Implementing a Crisis Communications Plan

You are sitting in your office about to go to lunch but suddenly something happens. Maybe it is a random act of violence or an outbreak of a disease or an employee who has just been arrested for a serious crime. Whatever the case, you are in the midst of a communications crisis. How well you respond will determine how the public perceives your organization. Let’s assume you have followed our advice and are prepared. What do you do now?

Bring the people who will solve the problem together with those who will communicate about it. Meet regularly until the problem is solved. Then, for a final session, assess what went well and what could be improved.

Make sure there is one person who will be available to the media during the crisis. They must be accessible 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They need a beeper and cell phone. And reporters need these numbers – as well as a home phone number – so they can stay in touch. You don’t want a story that says you were "unavailable for comment" or one that gets things wrong.

Don’t minimize the problem. Speak in terms real people can understand, (surgically excise all jargon). Speak in a frame of reference that has relevance for your audience. Be as clear and concrete as you can. But don’t go beyond what you know for sure.

Most corporate communications crises do not involve situations that directly affect human health. If yours does then you must act as quickly as possible to warn people. That’s why prior planning is important.

Be sure that your key stakeholders do not hear about this problem from the news media. This includes state and local health officials as well as key community leaders and your Mayor, Board members and staff. You can’t communicate with people who aren’t at work or are away from their phone. You can make sure your employees know what is going on so they can answer questions intelligently.

The media can help you communicate with many of your stakeholders. Once again, preparation will pay off. You won’t reach a Spanish speaking audience if you only talk to English speaking media. So knowing which media will help you reach a specific audience is important.

The news business, like nature, abhors a vacuum. Reporters have to cover the story they are assigned. In today’s competitive market, they are constantly looking for new leads and new angles. If you don’t supply new information, reporters will go digging for it. Better you should give then that they should go looking. Why? Because many reporters don’t have the luxury of really learning about a group or a problem.

A TV station may need a new angle on an e. coli outbreak for its newscasts at 12, 5, 6, and 11 P.M. as well as the early morning news the next day. And that’s assuming your crisis is resolved in just one 24-hour news cycle. TV stations may not have a health reporter on staff. So usually a general assignment reporter learns on the job. As possible, you should help them learn.