When an organization communicates during a crisis that affects its customers or reputation, it is said to be engaged in crisis communication. Even though crisis communication is frequently quite reactive, having a crisis communication plan in place beforehand can help your team members through the process more easily. Although your communication plan will change depending on the crisis you’re facing. One of an organization’s most important resources is its brand identity. The primary goals of the crisis communication team are to safeguard brand integrity and uphold the company’s solid reputation in the market.
Crisis Communication
Crisis communication addresses both internal and external audiences affected by the crises. Communication during a crisis occurs when the organization disseminates information to stakeholders, clients, as well as the general public addressing the issue surrounding the crisis. Prompt dissemination of information by the organization can help the business save its reputation.
It is equally important to plan ahead, creating a contingency plan that outlines likely crises and solutions to them. it is crucial that an organization have an action plan on hand so that they can implement it in a situation where such a crisis occurs.
Crisis Communication Plan
A crisis management plan, also known as a crisis communication plan, is a set of guidelines used to get a business ready for an unexpected or emergency situation. These plans cover what to do when a crisis first manifests, how to interact with the public, and how to avoid a recurrence of the problem.
Plans for crisis management put a lot of emphasis on how an organization will react to a crisis and inform its stakeholders. These procedures guarantee that information reaches staff members, business partners, clients, the media, the general public, and any other important stakeholders. The ability to quickly release information and maintain a consistent message across all company platforms is the most important benefit of a crisis communication plan. That message largely depends on the nature of the crisis and how it affects each party.
Elements of a Crisis Management Plan
#1. Detailed Plan
The strategy should specify and explain how your company will handle and communicate about the crisis. Within the plan, include:
- Describe the need for the plan and its purpose.
- Determine who and when the plan can be activated using the activation criteria.
- Describe the steps that need to be taken concerning internal and external communication, specifying who is in charge of what and what resources (e.g., email, voicemail, a news release, Twitter, etc.) will be used to execute the plan.
#2. Crisis Communication Team
The team in charge of crisis communication is in charge of gathering data, developing and distributing key messages, and coordinating with the media. Additionally, the team keeps an eye on crisis communication and response. Include a list of the team’s members along with a description of each one’s responsibilities in the plan. Identify the phone numbers and email addresses of every team member.
#3. Key Messages
Think about all potential crises that your organization might experience, then create key messages to use as a response. Additionally, think about potential media inquiries and prepare answers to those. It might be a good idea to create a vulnerability or grid assessment to help you gauge the likelihood that various crises will affect your company or your neighborhood.
#4. Internal Communications Procedures
Determine how critical messages will be communicated to staff members in the event of a crisis, whether it be through departmental meetings, voicemail, the company intranet, or any combination of the aforementioned. Consider how personnel would be reached in an emergency if your building or internal communications were unavailable.
#5. Contacts and Media List
In an emergency, you won’t have the opportunity to look up contact details. Get the contact information for the local government offices, public health departments, evacuation centers, police and fire departments, Red Cross centers, suppliers, and any other organizations you might need to contact in an emergency in your neighborhood. Include contact details for trade and influential industry bloggers in the media list, as well as local, national, and trade press.
#6. Appendices
To support and facilitate crisis communication, this section contains guidelines, checklists, and forms. Appendices may include:
- A list of initial steps
- Media strategy
- Social media guidelines
- A media call log is used to record calls and other communications from media personnel.
- Checklists for communication between internal and external parties
- Fact sheets
- Each important administrator’s biography and profile
- Organizational logos and photos in copies
- Template for news releases
- Copies of the company’s business continuity and disaster recovery plans
How to Write a Crisis Communication Plan
#1. Identify the Goal of the Plan
To make sure that every element of your plan is in line with this overarching goal, your team should decide what the plan’s objective is.
#2. Identify Stakeholders
Knowing your target audience will help you when writing the plan. List every stakeholder whose information you want to keep current on the crisis. Employees, clients and users, partners, financiers, media outlets, the governing body, and the general public are probably included on this list. In case of a crisis that is location-based, the latter group most likely consists of followers on social media or people in the area. Additionally, you should include in your strategy all the necessary contact details for each of these groups.
#3. Establish a Hierarchy for Distributing Crisis Information
A crisis is not always handled by the person or group that first reports it. A section of the plan should therefore be devoted to creating a hierarchy outlining how information should be shared within the company. In this manner, whoever detects the crisis will be aware of who to contact first. The plan should specify what details should be made immediately available to these parties. This could include information already known about the crisis, where the incident occurred, and any existing backlash.
#4. Determine Roles and Duties
List the duties and roles that each team member has in the core group and larger departmental response teams. As an illustration, you could entrust one member of your core team with managing social media communications while another member is in charge of writing a press release.
#5. Assign People to Create Fact Sheets
Who on the team is responsible for drafting fact sheets about the crisis should be specified in your plan. Fact sheets are collections of information on the crisis. They stop misinformation or rumors from reaching the media. The creation of these fact sheets should also have a deadline that you establish.
