17 May 2009

Transparency = Truthfulness + Timeliness

Following the on-going news coverage about House Speaker Pelosi, waterboarding, and the Republican comments on the whole situation, I am reminded of the benefits of transparency when communicating about big issues.

Let me make it clear, I believe waterboarding is torture, but it's not the issue I'll focus on in this post. Rather, let's look at the current hubbub as a notable example of why coming clean isn't good enough. Coming clean quickly is the key to keeping relationships solid.

In Speaker Pelosi's case, the passage of time has created a lack of consensus on what "the facts" might be. Memories can and do fade over time. Notes which seemed so complete now prove to be inadequate. The recollections and statements of all parties involved are colored by bias towards specific desired conclusions. The issue is further complicated by the classified nature of the meetings and updates in question.

With the exception of "classified status" reports, how many of us have dealt with these precise issues in our work lives? It might be better to ask how often we've dealt with these issues, so pervasive are they. And, though the internal wranglings over who said what to whom when are indeed frustrating, when it comes to relationships with customers and consumers, the stakes are at their highest.

At one point or another, most of us in the marketing profession are going to deal with crisis. I have. In one instance, a hurricane flattened the factory of a component supplier, disrupting assembly of my company's products for weeks. While with another firm, we had to inform our consumers of potential tampering with our products. The response to both situations helped turn these potentially dire circumstances into net positives to the particular customer and consumer relationships.

The belief that transparency is the sum of truthfulness and timeliness spared us the second-guessing, wondering, and criticism that inevitably arise from delay. Even if companies respond with full disclosure but delay the response until "the dust has settled," relationships with customers are undermined. "If there really wasn't any risk, then why didn't they tell us right away?" is a common question in these circumstances.

The makers of Tylenol have long been lauded for their response to a dire crisis in 1982, but there are other examples of good corporate behavior, too. The Consumerist applauded the handling of a credit card skimmer incident by redbox in April of 2008 (Full Disclosure: I was at redbox at the time). But not everybody has learned.

Domino's is the latest brand to go through the painful lessons of a delayed response. The company took two days to respond to the firestorm created by a YouTube video showing employees willfully engaged in public health violations while preparing food at the Domino's where they worked. The video was viewed millions of times. Somehow the leadership at Domino's seemed either to want the whole issue to just go away or was so tied up in strategizing that it forgot to act.

Even the apology video eventually posted by Domino's on YouTube rang hollow. In it, the President of Domino's USA, Patrick Doyle, states, "There is nothing more important or sacred to us than our customer's trust..." If taken at his word, then why not respond immediately and forcefully to this circumstance? It seems apparent that Domino's leadership didn't trust its customers, and in turn customers' trust in the company eroded. The video apology was less than emphatic in addressing the issue.

I'm sure someone in a corporate affairs job would say, "But nobody wants to shout 'Fire!' in a theatre or disseminate wildly inaccurate information." True enough, but it's still crucial to get the word out as quickly as possible.

In the equation of transparency, timeliness trumps perfect truth. If all the facts aren't in, say so, but keep people informed. In the age of YouTube and Twitter, the trust you show in folks will likely pay itself back as they help spread the word and fill in the details for you.

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