What to Include in Your Crisis Communications Plan
It happened. Maybe someone wasn’t monitoring conversations on social media, or perhaps an employee or customer of the brand flew off the handle. Either way, the company is in a crisis. In the world of PR, crisies aren’t anything new, which is why crisis communications plans are in place for when the inevitable happens. Hubspot explains that a crisis communication plan is a set of guidelines used to prepare for an emergency; starting from when a crisis first emerges all the way to how to prevent it from happening again.
Don’t have a crisis communication plan? Don’t panic… start writing! The Chi Group has gathered below some basic ideas you should address in your plan.
Take Responsibility
One of the first things you can do in a crisis is own it. Doesn’t matter how it came to be, you need to take responsibility. Acknowledge the concerns at hand from others and react immediately (once the PR team has coached them of course). By trying to downplay the situation or pretend it never happened, you're only causing more harm to the company's reputation. The best first steps are to acknowledge what has happened and take responsibility.
Apologize and Keep It Real
The best thing you can do is offer a sincere apology. Along with taking responsibility, this shows that you feel badly about the situation and offer condolence to those who were affected. The apology needs to be public and done soon after a statement is crafted in order to change the narrative. While authenticity is appreciated by everyone, younger generations are expecting authentic responses and actions by brands. Make sure that your apology is authentic, otherwise worries of inauthenticity are other things added to your concerns.
Make a Call to Action
This is where your message comes into play. Something went wrong which means something needs to change, right? The public needs to know that you are doing something to move forward and promote change so the crisis will not happen again. Share the steps that are being taken to correct the issue and be transparent about your process. Authenticity and honesty are the best options when sharing the corrections being made.
Address the Affected Publics
Who will this crisis affect? It’s important to know what the crisis is and how it will affect your business. Communicate all relevant details to your public and be honest and transparent about how this will affect them and what you're doing to solve the issue. If you need to reply, make sure to avoid using phrases such as ‘no comment’ which can introduce suspicion about the issue at hand.
Review and Learn
One the crisis has been resolved, it's time to take a step back. Review how you and your team handled the crisis and what worked well and what needs to be improved on in case it happens again. It’s also helpful to review any crisis prevention plans if they need to be updated or revised.
Moving forward, the focus should be turned to rebuilding your credibility with your publics. This may look like meetings with stakeholders, positive news about the company or updating relevant information about new policies. If it's a customer-facing company, consider collecting customer feedback to see reactions as well as prevent another crisis.
No crisis is ever easy but PR professionals are the experts when it comes to handling them.
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