Why is telling the truth so difficult?
– Honesty is always the best policy
When something goes wrong the natural commercial instinct to keep it quiet kicks in. No point in besmirching a carefully managed reputation.
Often, however, businesses don’t have the luxury of selective silence.
It’s hard dodging tough questions, particularly when a seasoned hack acting on a tip-off is on the other end of the phone.
Ignoring their advances won’t make them go away. In fact, it only makes things worse. Journalists will make their own deductions and leaving them unchallenged with a “no comment” or unavailability only serves to confirm the veracity of subsequent news reports.
Don’t be scared of telling the truth.
Sure, it’s not nice explaining a difficult situation, particularly when it stems from failure, sloppiness or dishonesty.
But people are by nature forgiving. And more so when an incident is confronted quickly and honestly.
Explain what and how it happened; apologise; and outline new measures to ensure it doesn’t happen again. End of story; the reporter gets theirs; it’s more balanced than it would have been had you failed to participate in its telling; and the likelihood of follow-up stories is minimised.
Avoiding the truth is counterproductive. It prolongs bad news, your pain, and erodes hard fought customer trust.
Front up.
