Issues + Insights February 2007

Past Issues + Insights

Tactics: Communicating with crowds

Crowd at train stationIs there something in the air at airports?  Something that makes airlines and airport staff totally inept at working with crowds?  Whether it’s an airplane disaster, freak weather conditions that ground all flights along the Eastern Seaboard, a security mix-up that delays or cancels a single flight, or a problem with the baggage conveyor system, airport and airline staff frequently fail to communicate effectively with crowds of travelers – with a predictable result: confusion, chaos and toxic customer experiences.

Of course, airlines and airports are not alone.  It never ceases to amaze me how poorly large organizations do when it comes to communicating with masses of people. Perhaps, it is my simple beginnings as a soldier - but there are some hard and fast rules when it comes down to crowd control and crowd communication. And, it appears many in the travel industry could use a refresher.

For the benefit of us all, here are a few of the rules:

1. Anticipate Needs. Human beings are all remarkably similar. It is relatively easy to anticipate the basic needs of people in any space, in any situation.  People will need to go to the bathroom.  People will need to eat and drink.  People will want to spread out.  People will want to be comfortable:  to sit down, to be warm, dry and in a well lit area.  People in airports are generally there to go somewhere else - so, they will need to manage the downstream impact of a delay.  People will need to communicate with each other and with people outside the immediate area. Anticipate these needs and plan appropriately:

2. Anticipate questions. Any question you can anticipate – you should answer proactively before it is asked.  This is not always true in every crisis communication situation, however, it is always true of fundamental needs-based questions in direct crowd-communication situations.  Every question you prevent is one less (multiplied by x thousand people in the crowd) that you have to answer one-on-one.  Broadcast basic information and situation updates frequently and regularly on the PA.  Create a visual notice board using computer monitors, or paper and cork.  Wherever possible, post notices in all appropriate languages.

3. Remove choices.  Making decisions takes time.  Remove unnecessary or undesirable choices.  If you want to move people from A to B, then remove every other alternative so they don't have to decide which way to go, which door to open, etc.  There should be only one route. Likewise, don't present a crowd of 30,000 people with four choices for where to sit and wait.  Tell them to move to Waiting Area G and wait for further instructions. Create one source of information and news and push everyone to that source. Make sure the source can handle the traffic.

4. Channel movement.  Understand how people move.  At critical points, people will naturally form a line if you provide them a structure to line up against.  Use a tape barrier to create a line route, etc.  At feeding, water and information stations, create a one-way path for people to use. Keep stations well separated to ensure smooth flow.  The more people you expect, the further apart the stations should be.  For example: a hot dog stand works when the vendor is selling to one or two people at a time. However, if there are 30 people waiting for hot dogs, the stand should be linear: order first, pay second, get your dog & bun third, apply your condiments fourth, pick up a napkin fifth, eat sixth, garbage seventh.  If the crowd was 300 people you would have to a) add additional lines if possible and b) move the various stations further apart.

5. Push communication out frequently. People need to hear news updates frequently. Many will miss what was said the first (second, tenth and fiftieth) time - so repeat the same information regularly.  Don't wait for people to think "Hmm... I wonder what's happening now?" before you tell them.  Customer service agents regularly fall into the trap of being so busy answering the same question from a thousand people that they don’t have time to announce the answer over the PA – an act which would stop the flow of questioners.

6. Enable self-selection.  If people must have a choice, then make it possible for them to make that choice early – put signs up on various lines so people can choose which path to take before they get into line.  Make the option you want people to choose the preferable one.  Make it brighter, cleaner, easier, shorter, more comfortable, more fun than the options you don’t want them to choose. 

7. Provide positive confirmation.  Once people are in a lineup, on a route, or in a waiting area, provide positive confirmation that they're in the right line, on the right path, in the right place. Use signs along the route to re-assure people. Consider having roving staff walk the lines to confirm that people are in the right place – or to re-direct them if they’re not.

8. Understand ergonomics.  People in a crowd cannot see anything in front of the them.  Signs must be high enough to be seen over the heads of tall people in front.  In large crowds, people can't easily turn around, so make sure there are lots of signs, repeating important messages, all along the route you expect people to take.  Repeat verbal instructions regularly. Keep messages short and easily digestible.  If people have to stay in a space for an extended period, understand that human bodies create warmth – make sure it’s comfortable.  People will want to be dry, so they’ll automatically move out of the rain if shelter is provided.  They will prefer to be in the well lit space, not the darkened space.  Anticipate these preferences and use them to your advantage.

