Imagine waking up to find your business is suddenly the talk of the town online or in the local news, but for all the wrong reasons. It could be a big data glitch, a serious supply chain failure, a faulty product or a public misunderstanding on social media. A crisis in business seldom occurs without cause.
Panic is your worst enemy when an unexpected emergency happens. If you are running around trying to figure out who should talk to the media, what to tell your customers or how to communicate with your employees while a crisis is actively happening, you are already losing ground.
Acknowledge Your Possible Shortcomings
Every business has weaknesses, and they vary widely based on your industry. The first step in creating a proactive plan is to sit down with a clean piece of paper and ask a hard question: What is the worst thing that could realistically happen to your business tomorrow? Consider the various types of disruptions you could face. These generally come in a few different types:
- Operational disruptions: Outages, natural disasters or damage to facilities that stop production.
- Technological failures: Data breaches, website crashes or software glitches that compromise customer data.
- Reputation problems: A tidal wave of negative reviews, a major public faux pas by leadership or a serious customer complaint that goes viral.
If you plan for these scenarios in advance you can tailor your messaging for each of these scenarios rather than having to craft a response from scratch during an actual emergency.
Create A Dedicated Crisis Team
When chaos hits, every person in the company needs to understand exactly who is in charge of information. You don’t want to have multiple employees giving different answers to customers or reporters. You require a Crisis Communication Team.
In a large company this may include executives, legal counsel and public relations specialists. In a small business it could just be the owner and a trusted manager. No matter the size of your team, ensure that you clearly define the following roles:
- The Team Leader: The person who decides what information comes out and when.
- The Internal Communicator: The person responsible for keeping employees, partners and stakeholders updated.
- The External Communicator (Spokesperson): The sole individual permitted to engage with the media, post on official social media channels or provide statements to customers.
Draft Flexible Templates For Fast Responses
In the first hour of a crisis, the public and your customers want to know that you know there is a problem. They don’t expect you to have all the answers right away but they do expect you to admit it.
It’s a good idea to prepare holding statements in advance, because it’s extremely difficult to think clearly under pressure. These are adaptable fill-in-the-blank message templates you can personalise and deploy in minutes of an event.
A good holding statement should be simply structured:
- Acknowledge what happened
- Express real empathy or concern
- Explain what you’re doing about it
- Promise future updates
And if you have those templates safely drafted in a shared document, you won’t waste precious time debating word choices while your phone lines are ringing off the hook.
Establish Clear Internal And External Channels
A good crisis plan involves not only what you will say, but where and how you will say it. You need to have established pathways to get to all of your different audiences quickly.
First, look at your internal audience (your employees). Your employees should not find out about a company crisis reading a news report or a post on social media. First, you tell them in an email, an internal messaging app or an emergency staff meeting. Provide them with the facts and the approved messaging so they can handle customer enquiries in a consistent manner.
Second, chart your external channels. Identify the most appropriate platforms for various levels of emergencies. An e-mail to the affected customers could remedy a minor delay in delivery. A major service outage may need a banner on your website homepage and pinned updates on your social media profiles.
Regularly Review And Revise Your Plan
A crisis communication plan is not a document that gets written, saved to a PDF, and left in a dusty digital folder. Your business grows. Your team changes. Your technology evolves. Your risks change. Sometimes an outdated plan can create more confusion than no plan at all.
Set a reminder in your calendar to repeat at least once or twice a year to review your crisis blueprint. And, during this check-in, be sure to update basic information:
- Are the crisis team’s phone numbers and email addresses current?
- Have you rolled out new software or platforms that create new digital risks?
- Is the designated spokesperson still with the company?
Maybe have a quick and casual drill with your leadership team. Walk through the plan with them in a hypothetical emergency scenario, making sure everyone knows exactly what to do.
Protecting Trust
A crisis will definitely test your business, but a quick, honest and organised response can actually increase your customers’ trust in the long run.
Businesses are not expected to be perfect, but they are expected to be responsible, transparent and proactive when things go wrong. Spend a little time today building a clear communication framework and you buy your future self peace of mind. When the emergency inevitably arrives, you won’t be caught unawares, you will be prepared to steer your business through the storm.
