The latest news from The White House regarding a payment to an adult-film actress highlights the importance of making sure key members of your organization’s team relay consistent messaging to the public.
One of President Trump’s current attorneys, former New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, said in a television interview that the president reimbursed a former attorney for a payment to the actress. The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal reported that President Trump said Giuliani would “get his facts straight” on the story. The Wall Street Journal also reported Giuliani provided a follow-up statement to clarify his own previous statements.
These mixed messages leave us confused about what we’re supposed to believe about the payment.
Warning To Businesses
Many people may dismiss this as a political soap opera, but it’s an important warning to businesses of all sizes. When we provide media training for companies, the main purpose is to help them relay key messages as effectively as possible. What we often learn is that several key members of a company’s team are saying different things about the same topic. As we prepare to help them share their team messages effectively, many times we learn that they don’t even agree on the messaging. They don’t realize that they’re sharing conflicting messages until they’re sitting in the same room and talking about it face to face. It’s almost a surprise to them.
Giving Customers Different Reasons
An example of this is a recent training we did for a company that received customer criticism about a specific fee. We learned during the training that some of the employees were providing customers different reasons and justifications for the fee. If customers who are already suspicious and cynical about the fee learned employees were giving different reasons for the fee, the company’s credibility would erode even more. While we sat in the room, the debate about the fee continued, as employees and management disagreed about the legitimate reason behind the fee and how to best explain it to customers.
At another company, staff members were discussing safety procedures and different members of the team disagreed about which safety procedures were important to share with the public and which were not as crucial.
Share Consistent Messages
This happens quite a bit. One of the most important things to know about talking with the media or with stakeholders is that everyone should share a consistent message. We have learned over the years that this is a common problem that organizations encounter. They don’t realize the problem exists until they sit together in a room and take the time to have a conversation. Assuming that everyone is on the same page is typically a big mistake.
While the story about Trump and Giuliani may seem unusual and not hold a direct impact on our day-to-day lives, we believe it’s an important reminder for companies, organizations and their management to ensure everyone on the management team sits down and relays consistent messaging about important topics. Also, ensure employees who are often on the frontlines are sharing the same messaging that management wants them to share.
This Is A Regular Problem
Although the concept may seem simple and some organizations might brush off this type of advice as being basic, we can tell you from firsthand experience that, time and time again, this is a regular problem. Organizations don’t often realize it’s an issue until they had a thorough conversation about some of these topics.
Just like Trump and Giuliani should have a conversation about exactly what they’re going to say to the public, organizations and businesses should do that, too, so they don’t have to backtrack later and clarify information and potentially lose credibility.