8 Step Guide: Building Your Crisis Communications Plan

When an incident occurs, the need to communicate is immediate. If business operations are disrupted, customers will want to know how they will be impacted. Regulators may need to be notified and local government officials will want to know what is going on in their community. Employees and their families will be concerned and want information. All of these “audiences” will want information before the business has a chance to begin communicating. It is crucial to plan ahead;

1. Anticipate A Crisis

Every single organization is vulnerable to crises. The days of sticking your head in the sand are long gone. New media spreads news now like never before. Your stakeholders will forgive an accident but they will not forgive a poor response.

2. Assemble a Crisis Team

Before a crisis strikes, think through who needs to have a seat at the table. Consider all the aspects of your company, during the crisis, this team bears the responsibility for making decisions and spearheading communication. Plan these roles out in a cloud-based incident management platform like D4H Incident Management, so they can be activated at a moment’s notice.

3. Identify And Prepare Spokes People

A crisis situation should not be the first time any spokesperson speaks to the media. Identify the people who will officially communicate for your organization should a crisis develop and make sure these people have trained accordingly.

4. Identify and Know Your Stakeholders

If a crisis occurs, you will want to reach out to key stakeholders personally before they hear about any bad news in the media. Make sure the crisis communications plan identifies these audiences. They might include employees, clients, customers, board members, business partners, or regulatory bodies that might have an interest.

Centrally store all of your emergency plans in a purpose-built crisis management solution to avoid any difficulty in retrieving this information.

5. Develop Information Management Processes And Protocols

There is no need to keep multiple hard copies of your crisis plans in binders in multiple locations, at home, vacation homes, work, multiple offices, or anywhere else. For many years spreadsheets have been used as an aid for compiling crisis information. However, the evolution of technology has allowed organizations to capture, store, and analyze their data in a structured way, adding real value to compiled information.

D4H Incident Management is a real-time incident management software that enables the coordination of an effective response to any situation. Easily create a common operating picture, communicate objectives, and collaborate on a resolution using forms, tasks, logs, maps, and status boards.

6. Establish Media Policies

Crisis communication today is very different than crisis communication of years past. Everyone with a phone is a potential reporter with the ability to record video or take photos that may influence the situation. Make sure the company understands that no one except the spokesperson is authorized to speak to reporters or members of the media. Write specific policies into the plan that address what employees are and are not permitted to say about the situation or the orgnization.

7. Develop Holding Statements, Finalize and Adapt Key Messages

While full message development must await the outbreak of an actual crisis, “holding statements,” messages designed for use immediately after a crisis breaks, can be developed in advance to be used for a wide variety of scenarios to which the organization is perceived to be vulnerable. Another important element of the crisis communications plan is the need to coordinate the release of information. When there is an emergency or a major impact on the business, there may be limited information about the incident or its potential impacts.

8. Test The Plan and Analyze

Assess what crisis situations are the most likely to strike your company. Have a practice drill and run through the plan to make sure you have not ignored any challenges or opportunities. After the test, evaluate the plan and make any changes deemed necessary.