Crisis communication is important no matter what kind of business you manage. Whether you run a small bakery, own a family restaurant or manage a team of accountants, knowing what to say to customers and employees during a disruptive event is crucial. And it all starts with a plan.
What Is a Crisis Communications Plan?
A crisis communications plan is different than your day-to-day business messaging for sales and promotions. Crisis communications are part of a crisis management plan you activate when an emergency happens, like an unexpected store closure, a natural disaster or a major product issue. Having a strategy for sharing information during the event may ease some stress. You will already know who in your organization will be a point of contact, who they need to speak to and what they should say.
How Do You Create a Crisis Communications Plan?
In times of stressful events, people look for leaders to guide the way. So, what should you, as a business owner, be doing to lead your staff and customers through a crisis?
Hopefully, you already have an overall crisis management plan in place. Once you have a crisis management plan created, you can move into planning your communications.
What Are the 5 Steps To Make a Crisis Communications Plan?
1. Choose a Lead Spokesperson: Decide who will share information both internally (with employees and stakeholders) and externally (with customers, suppliers and vendors.) This person is designated to speak on behalf of the business to employees and the public. It doesn’t necessarily have to be you, the business owner, as you will have many tasks ahead of you. But the communications manager should be a familiar face to the group, have knowledge of the business and be comfortable speaking with the public. Your customer service team, as well as the people who manage your social media, should be informed of this crisis communication plan and the company’s official responses.
2. Compile a List of All Important Contacts: Think about who needs notification of the incident, and in what order. Have a list of employees, emergency contacts, vendors, community and government organizations and news outlets. If you send customers a regular newsletter, use that as a distribution method as well.
3. Designate Communication Channels: Think about how you share information. Should you make a phone call to employees? Or is an initial text message enough? Social media is an inexpensive and rapid method to distribute important messaging for small business. Have a social media or press strategy, monitor public response and respond appropriately. Knowing what you might say to the press or community leaders can assure your messaging is consistent with other parts of your crisis plan. Establish a policy that only approved, accurate information is to be released.
4. Craft Your Message: By now, you have a crisis management plan, and you’ve thought about possible scenarios that your employees, customers and suppliers could face after a crisis, such as:
- What if the company needs to shut down temporarily? What resources, if any, can you provide to your audience?
- What if your products or services (or delivery of them) are affected? How will you help your customers who depend on you?
- What if there’s an accident at your workplace or poor conduct by an employee significantly hurts your company’s public image and reputation? How can you reassure your clientele?
Connecting to your employees, customers and other stakeholders can be more successful if you have designated options before a crisis strikes. You probably can’t script out everything in advance, however, having a rough idea of what to say will make it easier to tailor your message to the situation. Recognize how the issue may impact your audience and explain the steps you’ll take to address it. Share timely and accurate information about the company, progress, backlogs and challenges with employees so they can also spread the correct messaging.
5. Be Timely and Follow Up Regularly: You’ll want to “control the narrative” and address any crisis before misinformation has a chance to spread. Your brand, your reputation, is important. Update your staff and customers sooner than later and as often as you have new and relevant information. And, if necessary, be willing to adjust messaging as the situation changes.
When it comes to protecting your business and reputation during an unexpected event, preparation is key. You don’t want your team to have to scramble, making up your crisis communication on the fly or providing inconsistent information because there’s no strategy in place.
When a crisis occurs, your team and your customers will look to you for leadership. That’s why having a clear, actionable crisis communications plan in place is so important. By preparing a crisis communications plan now, you’ll be ready to react calmly and confidently. The more you can plan ahead, the more resilient your business will be.
