By Eddie Ybañez
AS tech founders, our functional expertise is most likely in something directly related to technology, such as design, programming, or data science, and so when we face a public relations crisis, we often don’t know where to even begin. Part of the reason why is we lack both the expertise and the experience: We most likely don’t have seasoned communications people employed by our start-up like larger companies can do, and we have only started developing the voice with which we speak to our stakeholders.
I faced a public relations crisis last year, one that I felt threatened the core foundation between my taxi-hailing company, Micab, and our users: trust.
As with many crises, ours started routinely enough — in fact, we were announcing good news: In mid-August of last year, we announced a partnership with Philippine National Taxi Operators Association (PNTOA) and Association of Taxi Operators in Metro Manila (ATOMM) in a deal that would see us launch in Manila with 3,000 taxi units and reach 7,000 by year end.
My first thought was that the announcement was a success: Many local media outlets picked up the news, and I felt we were successfully brand-building in preparation for our Manila roll-out.
But there was one problem.
When they heard the news, users in Manila started to download the app by the thousands. Then, once they tried to hail a cab but found none (as we would not be operational in Manila for several months), they posted angry reviews on our Facebook page, across social media, and on other websites.
The misunderstanding was no one’s fault: Most of the headlines from our announcement mentioned that we were coming into Manila, but did not specify when until the body of the article.
Passengers, too, were hungry for additional commuting options, as our announcement occurred at the same time that Uber had gotten banned nationwide for one month for disobeying a ban on the on-boarding of new drivers. I, too, empathized with Manila’s riding public: They expected a new solution to be available to them, and it was not. It would seem like a case of false advertising to even the most forgiving of passengers.
I had founded Micab in Cebu City in 2012, and I had never experienced a public relations crisis of this sort. The trust we had built for our brand — we were serving more than 20,000 passengers daily in our home city, by then — could be lost in an instant, so I had to act fast.
Though I have no background in corporate communications or public relations, I did what made the most sense, based on what I would have liked to hear if I were a passenger: In a statement posted on my Facebook and circulated to reporters, I clarified that Micab was not yet available in Manila, but personally took all the blame for any misunderstanding. We should, after all, allow no room for misinterpretation.
One of the top online publications picked up my clarification, and its coverage helped stem the tide of negative reactions against Micab on social media. I thought other media outlets would follow suit, but they did not.
That my original announcement had made waves across the news while my necessary clarification barely made a peep was my biggest takeaway from the whole ordeal: As founders, it’s only natural to be eager to share product announcements, funding news, or as in my case, strategic partnerships, but we must temper this excitement with consideration of the bigger picture.
While corporate communications may be hazier than our world of design and development, we must approach it with the same level of exactitude: Our news releases should be calendared on a road map of its own, placed according to what would give our company and our stakeholders the most strategic value.
This approach is common to big companies which have in-house communications departments — some of which we are trying to disrupt — so where we can further differentiate ourselves is in our responsiveness. We must be as agile as we are strategic.
If in the event some aspect of our communications does not work as well as we hope, we must be able to change plans on a dime, just as I had to with my first PR crisis with a simple message posted on my Facebook and shared with journalists. After all, the best communication has no frills nor filters — it’s just you, your stakeholders, and a humble message of how you wish to improve their lives.
Eddie Ybañez is the CEO and cofounder of taxi-hailing application Micab, and he envisions the creation of a “Taxi 2.0” for the country’s riding public.
