Marriott: A crisis response gone wrong

Marriott rocked customers and investors last week after disclosing one of the biggest data breaches of all time with up to 500 million customers impacted. The data at risk includes things like email addresses, mailing addresses, phone numbers, and passport numbers. Encrypted customer credit card information was also compromised, but it's too soon to tell whether the keys necessary to access that information were also lost.

There’s no question that management is taking this seriously.  Just look at some of the actions they have taken since the announcement was made:

• A new dedicated phone line and website for those affected by the data breach
• Creation of a micro-site where Starwood customers can find more information about the breach and the actions they can take
• Covering the full cost for a year of web monitoring services for those affected 

But actions alone just aren’t enough.  They missed the mark on message.  Marriott made the same mistake many companies in crisis make: they treated this like a crisis of facts, rather than a crisis of feelings. They list in clinical detail what they know, what they don't know, who is responsible (read:  it’s not Marriott it’s Starwood) and what they're doing. What they aren’t addressing is what they did wrong really.  They aren’t addressing consumers emotions. And emotions are running high.  There’s fear.  There’s broken trust.  There’s skepticism.  And until Marriott deals with that, they won’t win back customer and investor trust. 

Here’s a look at what they could have done to begin to rebuild trust.

The message that a company in crisis convey in the hours following the initial reveal are critical to how we perceive the company.  When they get it right, we feel like the company has it under control.  That the impact to share price will be short lived.  And we will forget about it with the next news cycle.  When they get it wrong, we dig deeper and get more skeptical.  We lose trust.  And the impact on the stock price can be long lived. 

Lee Carter is president of maslansky + partners and oversees a diverse range of communication and language strategy work for Fortune 100 and 500 companies, trade associations, and non-profits in the U.S. and globally. A communication research veteran, Lee has conducted and analyzed more than one thousand instant response dial sessions, traditional focus groups and client strategy sessions. Lee has also written and overseen hundreds of language surveys and polls in more than 15 countries. She has used maslansky’s Dynamic Response took which uses 20 years of crisis response data and behavioral science to evaluate Marriott’s message.