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Strong statement to kick things off, but it was missing something
Home Depot may be joining the ranks of Target, P.F. Changs, and many others after announcing that it is looking into “unusual activity” involves the security of its data. While we give them due credit for not sitting mum on the topic, and coming off as very confident in their statement, as happens so often this one was missing a critical ingredient – compassion.
Here’s what the retailer told Krebs on Security, the site that broke the story:
“I can confirm we are looking into some unusual activity and we are working with our banking partners and law enforcement to investigate,” Drake said, reading from a prepared statement. “Protecting our customers’ information is something we take extremely seriously, and we are aggressively gathering facts at this point while working to protect customers. If we confirm that a breach has a occurred, we will make sure customers are notified immediately. Right now, for security reasons, it would be inappropriate for us to speculate further – but we will provide further information as soon as possible.”
Effective crisis communications is very much about putting yourself in the audience’s shoes, thinking “what would I want to hear in this situation?” Besides the obvious – what’s happening and what are you doing about it – people want to know that you care, and you do that by showing compassion. This isn’t a total flop for Home Depot, but when the trust of your stakeholders is on the line isn’t it important to ensure your messaging is as effective as possible?
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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]
