How To Create A Crisis Communication Strategy?

Posted by PurviDalvi on December 20th, 2019

Nowadays, social media platforms are allowing people to speak their minds to a large group of audience. The days where brands can stick their head in the sand and hide away from crisis are gone. No organisation is immune to problems, mistakes and critics, and though larger brands face flack the most, all companies should have a crisis communication support to address the same.

Where crisis could be something as large as a recent credit or debit hack or as simple as a customer leaving complaint on Facebook, the way the brand decides to react to them determines the magnitude of the problem. The following methods are how you can create crisis communication strategy or preparedness planning to boost the trust and loyalty amongst the target audience –

Create a plan: Just as your mom provides you with an escape route for safety when your house catches fire, the same preparation for brands can significantly minimise the effects of the crisis, in case it occurs. Avoid scrambling to find resources and personnel who can handle the task well by creating a plan. This way you not only know what to do when the crisis occurs but also who will take on what role for executing the strategy smoothly. Every organisation should have procedures for dealing with issues such as customer complaints, product problems, ex-employee frustrations, and any sort of backlash from the service industry. These problems, whether the brand has made a mistake and is at fault or not, get multiplied owing to the online discussions.

If you are a digital marketing company, have additional tools and techniques in place. After all, preparedness planning is all about making your team alert before the crisis arises.

Inform the team: You might have a plan outline, but that will not help if the team is unaware of the strategy itself. Be sure of all the steps the employees need to take if they are confronted with the issue and who are the right people for directing the queries. Identify the spokespeople who will understand your company’s stance and communicate them appropriately over the channels. Like any other marketing campaign, you need to make sure the message is consistent throughout the mediums. The consistency matters especially during crisis.

Identify channels: While responding to consumers individual concerns is the right way to go about dealing with the crisis, a brand-related post regarding the situation, as their media statement, will help to defeat the complaints from customers.

Monitoring crisis: Start by issuing a statement to consumers and let them know that you are aware of the issue in hand and that you are taking necessary steps to resolve the matter. If you already have a plan in place, communicate based on the strategy and make the consumers aware that you are solving the concerns immediately. Remember, avoid delaying the response to a problem. For monitoring purpose, there is crisis communication support assisting companies and brands.

Leveraging: We are humans, and even customers can continue their loyalty towards the brand if they handle the crisis smartly. Brands improve their relationship with consumers by taking immediate steps and responding instantly to consumers. It is challenging to win back all the customers but excellent customer service during a regular day or a brand meltdown reflects well on the organisation’s reputation