9.  Use technology.  A crowd of 10,000 people will have 4,000 cellular phones.  Many of those phones will have SMS “text” messaging capability.  Many will have full internet-capable email and web browsing capability.  Consider how you can use these technologies to your advantage.  In particular – do you have an easy way to reach people before they join the crowd in order to tell them to go home?  Some airlines, for example, capture customer email addresses so they can push out information about flight delays.  During the vigil in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican prior to and following the death of Pope John Paul II, Church officials used SMS technology to push information out to media – as well as to people in the crowd.  They provided information updates and guidance so people were informed and comfortable.

This past winter, a commercial flight was diverted to an alternate airport while the destination airport was temporarily closed for weather.  The alternate airport was small and unable to manage all of the aircraft forced to land and wait out the storm there.  Passengers were left on the aircraft, in increasingly abysmal conditions, for hours.  During that time, passengers used their cell phones to call family, friends and the media.  In fact, passengers were giving live interviews to the TV news programs by cell phone while the incident was ongoing – all complaining about the horrible conditions, lack of information and poor crisis management by the airline.  Remember:  technology is a two-edged sword!

10.  Use volunteers.  If you don't have enough staff to put paid people on every line, at every choke point or every question-inducing or confusion-generating location in your venue -- consider using volunteers. If people are going to be stuck for hours in your hotel, airport, shopping mall or on your cruise ship, they'll need something to do anyway. You will likely find competent, willing volunteers among the crowd who will do a great job repeating the same information over and over and over... to ensure the crowd is kept informed.

If everyone working at airports, train and subway stations, bus depots, taxi stands, shopping malls, holiday sales, hotels, cruise ships, government buildings, museums and public attractions understood how to communicate with crowds, then being part of one - especially during a disruption or critical event - would be much less stressful for everyone.

What can you do to make your organization more effective at managing large crowd communications?

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Strategy: Global warming and what to do about it

Global warming is becoming a “top of mind” issue for consumers who are beginning to demand real action to address this looming world-wide crisis.  Polls show people are slowly warming up to the idea that they will have to change their individual behaviors in order to make a difference.  And then what happens?  How will mass changes in individual behavior affect your organization?  What are you doing about it?

With increasing numbers of average consumers growing concerned about global warming, political leaders in western nations are beginning to hear the call of environmentalism.  Recent polls in Canada , where angst over the state of the publicly funded health care system is the perennial “top of mind concern” amongst voters, found that Canadians’ fixation on health care has been supplanted by emergent fears of climate change.  More consumers ranked global warming as their number one concern than any other issue.

Fuelled in part by the hot air released by “former next president” Al Gore in his spectacularly successful documentary film An inconvenient truth, concern about climate change has exploded among the voting, and purchasing, public.  If this wave of concern converts into widespread consumer action – what might happen?

What are we being told to do in order to “fix” climate change?

Environmentalists are encouraging a number of strategies to avoid further climate damage and to mitigate the effects of damage already inflicted.  Many strategies are focused on the “greening” of industry – but, for our discussion, let’s focus on what individual consumers are being asked to do.  In part, consumers are being urged to drive less often, switch to “greener” vehicles and mass transit, burn cleaner fuels for automobiles and home heating, support “green” electricity generation, etc.

What if they do? 

What if consumers drive less?  What does this mean for your organization?  What if people stopped hopping in the car for a trip to the corner store, video rental shop, dry cleaners, neighborhood pub or dentist’s office?  What if they used their cars only for major commuting between home and office?

Are your offices located along your consumers’ main home-office routes?  Could they do a quick “run in” to your services while traveling to/from work?  Are your offices open early/late during commuting times?  If you’re not located along one of those major pathways, you need to think about why consumers should make a specific trip just to buy from you.  You need to identify now what conditions would cause you to consider relocating to a better location. 

Retailers know the value of location and put a premium on locations close to major commuting paths and transit lines.  As our world becomes greener, this will become a major consideration for all offices.  Not only will customers want to visit locations that are more easily accessible using green transportation – so will employees.  Every organization that employs people will want to be located on a major corridor or hub.

