“Hope for the best, prepare for the worst” doesn’t apply only to Individuals, it also applies to organizations.
In order to prepare for Crisis, businesses can plan a set of strategy to recover from brand image failures, natural disasters, and other major incidents.
It typically includes measures for public acknowledgment of issues, damage control, and remediation. Right Crisis Management Strategy not only helps in pulling a business through tough times but also enable them to emerge stronger on the other side.
When considering a crisis strategy, it’s a good idea to take a look at how big brands respond to a potential brand crisis.
However, if crisis occurs like Covid-19 Pandemic, it becomes important to react quickly to minimize the damage caused and begin recouping any losses. This requires deliberate and methodical steps to avoid causing additional harm.
Your first step in crisis response should be to look at your crisis plan and determine how it applies to the current situation. Assuming you have a well-documented plan, you should be able to begin debriefing your response team and implementing procedures as defined. If you don’t have a crisis plan, prioritize time to make one now. If you begin responding without, your efforts are likely to conflict with your goals and you may overlook essential aspects.
Monitoring your brand in real-time. While monitoring, you should pay attention to what industry and general media will be saying, as well as to how your customers and competition will be responding. Setting alerts for social media and newsfeed mentions is a good place to start. You can also set alerts on Google and other search engines to notify you when searches related to your brand are trending.
In a crisis, customers often have feeling of jeopardy. This is particularly true in the Pandemic Crisis where many individuals’ jobs, homes, and lives came at risk. Hence the first step to follow is to reassure customers and show them that the organization has their best interests at heart. Even if you aren’t able to deliver services and products to customers per usual, you can still take the time to empathize with their concerns and build relationships.
Above all PR & Communication Team plays a vital role in crisis as the bounce back of organization completely depends upon the management of crisis by right communication tool.
Remember Well Strategized Crisis Management Plan not only helps in pulling a business through tough times, also enables to emerge stronger.
