Today’s tragic helicopter accident in Vauxhall, London,
also offers PROs a quick learning point in managing a crisis situation.
Your crisis will cause the media and many members of the
public to head to your website as a central source of information. You must be ready to adapt your website (and
other online channels) for use as a central hub for communication. A gallery of
‘positive’ images including shots of happy, smiling staff or customers may well
jar with people and feel inappropriate at the time of crisis. The creation of a ‘dark site’ prior to a
crisis hitting, allows immediate activation and the ability to position the
business as an organisation in control of a challenging situation
Rotormotion – who operated the helicopter – is a small
company and will understandably not have invested in a ‘dark site’. But you can’t
have an incident (in bad weather) that is core to your business in this
instance – flying safely - and then keep on your home page:
“Safety is no accident. Our helicopters have twin turbine
engines and are certified to fly at night, over water and in cloud. Relax in
the knowledge that both pilot and machine are fully instrument qualified to fly
in poor weather conditions.”
Whether you are a large or small organisation, check and change your website to remove anything incongruous with the crisis situation. Show the outside world that you care more about people than profit at this time. If you can't adapt the home page, at the very least prominently post your response to the crisis and any key messages that you want the audience to understand about you and your business.
Moreover, while the company’s managing director was right to say "Our main priority now is for the family of the pilot and we extend
our greatest sympathy to the friends and relatives of those who have died and
been injured", he needed to add that the company was taking steps to ensure
that none of its own processes were at fault, that it cannot speculate until the investigation was completed and that processes would be rectified
should an investigation find any shortcomings.
17th January - UPDATE
Seems as though RotorMotion read our blog last night and have changed their website. The front page - indeed their website's only page - is their press release which says all the right things. Bravo.
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17th January - UPDATE
Seems as though RotorMotion read our blog last night and have changed their website. The front page - indeed their website's only page - is their press release which says all the right things. Bravo.
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Andrew Caesar-Gordon
