Picking the right PR agency for the job can be an arduous task, a fact evidenced by the existence of PRCA’s Matchmaker service. Hiring a PR agency to deal with crisis situations is arguably one of the most important decisions to be made, but with so many services and agencies to choose from — how can you ensure you’re picking the right team for the job?

I can think of no better place to start on this issue than to quote Warren Buffett on the issue of corporate reputation:

"It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.”

Buffet emphasised the critical importance of ensuring that you are in a position to protect your reputation. And, in this age of viral media, it can be ruined literally in a matter of minutes. Your prospective agency must demonstrate that it has the right expertise to do so and offers a preventative solution.

You can divide a methodology of crisis PR professionals into two:

1. Accept the inevitability of an adverse publication taking place — whatever its content — and then commit as many resources as you can to mitigate the damage caused by it.

2. Make an expert assessment of any such threatened publication to decide whether it would (in whole or in part) contravene the applicable regulatory and legal provisions; and, if it does, start from the basis that the publication should not take place.

By far the best outcome when a company is confronted with a PR crisis is for that crisis to be averted, rather than mediated — just as it is far better to be inoculated against an illness rather than contract it and need treatment.

However, a quick check online would seem to suggest many PR agencies don’t advertise preventative services at the forefront of crisis offerings. I found many referring to messaging and holding statements, which effectively means the opportunity to comment on a particular set of events has passed. This, to me, seems of little practical use when the bad messaging from a major national news outlet is picked up en masse.

If the agency which is pitching to you does not place this service of prevention at the forefront of its crisis PR offering, then you should choose an agency which does.