Blacksheep Mind Get the book, $12

A Blacksheep Mind web book · Leading the business

A thousand good days, and this is the one everyone’s sharing.

Six things to do, in order, when your business is being talked about for the wrong reason. For cafe, salon, shop and small online store owners, and the person who runs your page.

6 Things a Brand Must Do When in Crisis. What to say and do when something goes wrong in public.

The cover of 6 Things a Brand Must Do When in Crisis.
A web book: read it online and download a copy. Nothing is posted to you.
Chapters
6
Tools
3
Reading
48 min
Price
$12
Get the book, $12

Read it tonight on your phone or laptop. One price, no upsells. No refunds: you get the whole book straight away.

The moment

Your phone keeps lighting up

  • A one-star review with a photo, posted at 11pm.
  • A post about you in the town group, and 40 comments under it.
  • A reply you wrote at midnight, still sitting in your drafts.
  • Staff asking what they should say if a customer brings it up.

Part of you wants to post your side, receipt and all. Part of you wants to look away and hope it passes. Neither works. There is an order that does, and it fits in six steps.

What’s inside

Six things, in the order you do them

  1. 01

    Put People Before the Post

    Stop the harm first. If anyone is hurt, sick or at risk, the right professional comes before any reply.

  2. 02

    Breathe, Then Get the Facts

    Don’t reply angry. Find out what happened and how big it really is: one customer, a crowd, or something serious.

  3. 03

    Tell Your Team Before You Tell the Internet

    One person speaks for the business. Everyone else gets two plain lines to say.

  4. 04

    Say Something Before Everyone Else Does

    A short holding reply with a time for your next update, so silence doesn’t speak for you.

  5. 05

    Say Sorry Like You Mean It

    A real apology when you got it wrong, a calm correction when the claim isn’t true, and never a threat.

  6. 06

    Make It Right, Then Show What Changed

    Fix it for the person, never in exchange for a deleted post. Then say once what you changed.

Plus a short start-here chapter you can read in five minutes if it’s happening right now, and a closing chapter to fill in on a quiet day. 6 chapters, about 48 minutes to read.

A page from the book

The words to use, and the ones to drop

Thing 5 · from the book, word for word

Say Sorry Like You Mean It

A case

The mess and the bill

Kofi runs a plumbing and heating business with two vans and a new apprentice. One evening a customer posted in a neighborhood app that he’d left her kitchen in a mess and overcharged her. Half of it was true. The apprentice hadn’t put drop cloths down, and there was grit across her kitchen floor. The price matched the written quote to the dollar.

Kofi’s first draft read: “We apologize for any inconvenience, but the price was agreed in writing.” He read it twice and didn’t post it.

He rewrote it. He said sorry for the mess, named it plainly, and offered to come back the next day and clean. On the price, he wrote one calm line: it matched the written quote he’d sent on May 3, and he was happy to go through it by phone. He didn’t attach the quote, and he didn’t mention the apprentice. Then he called her.

She took him up on the cleaning. She didn’t delete her post, but she added a comment underneath saying he’d come back and sorted it.

What to say
Instead of

“We apologize for any inconvenience.”

Try

“We left your kitchen in a mess, and that’s on us. I’m sorry. I’d like to come back tomorrow and clean it properly.”

Instead of

“That’s not true. Here’s your receipt.”

Try

“The price matched the written quote we sent on May 3. I’m happy to go through it with you, and I’ll call you this afternoon.”

The first-24-hours checklist in the web book, on a phone, with three items ticked.
The first 24 hours, ticked off on your phone
The holding reply template in the web book, on a phone.
The holding reply, ready to copy

The tools

Three things to have ready before you need them

  • ChecklistThe first 24 hoursEvery step in the right order, to tick off on your phone while it’s happening.
  • Fill-in templateA holding reply you can adaptThe first thing to post, with gaps for what happened and when you’ll update.
  • WorksheetYour one-page crisis planWho speaks, who to call, who can log in to your accounts (names only), and what staff say. About 20 minutes on a quiet day.
The one-page crisis plan worksheet in the web book, part filled in with an example.
The one-page plan, with a made-up example filled in

Who it’s for

For the people whose name is on the sign

For you if

  • You run a cafe, restaurant, bakery, salon, gym, shop, trade or small online store.
  • You, or one helper, answer the reviews and run the page.
  • You watched it happen to a place down the street and want a plan before it’s you.
  • It’s happening right now and you need to know what to do first.

Not for you if

  • You have a PR team or an agency on call.
  • You want legal advice. This book tells you when to call a lawyer, not what the law says.
  • You want a way to make bad reviews disappear. Nobody can honestly promise that.
Get the book, $12

6 things · 3 tools · read tonight

Your questions

Before you buy

Is this legal advice?

No. It tells you when to call a lawyer, your insurer or your local office, and what to do and say while you wait.

Can it get a bad review taken down?

No one can promise that. It explains, in general, how to flag reviews that break a platform’s rules, and what to do in the meantime.

I’ve had one bad review. Is this too much?

One chapter helps you size it. Most single bad reviews need one calm reply and about 20 minutes. The rest of the book is there for the day it’s bigger.

Someone says our food made them sick. Will this help?

It tells you what to do first and who to contact, and gives you words for the public while you find out. The professionals come first.

We sell online and don’t have a shop. Does it still apply?

Yes. Lost parcels, a site or payment problem, a faulty batch, a complaint video: the six things are the same.

How long does it take?

About 48 minutes to read. The checklist takes a few minutes if it’s happening now, and the one-page plan takes about 20 minutes on a quiet day.

6 Things a Brand Must Do When in Crisis

Read it tonight. Fill in one page. Hope you never need it.

$12one price, no upsells
Get the book, $12

A web book: read it online and download a copy. Nothing is posted to you. No refunds: you get the whole book straight away.