#6. Decide on and Evaluate Representative Crises
If a crisis does arise, you’ll probably feel overpowered. Your thoughts will race, and you’ll feel under pressure to reply to e-mails, comments on social media, and questions from the press. It is therefore wise to create a list of typical scenarios in advance. Natural disasters, interruptions of routine business operations, customer or employee injuries, and product tampering are a few examples of crises that could impact your company.
#7. List and Respond to Common Questions
Plans for crisis communication can assist you in identifying and responding to inquiries that may arise during your crisis scenarios. No matter how serious or minor the crisis, people will have questions. The public wants to know the truth, whether they are journalists or customer advocates.
#8. Identify Potential Risks
No matter how carefully you plan your crisis communication strategy, there will always be benefits and drawbacks. Your list of potential risks should be included under each plan. In this manner, you won’t be taken by surprise if the plan does turn out to be a failure. You’ll be ready because you’ll have planned out how you’re going to recover from these new losses.
During a crisis, proactive communication is crucial. Teams should concentrate on creating press materials and disseminating information about the crisis to provide the most transparency possible. The public will be more curious about what you are concealing the more information you hold on to.
Communicating in response is equally important. During an emergency, team members need to concentrate on social monitoring. Any unfavorable social media mentions should be addressed right away and consistently. Sections of your strategy should be devoted solely to social media. crisis management
Crisis Communication Strategies
#1. Proactive Damage Control
Even if everything is going smoothly right now, you should always be ready for a crisis. What you do to lessen or stop the effects of a crisis before it happens is known as proactive damage control. Additionally, you can teach your staff to be alert for potentially harmful or suspicious emails that may end up in their inboxes.
#2. System for Escalating Cases
Before a crisis becomes a viral tipping point, it is possible to find an individual solution. Making an escalation system for these situations within your customer service team is helpful so that the problem can be resolved before it gets out of hand.
Both offline and online methods are used to combat crises. Therefore, your company needs a social media strategy that can handle the online buzz about your brand. This might entail adding more reps to the team who monitor your social media accounts or providing followers with fresh information. Social media, however, you choose to use it, cannot be disregarded when your business is dealing with a crisis.
#4. Gathering and Analyzing Customer Feedback
There may be a crisis happening at times, but it may not be making headlines or going viral on social media. Instead, it’s causing churn among your customers while remaining undetected. Getting input is a great way to head off a crisis. This is because it sheds light on how customers feel about your company. This enables you to identify significant obstacles before they turn into a crisis. Furthermore, it enables customers to share unfavorable feedback that you can use to enhance the experiences of other customers.
Crisis Communication Theory
Organizations can employ specific crisis management techniques according to the Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT). It depends on who started the crisis and how serious a threat the situation poses to the company’s reputation.
It recommends that crisis managers should coordinate their strategic crisis responses with the degree of responsibility and reputational risk of a crisis. Crisis managers can predict the level of reputational threat to an organization by taking into account the crisis type, history, and reputation from previous relationships. Additionally, they can establish who is responsible for the crisis and forecast how the public will perceive the organization’s public image.
According to the attribution theory, when people hold businesses responsible for a crisis, it hurts their reputation and bottom line. It is human nature to look for explanations for why things happen, especially unexpected and harmful occurrences like crises, according to the premise of attribution theory.
What Are the 5 Pillars of Crisis Communication?
Six pillars—goals, audience, messages, methods, outreach, and media—form the basis of a solid crisis communications strategy.
What Is Crisis Communication and Why Is It Important?
Public relations professionals often use crisis communication to minimize harm to their reputations and bottom line. A crisis communication plan acts as a guideline for the company by providing steps to resolve a conflict. The major goal of crisis communication is to enable seamless and effective communication during a crisis. This can further reduce reputational and financial damages.
What Are the Three Cs in Crisis?
The following are the three Cs in crisis
- Communication
- Consistency
- Compassion
What Are the 6 Stages of Crisis Communication?
- Warning
- Risk Assessment
- Response
- Management
- Resolution
- Recovery.
What Are the 7 Rs of Crisis Management?
- Readiness
- Rehearsal
- Restriction
- Response
- Reassurance
- Realization
- Rebuilding.
Conclusion
In times of disruption, communicating with individuals and groups strategically are known as crisis communication. An initiative called “crisis communication” seeks to safeguard the organization’s reputation and preserve its public perception. Crises can harm a company’s reputation. Experts in crisis communication are hired to protect a company’s reputation from various dangers and unwelcome obstacles.
Crisis communication experts work incredibly hard to get through challenging situations and assist the organization in doing so as quickly and effectively as possible.
Related Articles
- CRISIS MANAGEMENT PLAN: Steps To Managing Crisis
- CRISIS MANAGEMENT: Ways to Creating a Successful Management Plan
- 5 Cs of Credit: Why Are They Important? (+ Detailed Guide for Beginners)
- Crisis Management: Detailed Guide for Planning Crisis Management
- Crisis Communication Planning: Detailed Guide with Examples
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