Our current working journalist tutors often talk about the importance of spokespeople showing empathy and authenticity in media interviews.
It can be particularly important when a spokesperson is trying to turn around a negative story.
An interview we heard on Radio 2 last week provided a great case study for our media training blog on how this can be done effectively.
Rail company Greater Anglia was looking at some uncomfortable headlines and social media posts after it had taken 10 per cent of the cash that was in a woman’s lost purse as a ‘storage fee’.
Florence Lewis had initially gone on Twitter to express her surprise and confusion at £1.50 being taken out of her purse when she came to collect it a week later.
From there the story was picked up by BBC News and the Daily Mail among others.
Greater Anglia rail staff take lost property fee from purse BBC news
Teenager’s fury after rail company took £1.50 from her purse Daily Mail
Greater Anglia Railway are now stealing money from people's purses in lost property. @greateranglia you should be ASHAMED of yourselves. If a civilian did this they'd be arrested for theft and you should be too.
— Sarah Diggins (@BiscruGirl) October 11, 2018
@greateranglia I find it abhorrent that Great Anglia removes cash from a purse for storage fees. Apparently they charge 10% of the value of the cash. How daft, just goes to show they live in the past. What about the value of the prepaid cards or other forms of payment #robbery
— Flotta Consulting (@FlottaConsultin) October 12, 2018
proof if it was needed @greateranglia have zero morals, taking money from an 18 students purse is just unacceptable and in my opinion is tantamount to stealing, any excuse to fleece us they will , wish i did not have to use them https://t.co/xThxHyKwok
— michael freeman (@Reema5306) October 11, 2018
.@greateranglia rail staff take lost property fee from purse! Next time I find a wallet or purse, can I claim 10% of the cash too, for my trouble? Preposterous! Operating in a moral vacuum. https://t.co/2iytyJtqWN
— Andrew Harmsworth (@harmsy) October 10, 2018
Clearly, this was not a crisis media management situation by any stretch of the imagination. However, it was an issue which could cause reputational damage.
And it was a topic people were talking about and which seemed to be gaining some momentum. It became an item of discussion on Jeremy Vine’s Radio 2 show, which involved an interview with Ms Lewis.
4️⃣ A rail company took £1.50 from a purse which was left on a train and classed it as a lost property storage fee.https://t.co/LgdF6QKEhC
— BBC Radio 2 (@BBCRadio2) October 11, 2018
🔊 Listen at https://t.co/iKKSgyyOKw
📞 08000 288291 📱 88291 ✉️ vine@bbc.co.uk
(Full charge info - https://t.co/4Uk9uaEbOi)
Now, I’m told by a contact who worked at the Rail Delivery Group that many train companies rarely put spokespeople forward for media interviews. They generally rely on statements for their responses, so it was perhaps a little surprising that Greater Anglia put a spokesperson forward.
And I know from personal experience of briefing and preparing someone to appear on this very show, that the idea of being interviewed by a big name presenter on national radio can leave spokespeople feeling intimidated and apprehensive.
But Greater Anglia did put someone forward and it was a move which paid dividends.
Juliette Maxam’s interview performance, which you can listen to here (at 1:38), helped reduce the impact of the story.
She was calm and assured and started taking some of the sting from the issue almost immediately.
We quickly learnt that Anglia banks the money left in wallets, purses and bags to keep it safe and that it destroys debit and credit cards after 24 hours, in line with banking industry guidelines.
But we were also informed that the company is now reviewing its policy.
She said: “We have many purses and wallets left on the train and we bank and register the money to keep it safe. We follow procedures that the bank industry advise us on.
“It is about taking extra care, but we are reviewing that policy and one of the things we could consider is putting it in sealed bags like the police do with evidence.”
And once Juliette had got that across, she steered the conversation away to safer ground by listing some of the more bizarre things left on trains, including a rabbit and a front door, which seemed to distract Mr Vine.
One of the things l particularly liked was the way Ms Maxam avoided repeating the negative language from the questions – a golden rule on our media training courses. Here is an extract:
Vine: I think that cutting up people’s credit cards might drive them up the wall. Who decided on that?
Maxam: We are following banking guidelines, but the thing is, if you lose your purse or your wallet, what’s the first thing you do? You contact the bank and cancel your cards anyway.
Vine: I suppose that’s true.
Maxam: And we are going to follow guidelines to makes sure we keep our customers’ belongings as safe as possible.
Vine: But it is never a good idea to take moral guidance from bankers. It hasn’t worked very well in the past 10 years.
Maxam: Well, we are just more concerned with keeping things safe.”
The other thing that impressed me came at the end, when Ms Maxam was asked whether she would apologise for the money removed from the purse.
Here I was expecting something like the robotic ‘sorry for the inconvenience’ approach train companies often use. But instead we heard something which sounded human and genuine.
“We are sorry and we are always sorry whenever any of our customers are unhappy with their experience with Greater Anglia” she said.
”We have also written to Florence and will be refunding the cost of her ticket to pick up her purse. We are very pleased we found her purse, but we are sorry she was unhappy.”
Strong stuff. And it wasn’t just me who was impressed. Mr Vine concluded the interview by saying ‘they sound like good souls’. You would take that at the start of a day which saw the organisation looking at some troubling headlines.
And there is little doubt that this would not have been achieved if the company had simply opted to send a statement.
Media First are media and communications training specialists with over 30 years of experience. We have a team of trainers, each with decades of experience working as journalists, presenters, communications coaches and media trainers.
Click here to find out more about our bespoke journalist-led media training courses. Or book a place on our next media training open course.
