Earlier today my company broadcast it's first UStream presentation. We chose to use UStream in order to deliver our content to a wider audience than we could using GoToWebinar. We wanted to have the company engage more heavily in the social space of Twitter and Facebook using the social stream feature. We had big ideas!
We did our homework too. We created valuable content: slides, video, polls, Q&A. We were ready to go. We even took 2 days to test our broadcast and run through our content. We were sure that we'd worked out any technical issues. The video was clear and there was little to no lag with the audio.
In spite of this preparation when it was showtime we had technical hiccups and participants were without sound, watching choppy video and were very disappointed and unhappy. We'd asked for their time, they generously gave us that time and ultimately our plan for delivering valuable content became more of an exercise for us in learning to deal with "crisis."
I say "Crisis" in quotes because I don't want to imply that this was a crisis like what Tylenol dealt with back in the day. However, internally, it sent shockwaves.
Now we are still in the midst of fixing everything. Luckily, we were able to get valuable feedback from our audience by reconnecting with the individuals who commented about the technical issues they were having. One participant called in to voice her frustrations and disappointment…I'm really glad she did. Getting feedback directly from our audience helped highlight what the big issues were, including ones that we hadn't even considered. For instance, we never even thought about the ads on UStream and how invasive they could be.
Now we are in the midst of finding out how to best provide maximum value to the participants to make amends for the issues. I think the biggest lesson isn't that you can avoid mistakes, but that you can turn a bad situation around if you are committed to it. Listen to your audience, acknowledge and appreciate their concerns and experiences. Put in the necessary effort to make amends and finally, always be committed to providing value.
When in a situation like this, I remember this; the three A's of PR/Crisis Management: Acknowledge, Apologize, Act. Special thanks to Chris Brogan for that advice.
About Jeff Gibbard
