A rare corporate apology done right
The Anthem hack, which exposed the personal information of as many as 80 million customers, put the healthcare provider in an ugly situation. Not only were its own computer security team’s credentials stolen and used to access private information, but it was revealed that the data was not encrypted. This left customers more than a little upset, but by showing its understanding of their feelings Anthem in its apologetic email the organization took a big step in the direction of successful crisis management.
We constantly catch companies forgetting one or another of our Three C’s of Credibility – confidence, competence, and compassion – in their apologies, but Anthem nailed all three. While this letter is but a small part of the crisis management required for a breach of this size and sensitivity, it did its job by showing anxious and upset stakeholders that Anthem understands how they feel and is working to make things right again.
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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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[Jonathan Bernstein is president of Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc., an international crisis management consultancy, author of Manager’s Guide to Crisis Management and Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training. Erik Bernstein is Social Media Manager for the firm, and also editor of its newsletter, Crisis Manager]
– See more at: https://staging.management.org/blogs/crisis-management/2015/02/14/comcasts-crisis-management-for-name-calling-on-bills/#sthash.JVvIjHQi.dpuf
Jonathan- While I agree that Anthem did a good job in communicating with current members, I can tell you from personal experience that they have not yet reached out to former members with this same important information. I was an Anthem member from 2005-2014, and I would guess that my data was part of the breach. But I have yet to hear anything from the company as to how they are handling this for former members. Disappointing.
Interesting Deb, and I’m sure it adds an extra sting seeing communications going out to other affected parties. Looks as if Anthem had an oversight when they were considering which audiences they needed to address.
I am a former Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield customer (last with them in 2014) and I just received their letter informing former customers of the data breach and offering free identity protection and credit monitoring.
Do you feel as if they’re doing all they can Phil? Seems that’s the most important thing in terms of reputation recovery after hacks today.