Citrine One

I was recently asked by a young manager who manages bloggers, how do I keep my customers. And what do I do if a customer is not happy with the outcome. I ask if he set the right expectations with his client before taking on the job. He said no. To him, he wanted to try and agreed to his client’s demands just to close the deal. In the field of communications and I believe in the world of business development and sales, such scenario is very common. And if one does not set the right expectations with one’s client from day one, the moment we take on the job, we are already at a trust deficit. There is a saying ---” A relationship without trust is like a car without gas. You can stay in it for as long as you want but it won’t go anywhere.” If a person think long term, no matter how small the project or sale amount is, the moment we take it on we must do all we can to meet our clients’ expectations and perform to the best of our ability. It is indeed a MUST to first and...

STRATEGY 3: ENGAGE             There are many type of crisis that may happen in the life of an organisation or business. Here are some examples of the more common ones that may occur: Natural crises Technological crisis (downtime or breakdown on network) Confrontational crisis Crisis of malevolence Crisis of organizational misdeeds Crisis of skewed management values Crisis of deception Crisis of management misconduct Workplace violence Workplace accidents which resulted in death/injury Rumors In reality, of course there a lot more types of crisis that may occur. So, generally how does one know if a crisis has occurred? Essentially, crisis management is the process by which an organisation deals with a major event that threatens to harm the organisation, its stakeholders, or the general public. Three elements are common to most definitions of crisis: (a) a threat to...

STRATEGY 2: NEUTRALISATION Many organisations have found their reputation in a compromised position when fake news or untruths are spread pervasively on the social media. The consequences can be damaging and some impacted not only their reputation but loss of finances as well as having to address trust deficits amongst their stakeholders, their employees and the public at large. With the proliferation of the internet and social media, negative news about the affected organisation is now more pervasive than ever. The virality of the news reaches a wider spectrum of audience. Most companies or organisations find themselves unprepared, and hence suffered the consequences. However in reality, there are ways for a crisis to be better handled or pre-empted. A company or an organisation can prepare themselves to address any crisis in quick time by first and foremost develop a good communication infrastructure which includes the following: a)     ...

STRATEGY 1: DROWNING Our expectations in this digital world today are getting higher as days go by. We expect instant response, transparent and truthful news as well as information on the go because social media platforms are in the trend now. Social media is no longer just a platform for the millennials only, but every one of us young and old, regardless of age groups are now using it for various reasons. When a crisis hits, there’s not a moment to lose. According to Cerebra social media crisis survey, more than half of the businesses had experienced crisis on social media before, and 58% of the respondents rated that the crisis has given critical impact to their businesses.  On top of that, Everbridge study finds 58% of organizations lack social media strategy during crisis. Anger is the emotion that spreads easily over social media. Even a small issue will have the potential to go viral.   As business owners, reputation means a lot to us. We cannot afford...

The only thing constant in our lives is change. And change we must especially so in today’s digital world, where the norm is no longer sustainable. The buzz word these days is disruptive.   Technology is in everything and everywhere.   It is disrupting our lives -- disrupting the way we work, live, play and communicate. We are moving into an era of major transition just as the revolution that happened after the 1 st world war. This transition is happening as you are reading this and it is moving fast. Technology provides convenience and with convenience, our lifestyle changes. We are communicating more on social media platforms rather than face-to-face. We are speaking to people who are distant rather than the people who are sitting next to us.  We no longer wait for news to come to our doorstep via newspaper, we send out the news ourselves and viral it. More and more people make their own news nowadays and send it out to their communities and their friends. Rea...