Encourage, deal, compensate, communicate, ensure, concede, listen, take

1. _____that monitoring systems are efficient.

2. _____customers to complain.

3. _____with complaints.

4. _____failures seriously.

5. _____to customer views.

6. _____responsibility where necessary and appropriate.

7. _____quickly and effectively.

8. _____customers fairly.

3. Match the right and the left-hand columns to make word partnerships adding  “ of”   where necessary:

1) action                           a) action    

2) admission                     b) conference

3) contingency                  c) confidence

4) damage                         d) information

5) flow                              e) liability

6) legal                              f) limitation

7) loss                                g) plan

8) press                              h) plan              

9) press                              i) release

10) speed                         j) response

 

4. Complete the sentences with the word partnerships from exercise 3:

1. How quickly management react to a crisis is known as_____.

2. In a breaking crisis a manager may speak to the media at a_____.

3. Alternatively, they may have a written statement which is given to the media in the form of a_____.

4. During the crisis management may choose to keep customers, employees and shareholders up to date with a regular_____.

5. A strategy for dealing with a crisis is a_____.

6. A backup strategy is a_____.

7. The risk of being taken to court is the threat of_____.

8. An acceptance of responsibility in a crisis is a_____.

9. Following a crisis, a company may suffer a decline in loyalty from its customers or a _____ in its product or service.

10.  Minimizing the negative effects of a crisis is known as_____.

5.  Read the following text and be ready to speak on the key points of crisis management:

 

      

     KEEPING YOUR CLIENT RELATIONSHIP AFLOAT

The passengers of the Aurora had every right to be angry. The round-the-world cruise for which they had paid thousands of pounds was cancelled after persistent engine problems.

Yet there was little anger among the passengers. While the ship was held off the south coast of England, the passengers remained calm and even cheerful. Though many expressed regret as they finally disembarked, they were not hostile towards the ship’s operators, P&O. This may have been due to the company’s management of the crisis.

Dealing with a service failure is a formidable task for any marketing manager. If poorly handled, the consequences can be bad public relations, desertion by customers and even lawsuits. The Aurora story shows how managers, if they move quickly, can avoid some of the worst effects of service failures.

While high-profile cases are still relatively rare, companies everywhere may regularly suffer small service failures. Plumbers fail to fix leaking drains, restaurant meals are often overcooked or holidaymakers find their hotel room is directly above an all-night disco. Every failure is bound to create a dissatisfied customer, which in turn creates other problems for the company.

Unhappy customers tend to tell others of their experience. Studies in the US have shown that dissatisfied customers tend to tell around ten other people of their bad experience; even worse, they can take their stories to the press.

Dissatisfied customers also defect to rival businesses. Although every service failure will be different, some basic principles can assist in recovery. The first is early recognition of the problem. In P&O’s case this was easy: everyone involved knew that the large ship was not going anywhere. Other failures are harder to detect, especially when management is asleep at the wheel.

The second principle is accepting responsibility. Many companies prefer to argue with customers over where responsibility lies, without realizing that damage is being done regardless of who is at fault. Although there are limits to the responsibilities companies should accept – such as accidents and injuries that were not the company’s fault – there is usually little profit in scoring moral victories over customers. Hence clothing retailers often have a no-questions-asked policy on returned goods, believing that the harm done by the occasional dishonest customer is more than overweighed by the satisfaction created among the rest.   

Once responsibility is accepted, the two most urgent needs for the company to address are communication and compensation.

Transparency is vital. Academic studies have shown that when faced with product or service failure, companies that communicate truthfully and promptly with their customers receive a favorable response. These customers feel that their concerns are actually being addressed and taken seriously. In the Aurora case, senior P&O managers were often on hand to provide information to passengers, who regarded it as a positive feature.

Compensation must be carefully matched to the customer’s dissatisfaction. Too small an amount trivializes the customer’s experience and can give offence, but it is also possible to go too far the other way. Researchers in the US found an example of a hotel chain that had a policy of instantly refunding the full room rate to any guest with a genuine complaint, no matter how trivial. Yet many customers – against expectations – found it embarrassing to be given hundreds of dollars in compensation when they had merely complained about a faulty light fixture or a dripping tap.

