Author: Jill Schiefelbein / Source: Entrepreneur The following excerpt is from Jill Schiefelbein’s book Dynamic Communication. Buy it now
The following excerpt is from Jill Schiefelbein’s book Dynamic Communication. Buy it now from Amazon | Barnes & Noble | IndieBound
While you hope to never experience a crisis situation in your business, it’s important to be prepared. And while managing a crisis isn’t simple, there are some key elements that every business owner needs to understand when forming and communicating a response. If your business experiences a crisis, here are some tips that can help you craft a response.
First moves
With the immediacy of social media and the ability of your consumers, employees and bystanders to upload and distribute information at the tap of a screen, you need to respond right away. As soon as you know something’s wrong, be as proactive as possible. It’s much better for you and your business if you break the news, rather than someone else letting it slip via social media, which is then picked up by the larger media.
Also, be aware that everything — and I mean everything — that precedes and follows is available for public consumption. Every channel your brand/business is on is a channel that customers and the public can use to reach you to judge and complain and applaud your actions or inactions. Every tweet you’ve been mentioned in before, during, and after the crisis unfolds will be scrutinized, along with every snap that gets chatted and every gram that gets posted. And all along, of course, there’s livestreaming capturing it in real time.
This is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, every mistake you make is magnified. On the other, everything you do well has the potential to make it into the public sphere. When you’re thinking of your immediate response, keep in mind that facts are incredibly important.
Response strategy
If the crisis is a result of a natural disaster, state of emergency or other unforeseen catastrophic event, your initial response statement should include a clear explanation of what your company is doing to manage operations, keep customers safe (both physically and digitally in terms of data) and the expected path to recovery. In these situations, likely your company had and has no control over the event itself, but that doesn’t dissipate the frustrations of customers in the moment, and them publicly airing these frustrations.
If the crisis is a result of human error within your organization, this is when you likely have the most…
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