Repair a Brand’s image following a crisis-easy steps.

Hacked databases, disgraced company spokesmen, exploding customer complaints online—there’s no end to the range of business scandals that surface every day.Each such crisis has the potential to strike at the heart of an established brand, causing fleeting damage (in best-case scenarios) or (in worst-case scenarios) irreparable destruction of customer trust.

Scandals and reputation crises have always occurred in the marketplace. The difference today is the sheer speed with which a minor issue can escalate via social media or other digital platforms.

It leaves those in charge of a company’s public image staggering from one attack to the next. You must rebuild a brand in those crucial days after the crisis occurs.

Here are four key PR actions to employ in the wake of a crisis:

1. Have a plan. 

If you develop a strategy for post-scandal brand repair ahead of time, it’s much easier to execute that plan with calmness and confidence. That’s precisely the image your organization should project.

The plan should include round-the-clock monitoring of all online platforms where your business might be mentioned, and tactics for rapid response to any critical or negative postings.

2. Apologize sincerely.

After a crisis has occurred and it’s determined that your organization is at least partly to blame, don’t offer the kind of insincere and evasive apologies perfected by discredited politicians.

Your CEO or other credible spokesman must be able to say, “We’re truly sorry,” in a way that both members of the news media and consumers find acceptable.

A sincere apology and promise not to repeat the mistake can generate significant public goodwill.

3. Raise positive stories in search engine rankings.

What happens after a crisis occurs? Anyone searching Google for information about that organization will encounter negative stories first.

The best counter-strategy is to do everything possible to raise positive stories in your search-engine results page. Here are a few ideas:

• Revise your company page on Wikipedia to emphasize notable achievements and other upbeat facts.
• Add new details to your company’s social media profile on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Plus, SlideShare, Pinterest, and other platforms.
• Create blog post content highlighting positive news about the company and industry.
• Encourage loyal customers to feature use of your product through YouTube videos.
• Promote high-profile events in support of community causes.

“If you already have a problem, the good news is that  it’s never too late to regain control of your reputation,” writes Internet-marketing expert Chuck Price. The best way to achieve this goal, Price says, is by “displacing negative content and promoting positive news.”

4. Devote time and resources to repairing employee trust.

After a crisis, brand managers are understandably focused on regaining the trust of customers. However, it’s important not to overlook an equally important constituency—a company’s workforce.

News that makes an organization look bad affects employees, too. That can lead to low morale, decreased productivity and a challenge to recruit and retain talented employees in the future.

Reach out to your team the following ways:

• Acknowledge that the employer/employee bond has been violated.
• Encourage CEO visibility in the workplace and answer employees’ questions as thoroughly as possible.
• Pledge to be completely transparent in all post-crisis internal communications.
• Offer guidance to employees on how they should respond if contacted by the media.

Taking these actions will help repair the broken trust and even revive employees’ willingness to stand behind their organization’s brand-repair efforts.

“Crisis management truly is a balancing act between repairing your brand and employee relations,” says Max Chopovsky, CEO of Chicago Creative Space. “But if you’re proactive from the get-go, you might just find a silver lining in the crisis.”

CEOs and business owners who think crises only happen to other organizations or that negative publicity only affects large-scale companies allow a dangerous misconception to threaten their businesses.

It’s better to assume that a crisis of some kind will happen, and start thinking now about how to repair your brand in the immediate aftermath.

Nori De Jesus is the global director of marketing for Column Case Investigative, and has more than 15 years of experience in business-to-business technology marketing.