Crisis Communications Planning – Essential For Any Company

Written by Rich Ellis Monday, April 25, 2011

“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” –Benjamin Franklin

You arrive at your business Monday morning, reflecting on the weekend you just enjoyed. Those thoughts fly right out the car window as you turn the corner and are horrified to see a former customer picketing your office with a sign complaining about how your company ruined her life.

Or your business partner gets arrested for an alleged crime, the scintillating details of which would make a Hollywood gossip columnist blush and the water cooler crowd giggle.

One doesn’t need to look to the Gulf of Mexico and BP to find a crisis brewing as plenty of career-ending, business-destroying brouhahas unfold daily right in our own backyards. Countless details unique to each crisis situation determine whether you and your business emerge from the crisis with reputations intact, or at least salvageable, or not at all. More often than not, your preparedness for dealing with a crisis is the determining factor.

We plan for retirement, the holiday dinner we’re hosting, our children’s education, and even summer vacation. But when it comes to planning for and responding to a crisis that can ultimately destroy your business, and subsequently all those fun events you did plan for, most businesses are woefully unprepared.

The time to develop and practice a crisis communications and response plan is right now, not while the warehouse burns or your star employee does the “perp walk” in handcuffs.

At tba, we help businesses plan for and implement crisis response plans that communicate with and reassure a company’s key audiences – from customers to media and the communities in which they operate. The goal is not just to salvage the firm’s reputation but to turn the crisis into an opportunity to demonstrate the company’s commitment, professionalism and reliability.

None of this can be accomplished if precious time is instead wasted trying to answer the question, “What do we do first?” as the crisis rapidly spins out of control.

Accidents and missteps are going to happen. It’s how you respond that determines the impact on your business. If you can’t, right now, have your crisis communications plan open in front of you within 30 seconds and begin implementing the prescribed response, you are not adequately prepared.

So get a crisis communications plan and make Benjamin Franklin – and your stakeholders – proud.