Surfing the channels last night I stumbled upon this episode of Channel 4’s excellent Dispatches series.
I was even more intrigued than usual because it featured a major local employer here in Nottingham, the credit reference giant Experian.
I’m not going to go into the whys and wherefores and I have included their statement in response below. My point is that I thought they handled it as well as could have been expected. Their spokesperson, James, (Head of Consumer Affairs) is an excellent communicator on social media and I was intrigued to see how he handled this. In fact, he kept up an informative and useful dialogue under pressure throughout last night’s episode on twitter.
That, from a PR crisis handling perspective, was key for me. Experian didn’t try the old “no comment” ruse or hand the programme a banal statement. James presented a public, human face to the business. He was firm in his defence and managed to keep it to a frank and open exchange of views, not a slanging match.
Here’s Experian’s statement regarding the accuracy of their records and their strategy of facing the press taken from today’s Nottingham Post :
“We strongly refute the claims made by Dispatches, many of which were misleading, which is why we chose to appear on the show in person.
“We help millions of people every year to access affordable credit quickly and efficiently and, in 2013 alone, we provided credit reports to more than two million people and answered more than 3.5 million requests to help people to better understand and manage their credit rating and get better credit deals that they can afford to pay back.”
Fronting up to the cameras was never going to make the issue disappear but it is far more effective, if handled well, than burying your head in the sand. Facts, as seen above, are also indispensable.
For further thoughts on crisis management, click here