I’ve been thinking a lot about fairy tales.
My son is learning about different kinds of books and narratives in his preschool class.
He’s become a fan of fairy tales.
Fantastical stories. Enchanting and mythical characters. Improbable events that lead to happy endings.
Makes sense for a 4-year-old. But guess who else likes a good fairy tale?
Our clients.
Typically, they come to us in some sort of trouble — aka, a dramatic tale.
They’re more than eager to turn the page and get to the happy ending part.
To give you a flavor, here’s just a little of the drama that Team CBL has encountered lately:
*A university president on his heels for making a controversial (but the right) decision to kick a star student athlete off the team for (really) bad behavior.
*A healthcare provider suffering a massive data breach.
*A professional sports league facing a whistleblower complaint.
Oh, and always so, so, so much litigation.
Team CBL takes on more drama in a week’s worth of work than Hollywood producers can pack into a whole housewives reality series. (Trust me, I watch them ALL.)
I’ll probably never forget one of the toughest #crisiscommunications engagements we took on.
It was the height of the first wave of COVID-19.
A skilled nursing facility became swept up in a swirl of intense media interest and regulatory scrutiny after one of its facilities suffered a cluster of fatalities.
The company’s slow, uneven responses to requests for comment was creating a vacuum being filled by speculation from patients and family, newsrooms and public officials, all of whom were eager to point fingers at the company.
Cue CBL and an improbable approach.
We hired our own Dr. Fauci.
We enlisted a noted infectious disease expert to manage a task force and to communicate to media, elected officials, staff, patients and families.
With CBL’s intervention and a series of ongoing, regular updates with the media, elected officials, patients and families, the narrative changed over the weeks from a company in free-falling crisis to a company meeting the pandemic head-on. As a result:
* Patient referrals increased 44.9%
* Newsweek named two of the company’s facilities in its “Best Nursing Homes of 2021” rankings.
* A pharmaceutical manufacturer asked the company to join a study of a potentially life-saving COVID-19 treatment designed for elderly patients. Not only had the company turned around its own crisis, it was now being positioned to help save lives across the country.
Most importantly, our client recognized the impact of our strategic counsel, with this testimonial: “Having faced as many challenges as we have over the last few months, knowing that you guys have our back makes those moments conquerable. I feel blessed every day to have you part of our team.”
Like many of our engagements, the story didn’t start out very pretty, but talk about a happy ending.
This article was written by President Natalie Bauer Luce. Natalie is a seasoned communications and public affairs strategist with extensive experience in government, law, media, politics and business.