You never think a communications crisis can happen to you – until it does.
Maybe a product fails. A disgruntled employee posts something on social media. A supplier lets you down at the worst possible moment.
Or someone sends an email to the wrong person.
We’ve seen all of these – and more.
In any business, things go wrong. That’s not the problem – the real problem is how you deal with it. And when you don’t deal with it – or don’t deal with it quickly enough – silence can make things ten times worse.
Crisis? What crisis?
For many small and medium-sized businesses, crisis comms feels like something only the big corporates worry about. But if you operate in a local area or in a niche industry, you’re probably well known among clients, suppliers and partners.
Word gets around fast, and whatever sector you’re in, whatever the size of your business, a badly handled crisis can do long-term damage.
The question is: are you prepared if an unexpected crisis hits?
Silence is not a strategy
It’s natural to want to keep quiet and hope it all blows over. But if people are talking about your business and you say nothing, you leave space for speculation. In the absence of facts, rumour and guesswork will take over – and often, that’s where the real reputational damage begins.
There are countless examples of companies who said nothing for days after a major issue broke. In that time, social media spiralled, journalists picked up the story, and trust in the business started to erode.
All because there was no plan in place for how to respond.
What a crisis comms plan actually does
A crisis communications plan isn’t about panic – it’s about preparation. It gives you a structure for managing the situation and protects your business reputation when it matters most.
Here’s what a good plan should cover:
- Scenario planning – Think through what could go wrong and the reputational risks you’d face if it did. A software company, for instance, may be most likely to experience a data breach. A manufacturer may have faulty products. A restaurant may inadvertently give a customer food poisoning.
- Establish key contacts – Outline who’s in charge of what, who needs to be consulted or informed, who can act as spokesperson and who should sign off statements. Keeping an up-to-date list of senior staff, a chain of command and out-of-hours contact information is incredibly helpful when you need to act fast.
- Pre-agreed messaging – having draft holding statements ready to tailor and send quickly can take the pressure off and buy you critical time while you determine the appropriate course of action and response.
It’s also important to build in processes for internal communications. Staff should never hear about a crisis from someone outside the company first.
Bringing in the law
In the most extreme cases, where cyber hackers want payment to return your data or your business is being blackmailed with the threat of contamination your communications plan will be factored into a much more serious response.
There are specialists for the most serious crises, who are willing to provide top level services for leaders to do and say the right things on the most challenging days of their business lives.
Protecting your credibility
What often happens when things go wrong is that there’s no time to make decisions from scratch. Businesses tend to fall back on whatever systems they already have in place.
Without a plan, the chances are that panic, confusion and delays will creep in – and when you’re dealing with a sensitive issue, that can have a lasting impact on your credibility.
With a crisis plan in place, however, you’re in control. Even if the situation is difficult, you’ll be able to respond quickly, accurately and calmly. That alone can prevent a reputational issue from turning into a reputational disaster.
Crisis communications is about being ready to respond in a way that reflects your values, maintains trust and shows leadership. And when people see that, they’ll remember how you handled it – not just what went wrong.
If you’d like support with crisis communications planning or training your team to respond confidently in a crisis, we can help. Drop us a line to book a chat.