Crisis communications tend to address the immediate: monitoring social media, fielding reporters’ phone calls, sending executives out to face the firing squad of a hostile press conference.
What gets less attention is the long slog to rebuild a reputation after a crisis that initiates lawsuits, a media pummeling and congressional hearings.
Just ask DC Water, which provides Washington, D.C., with drinking water and wastewater treatment. Twelve years after lead contamination in the capital’s taps made national news, a similar crisis in Flint, Michigan, is bringing attention to DC Water’s long-term effort to restore its reputation.
“We’re still working to rebuild the trust of our customers and earn back the trust that we lost during our own lead crisis,” says John Lisle, DC Water’s chief of external affairs.
Underscoring that, national journalists with the memory of elephants have been phoning DC Water lately to add quotes to stories about Flint’s crisis.
DC Water’s success offers encouragement to organizations that have seen public trust collapse. It proves, however, that communications is a multiyear endeavor. Organizations must commit to openness-even when that means tweeting your own bad news or sending your chief executive into town hall meetings to face your most severe critics.
Here are some tips for rebuilding trust between an organization and the public:
1. Be transparent.
When George Hawkins arrived as general manager and chief executive in 2009, he rebranded the District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority as DC Water and beefed up the communications staff.
DC Water provides more than 672,000 residents and 17.8 million annual visitors in the District of Columbia with water and sewer service. It also treats wastewater for neighboring counties. The infrastructure has been crumbling, and the median age of water pipes is 79 years.
That means an organization with a tainted water scandal in the not-so-distant past was going to have to persuade taxpayers to support a fee to raise $40 million a year to replace the pipes.
“We need to educate people about, yes, you’re paying more, but this is why you’re paying more,” says Lisle, who also arrived after the lead crisis. “You have to have the trust of your customers for them to be willing to pay more for the service that you provide.”
2. Hear out your critics.
Five years ago, Hawkins initiated an annual round of town hall meetings every spring in each ward of the city. He reviews the rates and the budget. DC Water goes out of its way to make sure people know about the meetings by robo-calling citizens who have contacted the service in the previous 12 months.
Typically, these aren’t people who called up to say thanks for that refreshing glass of water. They tend to be critics who had a problem or a billing dispute, says Lisle. Yet the town hall audience has even been known to applaud at the end.
“People might come upset that their water bill has gone up, but they leave with a better appreciation of why that is,” Lisle says.
3. Meet the people where they are.
DC Water sends employees to community events, from small block parties to the H Street Festival, where it brings coolers full of ice water and hands out water bottles and information. The organization also showed up at a city viewing party for a World Cup game last summer.
It finds that many people don’t even know where their water comes from (the Potomac River). “It’s also an opportunity for us to educate people, have discussions with them, pass out information if they’re interested about how drinking water, how tap water compares with bottled water.”
Lisle explains: “If somebody comes up at an event and says, ‘I have a question for you: How do I know my water is safe?’ Or, 'I’ve been boiling my water.’ That’s an opportunity to say, 'Why are you boiling your water?’”
Often their fears date back to the lead crisis; face-to-face discussions can make a big difference in attitude toward the water bearers.
4. Be strategic on social media.
DC Water has a dedicated digital communications manager who handles accounts on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Just as the utility puts out a press release, it provides news updates through these platforms.
Despite the daily noise, the organization keeps its long-term communications at the forefront when it uses these channels. In the winter, when there are water main breaks, it discusses what people can do to fix or avoid frozen pipes.
“If we have a water main breaks that ties up traffic—and we’ve had some of those—then that’s also an opportunity for us to educate people about how old the infrastructure is, what we’re doing to replace it,” Lisle says.
5. Break your own bad news.
Since Hawkins arrived, DC Water has issued water advisories five times, including two do-not-drink advisories. These related to problems such as a complaint of a petroleum smell in the water and a broken pump that resulted in lost pressure in part of the District.
None of the problems proved to be serious, but DC Water made sure it was first to announce the news. Otherwise, the conversation would begin anyway, and inaccurate information could gain legs. Likewise, DC Water doesn’t want to give the impression that it knew about a problem and didn’t inform the public.
“We don’t take any chances,” Lisle says. “We tell people what we know when we know it, and we’re abundantly cautious about any potential threat to drinking water safety.”
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