Money Can’t Buy Me Trust

Proving you’ve changed is a key goal of crisis management for reputation damage

When your brand’s been in hot water repeatedly, simply talking about the changes you’re making isn’t enough. For instance, is anyone out there rushing to hop on a Carnival cruise right now? We sure aren’t! The company hasn’t been able to get out of the news for the past few months as it continues to have problem after problem.

Now Carnival is throwing some much-needed money at its issues, announcing a massive budget to implement safety recommendations and upgrade various areas, like ship generators and fire prevention, which have proven to be trouble spots. Asked if this would solve the company’s woes, BCM’s Jonathan Bernstein shared the following with Ragan reporter Matt Wilson:

“I’m going to paraphrase The Beatles here: ‘I don’t care too much for money; money can’t buy me trust,'” he says. “Nothing short of reliable performance over an extended period of time will help Carnival overcome its recent series of mishaps.”

Did Carnival need to spend this money in order to secure its ships? Yes. Are customers to come rushing back simply because Carnival’s telling them all the issues are fixed? Nope.

To use another famous phrase, “the proof of the pudding is in the eating.” When you’ve had nothing but problems, it doesn’t matter what you say you’re going to do, or even what it looks like you’re doing. What matters is that you prove to enough people that you really have made changes, and that should be the goal of your crisis management plans.

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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]