8 Things Secret Cinema Could Have Done To Save Their Reputation

...and 3 they could still do.

Anyone who's been anywhere near social media over the last few days will have seen the PR disaster that was Secret Cinema's slow cancellation of the first week of their biggest ever project, a recreation of Hill Valley complete with clocktower and Delorean. Secret Cinema's communications during the whole saga have been a text-book example of how not to do it. The company's shows are normally great and they could easily have saved this situation, so lets look at some of the things they should have done...

1. Make sure you can contact your customers

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Secret Cinema know the power of a surprise so it's understandable that they wanted to stop customers ruining the details of the show for others and asked them to leave their phones at home. Unfortunately, this means when you cancel the show at the last minute you have to deal with disgruntled customers in full costume showing up at the site unaware it's not on. The organisers really needed to have thought of another way of contacting their customers or stopping pictures getting out.

2. Be honest about the problem

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Other than vague references to 'keeping local authorities happy' Secret Cinema have yet to explain to customers why a week's worth of shows have been cancelled, two of them with only a couple of hours notice. Without information from the organiser, customers will resort to rumour and speculation, nearly always at the expense of said organiser. After all, if it wasn't the company's fault why are they being so cagey?

3. Don't leave people waiting

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Customers for the first night weren't told until a few hours before that the show had been cancelled, those for the second night were told they'd find out by 11am the next day if the show was back on, but other than a brief holding statement there was no further communication from Secret Cinema until gone 3pm when a short statement went out saying the show was cancelled. As of half 6 on Saturday 26th yet there was no post on their Twitter, Facebook or website saying that upcoming shows had been cancelled. If customers are regularly they at least feel valued, complete silence implies the company just doesn't care.

4. Sympathise with your customers

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If your customers have spent hundreds of pounds on costumes for the event, booked hotels, travelled hundreds of miles, arranged for child care, taken holiday, and invested in your event in all manner of other ways, you're going to have to go further than simply replacing their ticket. Secret Cinema should have appreciated everything their customers had lost and done everything they could to minimise their losses.

5. Don't ignore rumours

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Secret Cinema's silence meant that customers had no choice but to believe the rumours that were flying around. If they'd got out early and countered the misinformation they could have stopped some of the worst rumours being accepted as fact.

6. Don't hesitate to make decisions

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Two days running it took Secret Cinema right up until the last minute to cancel shows, then it took a few more hours to cancel the Saturday show, and another few hours to get the message out that they'd cancelled others. It was clear from the start that there were problems and if they'd been cancelled enough shows straight away to make sure they could go ahead only the customers affected would really have noticed.

7. Don't ignore social media

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Probably the most remarkable thing about Secret Cinema's mishandling of their problems was their unwillingness to engage with social media. Customers were begging for information on Twitter and Facebook but the company didn't engage or answer questions so the customers talked to each other taking comfort in shared experiences and developing a common dislike for Secret Cinema. Often the posts mocking Secret Cinema were more popular than the information from the company itself. In situations like this the person monitoring the social media can be the voice of customers in high-level decision-making and no matter how busy you are that's too important to ignore.

Secret Cinema made some big mistakes but there's still time to rescue their reputation. Here's what Secret Cinema should do next.

8. Make sure the show is incredible

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It's obvious but Secret Cinema now need to make sure the show is slicker and bigger and more spectacular than ever. And they need to make sure that every person who saw the whole saga unfold knows how good the show was.

9. Go above and beyond to compensate your customers

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It's not enough to give customers tickets to another show. It's not even enough to give them free tickets. Customers have lost huge amounts of money and time because of this show and if they ever want to them to come back Secret Cinema need to make it up to them. If the compensation isn't really hurting Secret Cinema financially then it's probably not good enough. Rufus Hound, currently appearing in a production of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels quickly arranged for anyone with a Secret Cinema ticket to get free entry to his play - great good will for him and the theatre and presumably filling a number of empty seats.

10. Get ready for the future!

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Planning for a crisis is one of the downheartening days you'll ever have at a company. You need to make a big list of everything that could possibly go wrong and work out how you'll stop it happening and what you'll do when it happens anyway. The thing that goes wrong is never actually on that list but you're still better prepared to handle whatever crisis does pop up in the future.

Who? Communications provides crisis communications, planning and training. To find out more visit www.whocommunications.co.uk.