When New York was pummeled by COVID in March 2020, Andrew Cuomo became an overnight sensation. His daily briefings were must-see TV–we even wrote in praise of his clear, concise, panic-free delivery. He won an Emmy for the presentations. People across the country proudly declared themselves ‘Cuomosexuals.’ That did not age well.

Cuomo’s status as a pandemic hero did not last. First, he faced controversy for underreporting COVID death rates in New York nursing homes. Then, in summer 2021, multiple women came forward with sexual harassment allegations.

With that, the Cuomosexuals renounced their former heartthrob, and Andrew was out of a job.

This scandal-fueled fall from grace is not an unfamiliar narrative. Anthony Weiner, Eliot Spitzer (c’mon, New York) and Adam Neumann have experienced it. And it’s not just individuals–brands can destroy their goodwill, too. See: Enron and Theranos.

When individuals ruin their brand, they ultimately have no one to blame but themselves. But what about an organization? A marketing and communications team that had nothing to do with the scandal can be left holding the bag. What’s the best way forward if you find yourself in that unenviable position?

When a scandal breaks, your brand immediately loses trust. Being able to write your own narrative is a privilege, and it’s one you lose when you abuse it through misrepresentation.

Own the mistake

As someone living in the internet age, you are surely acquainted with the non-apology apology. Usually typed up on the Apple Notes app and shared across social media, the post comes in a few flavors.

There’s the, “I’m so sorry if you were offended by what I did or said.” Then there’s the, “No, wait, that’s not what I said or meant.” And finally, there’s the aggressive denial route. Cuomo’s first public response to the sexual harassment allegations against him was a combination of all three.

None of these approaches work. The only way to handle a mess-up is to take ownership and offer a sincere apology. No excuses, no attempts to soften the edges.

When a scandal breaks, your brand immediately loses trust. Being able to write your own narrative is a privilege, and it’s one you lose when you abuse it through misrepresentation.

Humility and brevity win the day in those early post-crisis communications.

Anticipate your audience’s needs

Once you’ve gotten your sincere and simple apology out there, it’s time to dig deeper. You are always in service to your customers, but centering their needs becomes more important now than ever before.

Your customers will have questions, concerns, and hesitations. It’s up to you to anticipate what they need from you and work to allay their fears.

This requires empathy. Put yourself in your customers’ shoes. What would you want to hear from your brand? The answer will depend on what the scandal is.

If the problem lies with a wayward executive, your audience will want to see that individual held accountable. Then, they’d like to understand what the brand is doing to repair the harm done and ensure it doesn’t happen again.

If the issue is more systemic, share what you’re doing to get to the root causes. Be transparent about how the organization is conducting its investigation, and share concrete timelines for when your audience can expect updates. Then, meet those deadlines.

Recognize that it takes time to win back trust

The word humility comes from the Latin word humus, or ground. You’re communicating with humility because you’ve toppled the latticework of trust you built over the years. You’re starting from the ground, and it will take time to reach the heights again.

You cannot force your audience to forget what happened, and you don’t get to dictate the timeline for your public rehabilitation. Stay humble, stay the course on your messaging, and stay patient. This is ultimately the only recipe to regaining your place of respect in the eyes of your audience.

Follow through on your promises

That’s not to say that this time should be fallow. In fact, this is when your organization should tackle the internal work necessary to right the wrongs and create systems to prevent them from happening again.

As your business does this vital work, provide public updates. Trust comes, in part, from consistency. If you can demonstrate to your audience that you’re following through on promises and steadily working to improve, that goes a long way to re-establishing trust.

Be proactive

You can’t rewind the clock and take back the scandal, but the smart marketing and comms teams have procedures in place should a crisis befall your brand.

This starts with devising a formal crisis communications plan. Have one ready to go, just in case. Identify who will be responsible for what. Assign roles to team members, and get granular. For example, who fields incoming questions from reporters?

Additionally, be proactive in ensuring your marketing team isn’t the source of a scandal. Marketing can land in hot water if they overpromise or make a misstep in a highly regulated industry, like healthcare or finance.

Keeping your team up-to-date on industry best practices and hiring outside partners that understand the regulatory environment for your brand are two ways to avoid becoming the wrong kind of front-page news.

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Successful people and businesses are used to operating with confidence–some might say bravado–so it can be hard to downshift to humility when a scandal strikes. But that change is necessary. And it shouldn’t just be a tonal shift in your communications. This new delivery should reflect an internal pivot toward self-reflection.

It will take time, but you can regain trust if you stay the course and align words and actions as you build a brighter, more honest future.

If you’re in the process of rethinking your brand voice–for any reason–an external partner can help you sort through the complex feelings that go along with that. Contact us!