Crisis Communications: What You Need To Know NOW
By Meghan Hinds, MPA Media Marketing Coordinator
It only takes a split second to ruin your company's reputation. A reputation built on hard work, loyalty and innovation can disappear in an instant.
And unfortunately, when a crisis actually occurs, it's too late to begin crisis communications planning. You must assume that a crisis will one day occur and have a comprehensive plan firmly in place.
Creating this plan may present challenges to your company. It may identify problems you never knew you had, but this presents a rare opportunity to identify what works and what doesn't so you can take effective actions that ensure your company will survive any crisis that comes its way.
If you don't have and/or know how to develop a comprehensive crisis communications plan, just start with the basics:
Identify emergency personnel (your "crisis team")
Ideally, this group should include your CEO/President, head of public relations/communications, your legal team and management from other important departments such as human resources and operations. This group of people is an integral part of your crisis communications response plan and should be well-versed in the plan. Your crisis team should meet at least quarterly to review the plan and implement any changes.
Provide media training and designate company spokespeople
While every employee in your company should already have a basic understanding of company-wide policies and procedures regarding the media, you should identify one or two individuals who will be the face of your company in the event of a crisis and provide these individuals with crisis-specific, comprehensive media training. Though it can be pricey, it's worth it to hire an outside firm for this purpose. An outside media firm can provide invaluable perspective on how your company should present itself in the event of a crisis.
Identify your stakeholders
A stakeholder is a broad term when it comes to your company. Here, it means your employees, vendors, clients, investors and others who are invested in the success of your company. Build and maintain strong relationships with your stakeholders and identify proper communications outlets tailored to each group (vendors may be more responsive to an automotive phone call; perhaps your employees prefer email) to rapidly reach these stakeholders in the event of a crisis.
Prepare Advanced Materials
Create generic, positive statements about your company that can be used as a starting point and then tailored to develop crisis-specific messaging. Arming yourself with advanced materials will not only enable you to quickly address the crisis, it will allow you to do so in a concise manner with no room for off-the-cuff, potentially damaging statements. Responding quickly and efficiently in any communications crisis is key to avoiding a public relations disaster.
It is critical that your efforts to prepare for a crisis not end once a draft of your crisis communications plan is complete. This document should be a working document that places a high priority on what you want to protect as a company (reputation, brand name, management) at the time. Your company is constantly growing and changing and so should your crisis communications plan.
Once your plan is put together, you will enable your company to be in the position to take swift, strategic action when your company is faced with a crisis. Implementing your plan will require your crisis team to think creatively, plan strategically and act collaboratively. And in the end, having a plan in place will benefit your company in both the short and long term.
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