Wednesday, June 1  

Beat Violence - Wear Thicker Clothes

Beat Violence - Wear Thicker Clothes

Now I know this web site doesn't often delve away from business issues, but here's an item that caught my eye today:

A woman rang a domestic violence hotline complaining of being punched by her husband and was told, if you can believe this, to wear thicker clothes.

Women's groups say the counselors on the hotline, from the free counseling service Lifeline, are not equipped to deal with violence and rape victims. Lifeline has denied the charges.

That is either great lateral thinking by the counselor, or just plain crazy.

And I don't want to poke fun at Lifeline - they are a fantastic organisation that does a lot of good here in Australia (and I used to work as a volunteer for them as a 12-13 year-old collecting and sorting donated goods).

Crisis Management

So this claim has been made against the good name of Lifeline and they know it will be picked up by the local (and even international) media. So what do they do about it:

1. In the best spot on the Home Page of their web site they address the issue
2. The CEO elaborates just a little on an inside page (and you'll notice she even has her phone number at the bottom of the response).

That's a good, quick response.

Years Of Quality Count

And here's where years of quality service and giving count. You see, Lifeline are a tremendously respected organization here and I'm thinking the vast majority of people, when hearing of the allegation would think:

"No, that doesn't sound like Lifeline. They're a quality organisation."

The basis of good crisis management is quick, open, honest and transparent communication. Start talking to your stakeholders (customers, donors, shareholders, employees, etc) about the issue and you're on the road to minimising the impact of the issue and perhaps even coming out as a stronger brand than ever before.

Regards

Brendon