A Crisis Is In Your Future: Plan For It!

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It’s bound to happen at some point.  An unforeseen crisis arises that threatens to tarnish your organization’s reputation. Your next steps are critical and your response time needs to be quick.  Every minute counts. If you are putting together your crisis communications plan in the heat of the moment, it is sure to be ineffective and do more harm than good.

It’s never too early to put together a crisis communications plan. Hinton Communications has a long track record of providing strategic counsel to a range of clients—non-profits, corporations and government agencies—who need to respond to a crisis, both large and small. Our training sessions, which incorporate practice simulations, provide participants with a thorough understanding of how to prepare a comprehensive crisis communications plan that can turn a crisis around and build institutional credibility. We walk you through the process of creating an effective offensive and defensive strategy that includes the development of key messages and identification of the best vehicles for getting the word out to all stakeholders.

Hinton Communications does not simply hand out a packet of dos and don’ts for you to read.  Our sessions are highly interactive as we collaborate with you in determining the best game plan for each potential crisis situation.  Broken up into different categories, we give you guidance on what to do before, during and after a crisis.  We give your radar screen a tune-up to assess potential problems so that you are not caught flatfooted.  We also give you a range of tools to utilize while you are in the eye of the storm so that you avoid common pitfalls, remain consistent and have effective soundbites at your disposal.  Our crisis communications checklist includes:

           

-       Who Does What?  Appoint the Crisis Team and outline specific responsibilities.  Crisis roles can be very different than day-to-day roles so the team needs to be adequately trained well before the crisis hits.

-       Get Organized.  Assemble team, gather information, review key messages, assign tasks and regularly prep spokespeople and those on the front lines.  Don’t forget to determine your target audience and identify third-party validators.

-       What Should We Say?  Get the facts.  Keep them concise.  Get them out but don’t spread or repeat the negative.

-       What Should We Not Say?  If you don’t talk, others will.  However, you should avoid saying “no comment” at all costs.  Go with phrases such as “careful review” or “taking seriously” or “looking into this” as part of your initial statement.  And don’t use language that will confuse your audience such as internal company jargon or acronyms. 

One of the best ways to neutralize a damaging crisis is to equip people with the facts.  Today’s technology—from the web to various social media platforms—gives you a quick and unadulterated way to make sure that accurate information is circulated.  Hinton Communications helps clients develop blogs, Facebook and Twitter accounts, websites, and e-blasts, so that the necessary vehicles are in place to communicate effectively with your target audiences.   

Creating a crisis communications plan in advance is one of the best insurance policies you can have when something goes awry.  Being able to react quickly and provide a transparent response will allow you to navigate the rocky waters with confidence and put you on the path to preserving your reputation.