Reputational damage

There's an old adage in professional services that you need to impress ten clients before one will talk about you, but let one client down, and they'll tell everyone! Reputation is everything to me and to FRP and we work tirelessly to ensure we maximise the outcome for our stakeholders in each and every engagement we deliver.

Client confidentiality is paramount not least due to the UK Data Protection regulations and heavy fines for breaches, but leaks can fundamentally undermine negotiating positions and the prospect of an optimum outcome being achieved.

The US intelligence team's recent blunder inviting an international journalist to a top secret Signal group is a perfect example of how one action can undermine an organisation’s reputation (I appreciate there have been a few already). Once there is a lack of trust and confidence in any organisation, it is extremely challenging to recover. The very fact that important national security issues are being discussed in a group chat is concerning, but will other nations now think twice before sharing intelligence with the current US team?

Relationships built on trust

Most businesses trade thanks to the trust and confidence of its supply chain, delivery partners and of course its customers. As we have seen by the US example, this can be quickly eroded. Client communication has evolved significantly over the last two decades which was previously dominated by in-person, phone, letters and to a much lesser extent email communication. Our business environment in 2025 provides multiple platforms and messaging tools to speed up communication across the globe but this of course come with inherent risk.

What can be done to prevent your own ‘Chatgate’?

It is vital businesses have a clear Communication Policy and supporting control procedures in place that are acknowledged by all employees and actively followed. The cost of drafting such policies compared to the potential damage from a breach in confidentiality or improper communication and publications will be significantly greater. In doing so an organisation can:

• Ensure all communications remain secure and confidential
• Insist that approved communication platforms are used at all times
• Ask that proposed correspondence and communications always follow designated approval channels
• Safeguard against unsecure messaging platforms being used for either internal or external communication
• Confirm that a clear social media policy is known and accepted by all to avoid potential reputational damage

I’m sure the US will be dusting off their policies now and reminding all of the importance of adhering to the policy…shame the damage is however, already done.