When is a crisis not a crisis and when should you call the cavalry?

Too many businesses don't truly understand what constitutes a crisis and there are others who still believe that saying nothing to the press in a difficult situation is best practice. In my 30 years in PR I have handled every type of crisis, from minor customer complaints to potentially disastrous situations that could have resulted in company closures. Below are some simple takeaways about crisis communications that I hope will help you when you are planning your own crisis communications strategy.

1. Why it's important to have a crisis communications strategy in place?

I am sure that we have all heard the phrase, failing to plan is planning to fail. This is absolutely true when it comes to crisis communications. All too often businesses, even big global enterprises, forget to plan for the worst. Having a comprehensive crisis communications plan is essential to ensure that, in the event of the worst happening, you are able to protect your hard fought reputation. Crisis planning needs to include all of the key stakeholders at the highest level of the business because these are the people who will be called upon in a crisis situation to give a response. These planning sessions should include scenario planning so that you can work through the actions you would need to take as a business to ensure that you are communicating effectively with everyone.

2. When should you call in the experts?

You should involve your PR team in the crisis planning sessions. Although they will not be involved in the operational side of the crisis they will almost certainly be involved in the communication of your response to both internal and external audiences. Involvement in the planning sessions is therefore crucial.

When you are in a crisis situation, you should inform your wider communications team – both internal comms and external agencies. This should be one of the first calls that you make to enable communications to get ahead of the situation rather than racing to play catch up. Having a planned response to how you will handle internal questions and external media enquiries is the key to handling a crisis situation positively.

3.?Silence is almost never golden

Saying nothing is almost as bad in a crisis situation as doing nothing. In the absence of a proactive statement from you, the press will make up their own minds. A statement of ‘no comment’ should also never be issued as it suggests that you do not see the issue as important enough to warrant putting in the time to at least provide a more thoughtful holding response. Remember, a crisis situation is about managing the reputation of your business through a difficult period and nobody wants to be remembered as the next Gerald Ratner (80s reference for those of you who are old enough).

4. Handling the media - training your spokespeople

As part of the crisis planning work you should nominate key spokespeople for the business and then ensure that they are trained in how to deal with the media. Not every crisis will need a person to stand in front of a journalist but its important that they understand the rules of engagement if they do find themselves in this situation. Media training is incredibly helpful in a high pressure situation like a crisis. It allows your spokespeople to understand what should and should not be said, how to ensure they use empathy in the situation and get all of the facts across in a brief, understandable way without the use of jargon.

5. Remembering your multiple audiences

Preparing statements or doing interviews with the media are not the only channels to consider when handling a crisis. Think about who the crisis will affect and how they will receive information. Social media channels should be used to provide clarity on the situation and websites should be updated to provide a single source of truth on an on-going situation. But don’t forget about your internal audiences too – they are likely to be just as concerned about the situation as your customers. Make sure that your crisis communications plan includes internal updates be that through email, intranet or full company briefings. Keep the information factual and short but be clear on what they should say if they get asked questions about the situation directly and who they should refer any enquiries to, from press or customers, within the business.

6. When it’s not a crisis

There are some situations that the business may consider to be a crisis that do not require a full crisis communications response. If you have done the crisis planning work then you will know what these situations are and how they should be handled. If the crisis is simply one of internal management of information then this process needs to be in place to ensure that an internal issue does not become and external one through the mismanagement of the situation. Be careful in these situations as your team can be your biggest advocates but also your most vocal detractors.

One final word of advice – if you have not brought your PR team (internal or external) into the situation then don’t expect them to be able to wave a magic wand and make a negative situation disappear. Getting ahead of the issue is crucial with time to prepare a well thought out response so don’t let the proactive PR handling of the situation be an afterthought.

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