickly escalate out of control, but franchisors can protect their brand from long-term reputational and financial damage by being prepared to:

• receive early warning of potential problems
• avoid or mitigate the negative publicity
• respond quickly, effectively and positively to media enquiry

'It's like taking out an insurance policy for your brand's reputation,' says Pete, who also offers the first 15 respondents an exceptional deal for a practical package of tools and training covering important aspects such as:

• a Crisis Communication Plan template to identify, plan for and manage potential negative publicity
• interactive online media training to help you and your team to prepare and practise responding to media enquiry
• a 'how to' guide for creating free positive publicity to cushion your brand's good reputation 

Watch the Webinar Replay to learn more - just register your name and email to gain access to the full presentation.

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