Robotic corporate messaging isn’t warming anyone up to nasty news: Our Three C’s of Credibility are 1) Confidence, 2) Competence, and 3) Compassion.

If you read through any collection of corporate messaging you’ll quickly realize that the vast majority hit the first two just fine, but reliably fail to introduce any element of compassion.

Case in point? The message that Uber fired off after the revelation that it had hidden information about a data breach dating back to 2016. Take a look:

Not one drop of compassion.

How hard would it be to say, “We understand how important privacy is to you”? To show some bit of caring for the worry the news caused riders, to give even the slightest hint that they actually care? Heck, the message wasn’t even signed by a person, but by the faceless “Uber for Business Team”. Doesn’t exactly give you the warm and fuzzies, does it?

If you’re not compassionate, if you can’t show people that you get how they’re feeling and you care enough to fix the situation, then your communications will fail to achieve their desired result.

It’s human nature to shut down when addressed solely with logic. Like it or not we’re emotional creatures, and if you forget that in crisis management you’re asking for trouble.

Erik Bernstein
erik@bernsteincrisismanagement.com / www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com