Service industries often have their compensation benchmarks. In the holiday sector, the standard was set by the 19^th century inventor of the package holiday, Thomas Cook, who made it his policy to refund in full the money paid by any customer whose holiday was curtailed or cancelled, and offer a discount on their next booking. P&O’s policy would have pleased Cook – the company reportedly offered the same level of compensation to the passengers of the Aurora. Not every package holiday company follows this example.

Following these simple principles should please most customers most of the time. Research across a wide variety of service industries over the past 20 years confirms that a successful service recovery operation reduces or even eliminates any consumer dissatisfaction.

The aborted cruise of the Aurora was disappointing for P&O passengers. But the consequences could have been far worse. Many of the passengers said they planned to travel on a P&O cruise in the future.  

 

                                    TEXT 1

             10 RULES OF CRISIS MANAGEMENT

 

By Brian Ellis, EVP/Crisis Communications & whatcanbe Lab

After 10 years in the news business and 20 years counseling clients how to stay out of headlines when a crisis strikes, I’ve developed 10 basic rules of crisis management.

1. Being Unprepared Is No Excuse. My father was an officer of the U.S. Army. Although I was never an active Boy Scout, their motto “Be Prepared” was drilled into my head at an early age. As I’ve toiled in this industry for the past two decades, it has amazed me how many companies are totally unprepared to deal with a real crisis. Most either have a crisis plan that hasn’t seen the light of day for at least a decade, or the plan is so complicated it would require an army of engineers to figure it out. Sorry to say, far too many organizations have found more important items to address, leaving their crisis plans as to-do items until the day the stuff hits the fan. They say it takes a lifetime to build a reputation and only a few hours to destroy it. You’re almost guaranteed the latter, if you fail to plan. Being unprepared is no excuse; it’s just a reflection of the importance you place on your reputation.

2. You Know The Threats – Get Ready For Them. In every crisis training session I conduct, I ask the audience if they can identify the top five threats facing their company. At first, you see a lot of heads bobbing up and down, but after a little prodding, they begin to develop the list. “So if you know the threats,” I ask, “how can you be unprepared for them?” (See Rule 1.) Crisis management is about speed. The faster you respond, the fewer problems you will face. In order to get out of the door quickly, you need to have fill-in-the-blank, pre-approved, stand-by statements ready to go. I had one client develop stand-by statements and key messages regarding her top five threats in an afternoon. It doesn’t have to be time intensive, but it does have to be a priority.

3. Know What You Want To Say Before They Ask. Knowing the risks is just part of the battle. Preparing for the questioning is another matter. The first step in getting ready for any crisis is identifying your worst nightmare questions. No sugar coating is allowed, you need to be critical – just pretend you’re Mike Wallace. If you understand the kinds of questions you’re likely to face, preparing good key messages is much easier. This exercise should take no more than 20 minutes for each of your top threats. Within two hours, you can knock off your worst nightmare questions and develop the key messages for each of the five top threats facing your company.

4. Admit That You Are Wing-It-Challenged. In the 20 years I’ve been media training executives (1,000+), I’ve probably run across one or two who can handle almost anything with little or no preparation. Based on my math, that means the vast majority of us, or.998 percent to be more precise, are wing-it-challenged. There is nothing wrong with being wing-it-challenged. In fact, you are in the majority. It simply means that you have to prepare before you choose to stand in front of reporters whose job it is to tear you apart. All it takes is a few dry runs. Before you face the cameras, have your colleagues fire some difficult questions at you. You will find that it’s much easier if you have already heard the questions before.

5. Three Key Messages For Every Crisis. In all of the years I’ve been working in crisis management, I have come to understand the true power of the rule of three. As a journalist, I used it all the time, but it took me nearly a decade to see how it applies to crisis management. If you remember nothing else from these crisis rules, remember this: there are three key messages you can depend on in the first 48 hours of any crisis. It doesn’t matter what the crisis is, these messages apply:

“We have a plan to deal with …” You really do need to have a plan – that is why creating a crisis plan in Rule 1 is so important.

