As a business leader, you probably learned quickly that you should always expect the unexpected. Or, to put it another way, if it’s not one thing it’s another.
But what if the unexpected isn’t just annoying or an inconvenience? What if it is serious?
In the public relations field, we call a serious type of unexpected event a crisis – and you should take the time now to plan for a crisis because it isn’t if one will happen, it’s when.
What can you do today to be prepared for a crisis in the future? Here are three things the CSR team recommends:
Make a plan
Make sure everyone knows what the chain of command is
Make templates for everything and keep them in a safe place
Make a plan
Big or small, every business should have a crisis plan in place – and that plan needs to be written down. It doesn’t do you any good to have something all in your head – because what if you aren’t there for the crisis? (Crises have a bad habit of popping up when key players are out of town or on vacation).
Don’t know where to start in writing down your crisis plan? CSR can help – we love planning and we love creating plans that are actionable and clear.
Make sure everyone knows what the chain of command is
When things are going smoothly, a flat or fuzzy chain of command is fine. But when something bad happens a clear top-down chain of command is best. (You can always go back to a flatter organizational structure once the crisis passes.)
The reason a structured hierarchy is essential during a crisis is so all information coming into the organization and all information being communicated by your business is consistent and properly vetted. It’s important that your message is consistent at all times and that no one is going rogue.
Even if you have a strong organizational chart for standard operations, it is essential to create a special crisis communications org chart for use when the going gets tough. This is another area where CSR can help.
Make templates for everything and keep them in a safe place
The worst time to create anything is in a panic when everyone is stressed and worried. This is why we recommend making templates for EVERYTHING that you think you may one day need during a crisis.
For example, you can create a template for:
Press releases
Blog posts
Internal emails to all staff
Internal text messages to all staff
Emails to key clients/patients/customers
Emails to investors or funders
Having these drafted and approved ahead of time means all you have to do is plug in the specific facts about that particular crisis and hit publish or send, without being slowed down waiting for approvals. In the current environment of 24-hour news and people tweeting first and getting the facts later, time is always of the essence when communicating during a crisis.
Interested in learning more about crisis communications? Check out this recent post on SpinSucks.com about why you should always think about the customer’s point of view during a crisis.
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