101 Crisis Management
If the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has taught us anything, it’s that a crisis can arrive at any moment. Smart businesses are prepared for the inevitable and have a plan in place to respond to any number of emergency situations. Here are some tips for making sure your company isn’t caught off guard by an undesirable situation.
Get a team together. When things are calm, identify a crisis management team, says Eric Reed in an article on BestManagementArticles.com. That team’s first point of business should be identifying possible threats to the organization.
“What disasters, foreseen and unforeseen, can demolish the business? For example, consider the physical location of the business,” Reed says. “…Successful business management planning relies heavily on the ability to handle these crisis situations.”
Develop a communication plan. Every business dreams of headlines, but not when they come in the midst of a crisis. Make sure your organization has thought through who handles communications during times of difficulty. And that person isn’t always the CEO of the organization, according to an article at NonprofitRisk.org.
“The top person may be knowledgeable about the organization, but personality or demeanor or vocabulary might be a detriment to the organization’s message when broadcast to thousands,” the article states. “The people who speak for your organization need to understand all the ways they communicate: choice of words, speech cadence, stance, facial expression and attitude.”
Think about social media. One way to get some control over a negative story can be to go direct to your customers.
Tools like Facebook and Twitter can help you do that and can be handy during crisis situations, according to a post by Kristi Hines on the blog SocialMediaExaminer.com.
In good times and in bad, Hines recommends monitoring your business on social media and responding to “tweets, mentions, and comments on your company’s profiles in a timely manner.”
“Social media is real-time, so the faster you respond, the better your customer service will look,” she writes.
WBJ Web Partners
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