Prevention, preparation, acting in crisis and evaluation

Of course, it is possible, to prepare for crisis in advance. Prevention for example through reputation and stakeholder management or media monitoring is essential for a company or organization.

It is also necessary to prepare employees for crisis communication and to develop appropriate workflows. In case of a crisis there has to be a strategy – and of course reactive and proactive measures as well as a documentation.

In the evaluation you and your company or organization should learn from the crisis that happened. Here you can find a good overview and base for a working crisis communication.

Prevention

  • Reputations and Stakeholder Management
  • Issues Management
  • Building awareness in the organisation
  • Media monitoring

Preparation

  • Tasks, Workflows, Equipment, Directories
  • Scenario and Stakeholder Analysis
  • Wording, Q&As and strategies
  • Trainings

In a crisis

  • Active monitoring and coordination
  • Strategy and wordings
  • Reactive and proactive measures
  • Documentation

Evaluation

  • Learnings and adaptions

Where can crisis come from?

There are several fields, where a crisis could come from. It is important to be aware of the fields, you might not think about – e.g.:

  • Economic problems
  • Misconduct of employees
  • IT- or production problems
  • Criticism of corporate activities
  • Product problem
  • Industry issue
  • Terror attack or rampage
  • Fire, building issue
  • Environmental issues

Wordings, Key messages, Holding statement, Questions & Answers, …

In case of a crisis, you should consider the following messages:

  • Statement & key message: Develop a holding statement and key message. They should be based on your communication strategy.
  • Holding Statement: The holding statement has to provide an initial statement that sets forth the basic facts about the incident and let people know that you are actively dealing with the situation.
  • Statements for various stakeholder groups: It is necessary to talk to specific stakeholder groups (e.g. employees, customers, media, shareholders) in a specific manner.
  • Statements for various communication channels: It is also important to have statements for different channels (e.g. intranet, website, email, Twitter, call center).
  • Questions & Answers: Think about possible (critical) questions in advance. In general questions, which are not necessarily answered by the texts already prepared, and develop answers for them.

3R-Rule

A very common rule to deal in case of crisis communication is the 3R-Rule.

  1. Regret. Be real (and emotional). Offer your condolences. Do not take responsibility yet.
  2. React. Promise to investigate and solve the matter as quickly as possible. Tell people that you will provide an update when you know more.
  3. Re-inform. Provide updates.

Source:  gaisberg communications