“Our hearts and prayers go out to those …” You need to show compassion for those that have been killed, hurt or simply inconvenienced.

“We immediately began our own investigation to make sure that we …” You need to commit to finding out what went wrong and taking the necessary steps to ensure that it doesn’t happen again.

For these messages to work, it is critical that you back them up with actions. Saying you care about your employees doesn’t work if you don’t demonstrate it. Over the next two weeks, read the quotes from those facing a crisis and ask yourself if one of these key messages would have worked just as well.

6. Beware Of The Court Of Public Opinion. Lawyers play a very important part in any crisis. Their counsel on legal matters is paramount and should help guide the response. However, there are two courts in this world, and the court of public opinion is just as powerful as the court of law. The biggest challenge crisis leaders face is balancing their decisions based on these two courts. What may work in one, doesn’t always work in the other. The real question that needs to be addressed is quite simple – what is the smartest thing I can do to protect my brand? Winning in a court of law won’t necessarily restore the public trust you may have lost in the court of public opinion. Both are important – choose wisely.

 

7. You’ve Got 48 Hours. The first 48 hours of any crisis are crunch time. If you are not ahead of the crisis by that timeframe, it’s likely it will run you over. The reason many companies fail to manage a crisis properly is because they fail to recognize one simple fact: when something happens, a communications void is created. If you don’t fill it, someone will, and the information they share is often inaccurate or incomplete. Overcoming a negative perception is nearly impossible, thus the reason to get out there as fast as you can and as frequently as you can. It’s impossible to over communicate in a crisis. You can say the wrong thing, but you can never over communicate.

8. Divide And Conquer. In the midst of a crisis, time flies. A common mistake I see during crisis drills is the concept of team decisions – for everything. I’m not saying that teamwork isn’t important in a crisis. But, the truth is, in order to stay ahead of the crisis, you need to divide and conquer. Once the team agrees on a direction and the key messages, it’s up to the individuals to execute. They will need to re-group from time to time, but if each member of the team remains focused on their core area of responsibility and executes flawlessly, your chance of success grows dramatically.

9. Get Outside Help. When a crisis strikes, seeking an outsider’s perspective is paramount. Internal politics tend to take over in the middle of a major problem as people become more focused on keeping their jobs, rather than what is best for the company. Good leaders expect these internal politics and counter them by bringing in someone from the outside who can look at the issues without bias. This individual’s role is not to call all the shots. His or her role is to provide counsel to a team leader – a perspective that few inside the company can offer. They are free to look at things that many tend to overlook because of their internal biases. Just because you bring in outside counsel doesn’t mean you can’t handle the crisis. It means you recognize your weaknesses and are smart enough to do something about it.

10. Every Crisis Is An Opportunity. Smart leaders understand that in the midst of crisis, there is opportunity. Don’t be afraid to seize the moment. Yes, there is risk involved, but that is true with every opportunity.

 

                            VOCABULARY PRACTICE                

1. Paraphrase the following expressions to make them easily comprehensible:

1. how to stay out of headlines

2. was drilled into my head

3. hasn’t seen the light of day

4. to-do items

5. after a little prodding

6. fill-in-the-blank, pre-approved, stand-by statements ready to go

7. no sugar coating is allowed

8. wing-it challenged

9.  all it takes is a few dry runs

10.  have your colleagues fire questions at you

11.  those who have been simply inconvenienced

12.  you need to commit to finding out

13.  back up with actions

14.  the court of public opinion

15.  crunch time

16.  it’s likely it will run you over

17.  a communications void

18.  it’s up to the individuals to execute

19.  core area of responsibility

20.  to call all the shots

2. Find in the text the English equivalents of these words:

оправдание, усердно работать, требовать, последний из двух, отражение, проводить, угроза, притворяться, признать (допустить), разорвать на части, применять, молитва, сострадание, расследование, остерегаться, юридическая консультация, главный (первостепенный), восприятие, безупречно, внутренний, отражать (противостоять), предвзятость, упустить из виду, схватить

3. Do the following quiz to test your knowledge of the active vocabulary of the text:

Translate into English:

1. Часто в кризисных ситуациях компании начинают скрывать правду, чтобы не попасть в заголовки всех газет, они притворяются, что ситуация находится под контролем или используют заранее подготовленные, «дежурные» фразы.

