Hello! My name is Courtney Monson and I am a sophomore Public Relations major at Towson University.
I think the information you have shared in your blog entry “No Comment” is some of the most useful information in the PR industry. I remember studying crisis management in my Principles of Public Relations class last semester and I wholeheartedly agree that, in a crisis situation, the first thing to do is to do something! Most crisis situations, however, are not altogether unexpected. Generally, there is something going on in the company that can clue you in to the fact that something will go wrong. It’s wise to keep an eye out for these things so that you can prevent a crisis from even happening. Our book referred to this as “environmental scanning.”
If something slips through the cracks and a crisis occurs though, it’s important to take control of the situation immediately. You should know exactly who is going to be saying what to whom. The last thing you want is for one of your PR people to be telling the media one thing while another tells them something completely different. By delegating a spokesperson, you reduce the chance of miscommunication between the company and the public. Especially in an emergency situation, putting the wrong information in the public can have disastrous consequences.
Once the company has a spokesperson and is ready to speak to the media, one of the most important things is just to be open, honest, and let the public know what happened. For that reason, I completely agree that saying “no comment” is one of the worst things you can say to your public in a crisis. It screams dishonesty because it sounds like you are trying to buy time to come up with a story, which violates the idea of being open, honest, and letting people know what happened. If you do not have an answer, say so! “No comment” is a cop-out and never an acceptable answer.
I enjoyed reading your blog and look forward to other posts!
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