Mistakes in Crisis Management

Reputation is an important element in every organization. The most successful companies today owe part of their success to their good reputation.  A good reputation can be dismantled if there isn’t a proper crisis communication plan to manage crisis situations. Most organizations are caught unprepared when a crisis hits and they end up suffering a more than necessary aftermath.  That is why every organization needs a crisis communication plan. This is a set of procedures used to prepare a business for any crisis that may occur. It includes the steps that should be taken in case of a crisis, how to communicate to stakeholders and who should do what in case of a crisis. Crises comes when least anticipated and if there is no solid plan to tackle the crisis, it may even decrease the organization’s chances of survival. In this post we look at the common mistakes that PR experts make when handling a crisis and how to avoid them. 

1.      Failing to train for a crisis

Having a good crisis communication plan sitting on your shelf is of no use if no one knows how to use it.  Key players should be trained regularly on how to respond quickly, accurately and confidently in case of a crisis. This can be done in meetings where you go through the plan together or by conducting actual simulated crisis drills where every member acts in their prescribed role.

2.      Ignoring social media

The possibility of any crisis event playing out on social media is usually very high but some organizations have botched in building firm relations on social media before a crisis. Nowadays, social media has become a trusted source of news for many people. In case of crisis social media can be an important, fast and interactive conduit through which you can get to your stakeholders.  Apart from social media PR experts also need to learn how to deal with the media so as to effectively pass across their message hence minimizing further harm in the public eye.

3.      Waiting too long to speak up.

When a crisis hits, messages may become hard to craft and you may be tempted to stay quiet about the whole thing but in crisis, silence is not golden. The public expects you to speak up fast. You do not need to have all the answers but you should at least own the problem. Staying silent means that other people may take that opportunity to control the story. Also another common mistake communication experts make is trying to silence others, for example by blocking or deleting negative comments on social media. This makes the people talking about the situation get louder.

4.      Forgetting employees

Employees are the face of the organization and they can be incredible advocates for the organization.  With the right information employees can foster the recovery of an organization from a crisis. Also, customers and other stakeholders may rely on employees to get the truth about a crisis that has hit the organization. Most of the time the crisis communication team is so focused on external stakeholders that they forget communicating to the employees which is wrong.

5.       Ill-defined response team

When coming up with crisis communication plan some PR experts do not clearly outline the structure and duties of the response team.  Also they may assign numerous roles to one person which should not be the case. It is necessary to assess the different duties of each person in the team to ensure no one is overloaded during a critical situation. It is also important to have back up team members so that in case someone is out of office for various reasons, his work will still be done.

The vulnerability of organizations and the number of possible crises seem to grow by

 day and it is up to you to get prepared before it is too late. The best way to avoid these  crisis communication pitfalls is to have a solid communication strategy and a great plan in place.