New dimensions in crisis communication

In contrast to circulating product defects, image and reputation losses are remembered much longer. The public is particularly attentive when it comes to mistakes or transgressions made by leading components and corporations. Experts speak of different silos of perception as far as public opinion on crisis weighting is concerned.

Where once trade fairs served as social platforms for communication processes, today breaking news circulates on Twitter and the like. A retailer's company that, for example, maneuvers itself into a crisis with false declarations about alleged Swiss meat is more likely to recover than a corporation that is suddenly confronted with immaterial factors such as viruses or even just rumors.

The Basel World jewellery and watch fair, for example, set a precedent in terms of risk monitoring before the social media era. A decree issued by the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) caused a stir in 2003. It was only a while after the event that the exhibition management was able to lodge an appeal against the FOPH's order, because of the emerging SARS syndrome (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome; the prevalence of the disease was 150 per billion inhabitants). Worldwide, SARS killed around 1300 people in 2003), to stop or turn away jewellery and watch sellers arriving from Hong Kong, Singapore or Bangkok.

Public opinion
The quintessence of the MCH Group, which now runs the world exhibition with sovereignty: The FOPH had taken too brisk action against dealers in April 2003. Baselworld recorded a 22 per cent drop in visitors in 2003 - Zurich apparently flopped so badly that no watch fair was ever held in Oerlikon again. Insiders also believe that not only the federal authorities but also the biased media were "to blame" for the negative output. The measures ordered by the FOPH were neither suitable nor necessary to achieve the goal of minimising the risk of infection and preventing panic behaviour.

However, journalists summed up during Baselworld that several thousand people from affected countries were already conducting their business on site. Newspapers such as "Die Welt" also addressed the FOPH's organisational dilemma. Their sudden "employment ban" would have driven Asian traders and exhibitors out of the fair into other external boutiques and hotel lobbies - without having medical control, without knowledge of their local whereabouts.

In any case, the population, and ultimately also Swiss watch manufacturers and those responsible for the press, did not know how to deal with this exceptional situation - shortly before the introduction of push and alarm messages - and yet things were boiling over.

Definition of a crisis
Communication is always a question of perspective. The extent to which an error becomes an event, or even a public crisis, depends on stakeholders such as, in the above example, hygienists, experts, spokespersons, producers, consumers, and certainly also media representatives.

Of course, it is evident to differentiate which internal or external, intentional or negligent elements really constitute a "crisis". Each company and each entity must define for itself what constitutes an actual "crisis". Even a risk analysis can contain major assessment gaps. Far too often, risks are identified insufficiently systematically and not on the spot according to the facts. These are then missing from the overall assessment. Or the risk description is based on only two parameters:

Probability of occurrence and extent of damage. - Since most companies lack past-oriented, vague statistical values for quantifying the probability of occurrence, estimates are made on the basis of gut feeling. Better is the risk description with different risk indicators and drivers, whereby the probability of occurrence is assigned a minimal weighting in the overall description.

The risk management process according to ONR 49001
Media people - as well as end consumers, by the way - usually tend to see a downright system error in a scenario. This strategy is counterproductive on a professional level.

For this, one could quote Peter Sloterdijk, who said about crazy, threatening events ("One should never think something is impossible", Blick interview of 19.03.2017): "This is an effect of failed processing of news. We experience danger when we encounter a lion in the bush. Danger means a present threat to life and limb. A risk, however, is the mathematically expressed probability of harm."

Apparently, every human being is "programmed" by old patterns in such a way that he "translates risk into danger - magnifies the risk on a scale of one in a million", explains Sloterdijik. The philosopher sees contemporary man as someone who shows deficits in being able to differentiate historical differences and medial and psychological subtleties.

"The Winterthur virus" - a stereotyping
The Swiss media once also spoke of the "Winterthur virus" and feared the worst when around 200 patients and staff suffered from food poisoning at Winterthur Cantonal Hospital (KSW) over the last weekend in November 2004. It seemed that a type of norovirus was destroying the image of the tenth largest hospital in Switzerland.

Types of norovirus occur repeatedly. They can spread via hand-mouth contact. It is suspected that it is also partially transmitted via the air, certainly via human fluids and droplets to objects and people. The hygienist in charge at the KSW, Dr. Reinhard Zbinden, assumed that the virus had been introduced into the Winterthur hospital from outside.

Zbinden concluded this from civilian feedback and from six patients who had already been admitted infected on Saturday, 27 November - the start of the epidemic. In the period from 27 November to 17 December, a total of 579 people fell ill with the norovirus at the KSW. Of these, 215 were patients, the remaining 364 infected were hospital staff.

Most new cases occurred shortly after the epidemic was recognised, before measures against it could take effect. The exact cause of the gastrointestinal epidemic is still not known today. Was it contaminated chicken that was delivered in the Winterthur area, or was it generally poor hygiene among hospital staff?

Studies suggest that around 40 percent of medical staff do not normally comply with the standard requirement to wash their hands regularly. Reinhard Zbinden was quick to recommend the hygienic use of disposable gloves for nursing tasks.

Sick Noro patients were quarantined. For an acute hospital like the KSW, with a capacity of 500 beds and other operating theatre emergencies, this represents a complex problem, which was then classified by the hospital management as a crisis situation. Nevertheless, the hospital management decided to continue the kitchen at the usual quality level.

Andreas Widmer, Head of Hospital Hygiene at the University Hospital Basel, emphasises: "There is no such thing as the norovirus. All noroviruses mutate. That's why you can even be infected several times." Depending on the case, the sensitivity to the virus also varies. - Not only employees should be trained in dealing with such epidemics, but also those responsible for the media should first understand the causes and effects that occur - before they trigger controversy in the population.

Digital storms
Whether it's misconduct by community leaders, bankruptcies or rotten food: corporate executives are more quickly pilloried in the media than ever before. The general demand for transparency and the many opportunities for interaction via social media make senior executives seem "like fish in a tank".

It seems that keeping secrets and hiding wrongdoing from the public is becoming increasingly difficult. For example, a pharmaceutical CEO had to lower the astronomical price of an AIDS drug after violent protests rained down on him and his company. This shows that there is not only a lack of price management, but often also of issue management to assess one's potential demanders and customers. Beyond that, however, crisis management should be "trained".

Certainly, early monitoring of all communication channels, including those of the digital media, helps to be able to control potential dangers at an early stage. After all, digitalisation has led to a significant change in communication in society: away from exclusively official reporting to almost total interaction across different communities and social channels. Finally:

Proper issue monitoring means not only continuously illuminating and moderating data, it means communicating in extraordinary crises in a way that does not diminish reputation.