In a blog post, discuss a company that had a PR crisis. What was the
crisis and how did they handle it? How could they have measured their
communications effectiveness during and after the crisis? What could
they have done differently?
The crisis in question was caused by a Bank of America decision to charge $5 per transaction when using a debit card. The decision was made in an effort to raise revenue after the banking issues in 2008. The changes were not unique for the industry but new for a large institution. The push back from the general public was greater than anticipated. The discussions went viral and were transmitted with only half truths.
The discussions on the issue needed to to be monitored more closely during the initial announcements. The company appeared to be unprepared for the lash back from the public and wasn't monitoring or addressing the issue until it got out of hand.
Ultimately they changed course and decided to not implement the fees after the bad publicity dragged on for over a month. If the end result was generate more revenue through the process they should have been been more interactive with customers to address their concerns. By getting to the news agencies and trying to better explain the situation immediately the negative discussion wouldn't have went viral.
I remember that crisis. I think the other problem they had was that it was seen as greedy by their customers. I'm not sure how they could have conveyed it to make it more positive. Maybe if it was $5 if the transaction was more than a certain amount to show how it saved people money.... How should they have monitored the issue?
ReplyDeleteI also remember hearing this and thought it was a pretty poor idea and seemed pretty excessive. It must be a nightmare when it comes to public relations at banks. They've been pretty low in the public opinion these days and this certainly didn't help.
ReplyDeleteThe same problem also appeared in China. In 2007, several of China's major banks announced an annual manage fee for savings accounts, this policy caused a huge impact, finally, bank announced only charge a management fee on deposits less than 500 yuan accounts.
ReplyDelete