Reading: When an angry public wants to be heard

When an angry public wants to be heard

It is always easier to find solutions in case of conflict when negotiators get along well, but when they are upset, both sides totally forget they are still in a negotiation. When companies have to face very angry customers they skip the value creation step in negotiation and they most of the time forgot to work for their own best interests. According to communication specialists, companies in this kind of situation should focus on the message control, revealing as little as possible, deny their responsibility and try to avoid any discussions which can favour adversaries’ views. Generally, in a crisis, the only thing an angry customer wants most is to be heard. If both sides stay on their initial positions, very little progress will be made. Therefore, it is very important to be open to negotiation, leading to a mutually beneficial agreement in order to create value.

This chapter identify 6 principles to help companies facing an angry public.

The first one is acknowledging the concerns of the other side. Taking this time will allow negotiators to avoid making big concessions. The best strategy is to express empathy of the public’s concerns without accepting responsibility.

The second one is encouraging joint fact finding by developing a shared analysis or forecasts. This process is describing in 5 points: by mutual agreement the company should choose a group of experts with different disciplinary background to encourage the confrontation between different opinions and views, then they should work with these experts to develop scientist’s questions, creating areas of consensus or disagreements, question the expert’s analysis with the help of an outsider and finally ask the experts to interpret their findings. All this procedure will ensure useful information counted in the negotiation.

The third principle consists in offering contingent commitments. After the previous step, it is necessary to develop a potential commitment that will satisfy both parties. These kind of promises takes place only when standards are exceeded or deadlines missed and they allow negotiations to move forward.

The fourth principle is to accept responsibility, admit mistakes and share power. The best way to create new agreements is to accept responsibilities. In fact, injured parties need to know that past mistakes are not going to be repeated and that their difficult situation was considering.

The fifth principle is always acting in a trustworthy manner. For the authors, there are 2 fundamentals rules for building trust and create piece of advice: “say what you mean and mean what you say”. This mean that is necessary to be honest in the negotiation and not to try to hide the truth because if the other side find it out, the party will lose confidence forever.

The last one is to focus on building long term relationships and always be concern about the future of the relations between both sides. To ensure the implementation of whatever agreement, both parties need to work in a decent working relationships. For instance, in case of rupture between both parties during the negotiation it is very difficult to fix the problem and find an issue to go further. Thus, it is very important to take into account the relationships between every members of the deal. 

            To conclude, all these principles are necessary before reaching an agreement but they are not sufficient in case of high conflict. Each stakeholder need to make an effort when they are strongly opposed.