If a violent crime leads to a death or injury on your premises, and it’s serious enough to make the news and damage your brand, you have an hour or two to get your recovery right. That’s according to a trainer on the subject.
David Ryan gave two examples: a petrol retailer, where a member of forecourt staff has used himself as a road block to try to prevent a drive-off without paying, only to be driven over. And: a convenience store where a member of staff has been stabbed, trying to prevent a robbery at knife-point, and a customer pushed to the floor has had a heart attack and died. In the forecourt case, the loss would have been a tank of petrol; in the knife-point robbery, the thief leaves without anything. But as David Ryan went on to explain, what he called the ‘soft costs’ to the brand from media (and social media) coverage mount quickly – and keep on mounting. Such crimes of violence could reach the TV news because they are visual; they have a location; a victim harmed, and grieving family. David said that whereas most companies used to have a corporate standard press release, sent out in such cases when HR came in at 9am, saying that the company took their responsibilities seriously: “We are no longer in that situation. Someone is going to take a photograph on their mobile phone, it’s going to be picked up by the news agencies.” Journalists within the first hour will see if there is a story, and if so, will go to the hospital, and the victim’s community. In a word, the media will get a hook into the story, and what David called the ‘double whammy’ of seeing the victim, and family, at the hospital: “Before the brand has a chance to get its side of the story.” If police are involved, because of a loss of life, or some serious crime, there will be an investigating officer and a family liaison officer. Police will validate the details of the case; and control the scene. Police will feed the media, whether for witness appeals or to give updates on suspects. In other words, in that case you the brand can work with the police, showing at every stage that you care, and aiming for a return to normality. And once someone is arrested for the crime, legal restrictions on reporting apply; your brand can distance itself from the event.
If you ever thought that sending flowers would help, let alone show that your company cares, forget it, said David. “Never ever send a bouquet of flowers; always do something more interactive than that.” What do you, the ‘security champion’ at the brand, have to do? Within the first hour, David suggested, you have to check the facts; in two hours, agree an effective response: “Because if you leave it to two and a half hours, the response is already out there, on Twitter, on radio stations, on the internet, news channels.” It’s by then shaped by the news media, based on what journalists are reading from social media; too late for your HR department coming to work at 9am to alter. As for dealing with the family of the victim: “You have one chance to get the family on board; and no chance if you respond by appointment.” One suggestion by David was for the company to arrange taxis for the family to go to the hospital in the two retail cases. “Everything you do wrong will add to the soft costs of recovery. Everything you do wrong will cost you control.” And never say sorry; never speak of ‘the deceased’ – you must know the dead person’s name and not give the impression that it’s inconvenient that someone died on your premises. Never say the sorry word, because it’s not for the company to say sorry for a criminal; focus on the crime, and the suspects. “For goodness’ sake leave the stock phrases in the filing cabinet, where they belong.”
What are those ‘soft costs’? In the knife-point robbery case at a convenience store, David suggested the police will close the premises as a crime scene for two days; the retailer will have to provide three months of security guarding, to make the store feel like a safe place; and the store will lose footfall. A six-figure loss, for a failed robbery? David went on to suggest some of the basic, quickly listed (’on the back of a fag packet’) things to arrange in those first couple of hours after an incident. Have you engaged with the police on a joint media strategy? Have you engaged with the victim’s family, at the earliest point? Did you personalise everything, and avoid ‘commercial speak’? And did you escalate the matter to board level? Because, David suggested, there’s no point in you as head of security protecting the brand, if your board does not know what is happening, and the first thing the CEO or chairman hears about it is on the car radio in the morning. The CEO might be the ‘face’ in front of the media on day two and three of an incident; on day one, it’s a regional manager, someone who has been at the scene and who knows what has happened.
All this said, David added that a brand can recover from a critical incident, ‘if you get it right’. After a death, within an hour there may be a Facebook page in memory of the person; and the company can put something meaningful and with feeling on that page, to show support. David stressed that a critical incident is dynamic; and the brand, such as an oil firm that has its name on the petrol forecourt, has to support people back to normality, and not be seen to be thinking about how it, the business, gets back to its normality. David, a former policeman and former chairman of Ex Police in Industry and Commerce, was speaking at the EPIC annual general meeting in Derby on October 15. From the floor, Professional Security took up David’s point about ‘soft costs’, and that those first hours after an incident make all the difference, giving the example of the shooting of Mark Duggan in August 2011, which led to riots in Tottenham, then the rest of London and across England. Soft costs: hundreds of millions of pounds.
About the speaker
David Ryan, a former 30-year Met Police man, is a former chairman of Ex Police in Industry and Commerce (EPIC). Visit www.epic-uk.com and http://www.linkedin.com/in/davidryanconsultancy.
David Ryan was in the May 2012 print issue of Professional Security speaking about dealing with and preventing tiger kidnap, typically in cash in transit, and retail.
Visit also http://www.useyourintelligence.com
Pictured: A vintage petrol pump, not in service, near Seaton in Devon.
