American Bus Association wins member loyalty by executing emergency PR for companies facing media scrutiny after calamity

Pantuso

There are few things worse than a traffic accident for a bus company. When the buses are carrying an NFL team, the situation can quickly escalate beyond a small-business owner's imagination.

Such was the case for owners of the Lorenz Bus Service in Minneapolis. Two Lorenz buses carrying Washington Redskins players crashed in November when the police car escorting them swerved out of control. No players were seriously hurt and the officer was treated at the hospital and eventually released, but media attention surrounding the accident was unlike anything the company had ever experienced.

Luckily, within 30 minutes of the first mention of the accident on Twitter, the bus company owners got a call from their trade group, the American Bus Association.

"Had (ABA) not called me, I would not have known what to say to that reporter," said Trudy Canine, co-owner of Lorenz Bus.

A few years ago, ABA jumped into the business of handling crisis communication for members. Many associations provide such services at an industry-wide level, such as drafting guidelines for companies to follow, but ABA is different in that it provides crisis communications for individual companies, tackling incidents specific just to them. The association offers to write news releases, issue statements and even take media calls, and in the process it has won the admiration of members who have found themselves in a tight spot.

"They've got our loyalty now," Canine said.

The step into crisis communication is only the latest move for the 88-year-old organization, which ended 2014 with a solid year of growth in membership and trade show attendance. The organization also expanded its reach by assuming day-to-day operations of the Florida Motorcoach Association in March 2014.

When disaster strikes

ABA moved into crisis communication about three years ago. Buses move nearly as many people per year as airlines do, but unlike airlines, most bus companies are small businesses that don't necessarily have the resources to hire PR firms, according to CEO Peter Pantuso.

"One of the things that occurred to me is, when these incidents happen, how can we effectively respond to them?" he said.

Bus crashes that cause passenger deaths are no longer just local news items given the current interconnected media environment, Pantuso noted. A fatal crash often prompts local news outlets elsewhere to do stories about bus safety in their own communities, so ABA will get calls from members in cities across the country saying they have been contacted by reporters and have no idea how to respond.

"It is an incredible media snowball," he said.

ABA's solution was essentially to expand media operations to become a PR firm for members whenever they have an emergency. Dan Ronan, the association's senior director of communications, heads the operation. A former television reporter, Ronan keeps a close eye on social media and news feeds thanks to a vendor—Cision—that issues alerts to his email whenever a reference to a bus crash surfaces.

Members may come to ABA for help, but the association also will contact them proactively to ask if they need help. The organization's crisis communication programs paid off in November when a crash near Syracuse, N.Y., left more than two dozen injured. The company owner contacted Ronan, who explained what might be expected in terms of media coverage. Ronan then issued a statement, speaking for the company, and fielded some 175 media requests on its behalf.

"One of the things that I believe is if you are proactive and out there, and showing responsibility and a degree of empathy, you are probably going to do a lot in reputation management, especially if you are a good company," Ronan said.

ABA bills crisis management as a major selling point for membership. The group touts not only the benefits to individual members but the entire industry.

"What we don't want is a company not saying the right thing to the media, which is ultimately going to affect the industry as a whole," Pantuso said.

Growing opportunities

ABA currently represents approximately 1,000 motorcoach and tour companies as well as another 2,800 organizations that provide services to the industry. It is continuing to look for avenues to grow, such as the recent creation of a council for bus companies that transport musicians—or, as Pantuso puts it, "the buses that are carrying Lady Gaga."

ABA has also begun stepping into association management. In addition to last year's deal with the Florida Motorcoach Association, the bus association began handling day-to-day operations of the U.S. branch of Skal International— a travel industry professional organization—in 2012. ABA also runs the National Bus Traffic Association.

"That association management component sort of fits in our wheelhouse and it gives us an opportunity to provide great service," Pantuso said. "It also gives an opportunity to grow our staff (professionally) by giving them something to work on."