So, what happens to all those “middle of nowhere” properties now that no one wants them?  Sounds like an opportunity for an enterprising entrepreneur.  As “inconvenient” properties plummet in value, at some point they will become attractive for other purposes.

As services become increasingly clustered around green hubs and spokes, residences will follow.  Why take a bus to the store if you can walk?  Already, most of the western world is predominantly urbanized – in Canada alone, some 80 per cent of the population live in urban centers.  With increasing concerns for the environment, there will be a greater push towards population “densification.”

What if consumers switch to greener fuels?  If greener auto fuels become economically available soon, then consumers may feel less obligated to curtail their driving habits.  All of those businesses, and possibly even bedroom communities, facing extinction if people stop driving could suddenly be viable again.  If your business was likely to suffer by a major change in driving habits, wouldn’t it make sense to become an active, issues-leader on the green fuels front?  What could you do to support research, legislation and consumer adoption of green fuels?

Our climate is getting warmer – that much is certain.  While there may still be some debate about how much it will change, and how much of it is attributable to human behaviour, two things seem pretty clear.  First, the consequences of global warming are undesirable, to say the least, and anything we can do to mitigate the damage is going to be important.  Second, the popular consensus is that humans are to blame and people are becoming increasingly more interested in doing something about it.

The time for every business, every organization to get actively involved in this issue is right now.  There are many different strategies that we can use to mitigate the effect of global warming – your enterprise should be actively promoting the one(s) that will serve you best.

Should you advocate for the status quo?  

Quite likely, your business plan was based on the assumption that consumer behavior would not change markedly due to environmental concerns.  One option is for your firm to manage this issue by working strongly against a behavioral change.  We feel this strategy would be unwise, for a number of reasons.  First, and perhaps last, is the reality that it’s just not likely to work – whether you agree or disagree with any or all of the concerns raised about global warming, the fact is there is popular consensus that this is a real problem and people will increasingly demand real action.  Taking a “flat earth” approach is likely only to distance your organization from its stakeholders.

A better approach is to get ahead of the curve and work actively towards an effective solution.  There are many sound initiatives to support – choose the one that best aligns with the culture and strategy of your organization.

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TCG News

Global alliance extends reach to five continents

International organizations have a new source for global solutions when it comes to their crisis leadership, crisis management and crisis communication challenges.  TOWHEY Consulting Group Inc., working together with a number of international partners, has created a new global alliance aimed at improving client service.

"Many of our clients have global operations," says Mark Towhey, president of TOWHEY Consulting Group Inc. (TCG), an international management consulting firm specializing in integrated issues, risk and crisis leadership.  "While our team regularly travels world-wide to work with clients wherever they may need us, this global alliance extends our reach and will allow us to put trusted partners on the ground to help clients faster and more economically."

In addition to TCG, founding partners of the alliance include:  docleaf in the United Kingdom; Bernstein Crisis Management LLC in California, USA; Ross Campbell & Associates Crisis Management in Australia; Vuma Corporate Reputation Management (Pty) Ltd. in South Africa; and Adfactors Public Relations in India.

Additional partners are expected to join the alliance as the network expands over the coming months.

For more information see Global Reach.

Courier publishes "How to manage a crisis"

The February 2007 issue of Courier magazine, published by the National Tour Association, includes a new article by TCG president Mark Towhey called How to manage a crisis in five stages.  The article can be read online here.

more...

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Special Offer:  $1,200 Crisis Plan Review

Due to popular demand from clients, we've decided to extend our January special offer for one month only!

Whether they're crisis management plans, crisis communication plans, business continuity plans, business resumption plans, disaster recovery plans, or what have you, we'll provide an expert, objective second opinion for you.

Our Crisis Plan Review service normally sells for over $1,500 but in the spirit of the holidays, we're discounting that price to just $1,200 (USD) until February 28, 2007.  That's a 20 per cent savings.

As part of the CPR, we will review your written or electronic plan documents and provide you with a detailed expert review of your plan - with specific commentary on strengths, weaknesses and areas for improvement.  We'll even provide recommendations on best practices ways address the gaps and shortfalls we identify. 

Can you think of a better way to invest $1,200?

 

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