The Big Box company encountered a communication crisis as a result of the company’s systems being hacked. The data security journalist of the firm revealed that the hack has exposed vital information of about one million customers who had shopped at Big Box in 2017. In response to the incident, a crisis communication team was created consisting of the director of communication, the CEO, and the head of information security. The CEO released a formal statement through the company's website to describe the hacking incident and outlined steps to be implemented to solve the issue. Also, the CEO, Anne prepared a press release speaking on behalf of the company apologizing for the information breach and offered a strategy for affected clients to receive free credit monitoring services that Big Bix would cater for. However, after the press release, a reporter revealed that there were over five million customers affected by the breach, therefore, forcing Big-box to retract their statement and provide accurate findings and more benefits to affected customers which were all done through the company’s website.
The steps responding to the crisis included the crisis communication team conducting a meeting with representatives from all departments affected by the hack to assess the situation. From the assessment and available information, the team provided an immediate response by determining on sending public communication, the medium of communication, and the audience ( Coombs, 2015) . More so, the team sent an alert to the media through a press release on its website to notify the immediately affected audience. In addition, the communication team monitored the crisis and added information such as the actual number of affected customers. The information was to be approved and monitors by members of the team. In conclusion, the team carried out a post incident meeting to analyze how the team responded to the crisis and provide areas that required improvement in the company’s crisis communication policy.
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Obstacles and Missteps
The crisis communication team encountered several obstacles and missteps in resolving the crisis as information provided by the company was not credible. The company did not confirm the actual number of customers who had been affected by the breach. According to the company, the data breach was perceived to be severe and of a large size therefore they did not confirm the numbers first before sending a press release hence the response was not timely. In addition, the information provided by Big Box was not transparent because a reporter revealed that the number of customers affected was five million in contrast to the one million customers that the company had communicated. Therefore, the company was forced to retract its statement and provide new information.
More so the press release was only through the company's website and no information was provided on the company's social media sites that are Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. The availability of information on the company's website only limited customers who use social media sites from accessing the information ( Taylor, & Perry, 2015) . Customers flooded the company’s social media accounts demoing action since no official statement was offered on the sites but according to the company, the social media site are not reliable media tools. Also, Big Box lacked a social media manager hence there was no distribution of information on the sites and customers’ demands were not monitored or addressed. On the other hand, all the press released was posted on the website were not easily found by the members of the public and mainly consisted of text documents. The text documents lacked an elaborative aspect that would make the customer understand the crisis more.
The crisis response was not effective because the communication made were not received by all members of the public. More so the effectiveness of the response was affected by the use of only one communication tool which was the company’s website. The crisis communication team should have utilized other tools such as television and radio to carry out interviews that offered more elaborate information. Also, to address the crisis the team should have used their social media platform as technology provides a wider geographical reach therefore informing all customers of the data breach ( Lu, & Jin, 2020) . More so, the use of infographics such as video, images, and audios would have highly helped in communicating with the public. Infographics attract a large audience and are easy to understand therefore promoting the communication of Big Box.
Recommendations
In solving the crisis better, the communication team should have first carried out extensive research of the situation to confirm the actual number of affected customers before offering a press release. More so, the team should have offered the press release on time after researching to avoid issues of retracting their statement. Further, the team should have used all media platforms to communicate on the crisis apart from their website to ensure that all members of the public were notified of the data breach (Roshan, Warren, & Carr, 2016) . Also, the company should have put in place a social media manager to monitor clients' demand on social media platforms and distribute information on the sites together with using creative infographics.
Stakeholder Roles
Among the key stakeholders in the crisis communications was the data security journalist who revealed that the company's systems had been hacked. Other stakeholders include the CEO, director of communication, and head of information security who formed the crisis communication team. The CEO made a formal statement on the hacking and outlined steps to be taken in response to the crisis. Also, she made a press release apologizing for the breach and offered credit monitoring services to affected customers. The director of communication provided information on the incident on the company’s website.
Future Needs
In conclusion, Big Box should initiate steps of thorough research and analysis of a situation before presenting an official statement. The company should have an existing crisis communication team to swiftly respond to the crisis. More so, the company should use infographics and all media platforms to provide information to the public. In addition, the company should offer relevant information on its social media sites and have a manager to oversee the sites.
References
Coombs, W. T. (2015). Ongoing crisis communication: Planning, managing, and responding . Sage Publications.
Lu, X., & Jin, Y. (2020). Information vetting as a key component in social-mediated crisis communication: An exploratory study to examine the initial conceptualization. Public relations review , 101891.
Roshan, M., Warren, M., & Carr, R. (2016). Understanding the use of social media by organisations for crisis communication. Computers in Human Behavior , 63 , 350-361.
Taylor, M., & Perry, D. C. (2015). Diffusion of traditional and new media tactics in crisis communication. Public Relations Review , 31 (2), 209-217.
