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Crisis Communication Plan: Preparing for the Unfortunate
Does your company or organization have a type of crisis communication plan in place?—a plan to deal with potentially harmful and/or negative media attention should something happen that threatens the reputation or the integrity of your company? When a crisis involving your company strikes, time is definitely of the essence, and unless you have a crisis communication plan prepared ahead of time, the damage to your business may be irreparable. In this article we will briefly identify some of the situations that could constitute a crisis within your company and outline some of the more vital components you should include to ensure your plan is comprehensive.
What Constitutes a Crisis?
To accurately define the meaning, purpose and timing of a crisis communication plan, it is first necessary to identify what exactly constitutes a crisis. As we mentioned briefly above, a crisis is any event or situation that threatens the integrity and/or reputation of your company. These crises are usually brought to light by negative or adverse media attention—attention that could potentially influence public opinion— and can include situations such as:
- Legal disputes or actions against your company
- Internal or external theft or embezzlement
- Accidents involving your company
- Negligence resulting in fire or flood
- Other manmade disasters that can be attributed to your company or organization
A crisis can also result from negative media attention or public opinion caused by a company’s failure to act swiftly and appropriately in response to the any of the above situations.
The Crisis Communication Plan
When a crisis such as the ones described above occurs, it is imperative that you act quickly to minimize the damage. This is why it is so very important to have a crisis communication plan prepared in advance. These plans will usually vary depending on the size and scope of the business involved, but generally speaking the plan should define all of the following:
• The Crisis Communication Team. The crisis communication team are the people—usually the CEO, managers and public relations department—that will be “front and center” when a crisis occurs.
• Positioning. While an exact position cannot be established until after a specific crisis occurs, you can do some “positioning planning” ahead of time. Generally speaking, positioning is really nothing more than the stance your company will take with regard to a wide array of potentially damaging situations. Examples of positioning include human error, clerical error and inadequate supervision.
• Spokesperson. The spokesperson is the employee designated to deal with the media during interviews and press conferences.
Naturally, large corporations are much more susceptible to the type of crises we mentioned here, but in the wake of events such as the BP oil disaster, even many small to medium sized businesses have implemented some type of crisis communication plan for their organization—a plan to protect their company’s reputation and integrity when and if the unfortunate happens.