Smart PR

The Basics of Crisis Communications – Part Two

July 15, 2011 at 11:22 AM 1 comment

As noted in Part One of this series, developing a crisis response plan and testing it regularly is crucial for nearly all businesses and organizations. In fact, the process of developing the plan is as valuable as the plan itself. The reason is that the process forces managers to identify company vulnerabilities that could lead to crises, and very often these vulnerabilities can be mitigated or eliminated as the plan is being developed. There are a number of factors to consider when developing the plan, such as:

1. Including the proper steps:

• 1: Empower employees to detect crises and potential crises and notify their managers
• 2: Train managers to determine the nature of the incident with a process to report, if warranted, the incident to Crisis Team Liaison
• 3: Assemble Crisis Response and Communications Team
• 4: Crisis Response and Comms. Team categorizes the seriousness of the incident so response is commensurate the degree of seriousness
• 5: Crisis Response and Comms. Team takes appropriate operational and communications actions, tracks progress and makes continual adjustments

 2.   Identifying your audiences:

• Customers – existing and potential
• Partners
• Policy/Elected Officials/Regulators
• Affiliate Organizations
• Media – traditional and new
• Environmental Community
• Vendors/Suppliers
• Investors
• Employees

 3.   Understanding and using the principles of Risk Communication – identifying factors for each scenario that may increase outrage among your audiences, such as**:

• Perceived effects are not observable
• Extent of effects is unknown to victims
• Delayed effect
• New or less studied risk
• Risk controlled by others
• Risk unfairly distributed (not equitable)
• Risk impossible for an individual to mitigate
• Risk capable of creating multiple victims in single place

 4.   Incorporating tactics to reduce outrage:

• Listen – people are calmer when they’re listened to
• Cede some control, perhaps through community advisory panels or a hotline
• Use the right words and comparisons to communicate risk
• Find common ground and focus on the valid complaints
• Educate through trusted third parties
• Be human – empathize

Crisis preparedness also includes making regular deposits into the “good will bank.” If you regularly and visibly contribute to the communities where you operate and invest in your stakeholders – employees, customers, communities, media and government officials – they may be much more understanding if and when a crisis occurs.

Up next – how the Internet and social media are creating a whole new avenue for generating (and managing) crises.

** See Peter Sandman’s work on outrage factors: http://www.psandman.com/index-OM.htm

 - David Kalson, CEO, specializes in energy, environment and crisis/issues management.

Entry filed under: Communications, Corporate. Tags: Best Practices, Communications, Crisis Management, media relations, public relations, Stakeholder Engagement.