2. Компания признала вину и не стала искать оправданий своим действиям, описала сложившуюся ситуацию без прикрас и пообещала провести собственное расследование.

3. Во время пресс конференции журналисты з абросали представителя компании провокационными вопросами, и ему пришлось отвечать без подготовки.

4. В случае кризиса недостаточно просо сказать, что компания сочувствует тем, кому был причинен ущерб: слова должны поддерживаться действиями.

5. Хотя кризисная ситуация была успешно разрешена, у компании ушли годы на преодоление негативного восприятия и предвзятости клиентов, т. к. суд общественности бывает иногда важнее суда юридического.

6.  Во время кризиса менеджмент фирмы предпочел не общаться с прессой и клиентами, они упустили из видупервостепенные задачи и потеряли драгоценное время.

7. После нескольких случаев пищевого отравления новым продуктом представитель компании-производителя выступил на пресс конференции, где его едва не растерзали на части и потребовали немедленно решить проблему, пригрозив компании судебным разбирательством.

8. Даже если компания успешно ведет дела, необходимо проводить репетиции кризисных ситуаций, иметь готовый список первоочередных действий, чтобы быть готовыми противостоять нападкам.

                    ORAL SPEECH PRACTICE

4. Answer the questions:

1. Do you believe that these days most companies are still unprepared to handle crises? Give your reasons.

2. What kind of crisis plan do many companies have nowadays?

3. Comment on the statement “It takes a lifetime to build a reputation and only a few hours to destroy it.”

4. Can being unprepared be considered an excuse? Why?

5. How important is it, in your opinion, to know the potential threats a company may face?

6. What list of the five most common threats would you develop?

7. Do you agree that managing a crisis successfully largely depends on the speed of dealing with it? Give your grounds.

8. In what way can identifying the worst possible questions help solve crisis situations quickly and efficiently?

9. Is it necessary to rehearse being asked awkward questions before the press conference? Why?

10.  What are the three key messages for every crisis according to the author of the article?

11.  Do you agree that these are the most significant issues? Would you add some other points to the list?

12.  What is it advisable to do to make these key issues work well?

13.  Do you think the court of public opinion is just as important as the court of law? Can you give some examples?

14.  Does winning in a court of law necessarily restore the company’s damaged reputation among the public?

15.  What is the crunch time in dealing with any crisis? Do you believe this time is sufficient?

16.  How can a communications void influence the process of coping with a crisis?

17.  Do you share the author’s opinion that team decisions on everything are not always effective in dealing with crises? Why?

18.  Why is it of paramount importance to seek some outside help in a crisis?

19.  Can outsourcing prevent bias? Give your reasons.

20.  Why is crisis regarded as a kind of opportunity for a company? What kind of opportunity can a company take in this situation?

5. Points to ponder:

1. The most common reasons why a lot of companies are totally unprepared to handle crisis situations these days.

2. The basic items that need to be included in a crisis plan.

3. Ways of restoring a company’s reputation after a crisis has been settled.

4. The relevance of training and rehearsing before a crisis strikes.

5. Crisis management is all about speed.

6. Tips on how to be prepared for being questioned during the press conference.

7. The court of public opinion and word-of-mouth marketing make it next to impossible for a company to restore its reputation.

8. The role of a lawyer and legal advising in crisis management.

9. Things that need to be done during the first 48 hours of a crisis to manage it successfully.

10. It is more preferable to say at least something than create a communications void in a crisis.

11. Team decision-making in crisis management: pros and cons.

12. The significance of distributing individual tasks among employees in crisis situations.

13. The advantages and disadvantages of seeking outside help when a crisis occurs.

14. Some positive outcomes of a crisis.     

                          TEXT 2

        EXAMPLES OF SUCCESSFUL CRISIS MANAGEMENT