Planning for a crisis is a critical part of any marketing strategy. Unexpected challenges can range from product recalls or supply chain issues to social media or brand reputation dilemmas. All companies should be prepared to face these challenges.
The time to plan for an unexpected problem is now. Companies that have a plan in place to manage crisis communication are the ones who will thrive in the face of these challenges. This will help your company weather the storm. It can also build your reputation in the marketplace and win over new customers.
No matter what lies ahead, your company must develop an effective crisis management plan.
Creating an Effective Crisis Management Plan
How can you create a crisis management plan that works to protect your brand and reputation? This kind of guide helps to keep everyone on the same page and efficiently deal with emergencies. The best plans guide your company in what to do and who takes responsibility.
Here are the key elements to consider when laying out a crisis plan to ensure a swift and satisfying response:
- Building a crisis management team, including a primary decision-maker, a coordinator to gather data, and someone in charge of communications. You’ll also need experts in communication for your marketing department.
- A thorough knowledge of what emergencies can impact your company and how they relate to marketing, like supply chain shortages that interrupt the production of best-selling items. The marketing team can use this information to determine who to address and how.
- Time to test and tweak your plan by running through a few emergency scenarios to ensure the team has it down. When you get the opportunity to put it into practice, take stock afterward so you can refine or adjust anything that could have run smoother.
The marketing team will also need a crisis communication plan.
Preparing for the Unexpected With Crisis Communication
What is crisis communication? This is a way for your company to address the stakeholders in your business when a problematic situation arises. This can include customers, employees, management, board members, prospective clients, or anyone who engages with your company in person or virtually.
Some unexpected crises include:
- Cybersecurity threats, such as hacked client data
- Emergencies caused by weather or nature, like a power outage from a storm
- Ethics scandals that reach the public, especially when involving leadership
- Product recalls, such as FDA food recalls
- Widespread layoffs, which impact the remaining employees
Additionally, brand reputation can be at risk through social media, disgruntled former employees, dissatisfied customers, etc. Crisis communication can head off these challenges.
One of the most important things to do is to create an online crisis comms management plan. This helps you to evaluate a potential social media crisis and address it if necessary.
Such a plan allows you to assess the extent of the problem. A few negative comments on social media can be easily managed. However, a negative viral post can cause widespread harm that requires more time and attention to prevent long-term damage.
First, discover how the problem started. What was the initial incident, and how did it spread? Who was involved, and how is it impacting people?
Consider the threat level of the problem. Is it just a few isolated comments, or is it a red-alert situation that could involve lawsuits, criminal investigations, or headline news? This level will determine who to bring in from your crisis management team.
Once the appropriate team members are alerted, create communications to address the problem. Your company’s intranet should be used to manage communications during a crisis. Some of the tools you can put in place to notify employees include push notifications, mandatory readings, virtual meetings, and social media functioning, such as hashtags for designated crisis alerts. Badges can be deployed to indicate members of the crisis management team. Share the company’s remedy for the problem with those affected, especially customers, and remedy your missteps.
One example of fixing poor crisis communications is Chipotle. In 2015, the chain was linked to 60 cases of E. coli poisoning. Its initial response was poor: not enough accurate information, and sloppy social media responses. When they realized their error, they communicated all the actions they took in this situation, including infographic updates, reposting positive press, and the launch of a new food safety program, delivered with an apology by the founder.
Like the crisis plan, you’ll want to take stock of your communications plan after you use it. Did it go seamlessly, or are adjustments needed? How can you address these issues in a more timely or reassuring manner?
One way marketing leaders can create crisis communications that allay the negative emotions of customers and other stakeholders is by relying, in part, on intuition.
Using Intuition to Guide Crisis Management
Besides rapidly communicating solutions to the challenge, marketers need to craft communication that positively affects those impacted by the crisis. One way to do this is by using the science of intuition to understand how consumers are feeling.
Intuition is not as great a mystery as you might think. It simply means that our brain works faster in areas where we have experience. It picks up cues we might not consciously notice about a situation to give us a gut feeling, like something bad is about to happen. Police officers often note this feeling before a crime is committed. This includes physical sensations, like the feeling of butterflies in our stomach. Intuition helps us to arrive at decisions.
Recognizing these feelings helps us use intuition to make better decisions. Besides butterflies, other intuitive physical responses include a sinking feeling, sweaty palms, goosebumps, tense muscles, accelerated heart rate, and a sense of clarity.
How can we integrate gut feelings with intelligent decision-making to reassure our customers and others during business crises? The Recognition-Primed Decision helps your brain to blend intuition with logic.
Recognize the patterns created by your gut feelings and then use reason to make good choices. For example, suppose you need to develop a marketing plan to address a hit on your company’s reputation. In that case, someone may make a recommendation that goes against your gut, even if, on paper, the suggestion is nothing negative. You may be sensing something that could be mildly offensive, so it’s best not to go with that suggestion.
It takes time and practice for business leaders to develop this skill, but it can help them make the right choices while managing crisis communications. It also helps them empathize with the people affected. When response is handled properly, a crisis can be an opportunity for success.
Turning a Crisis Into a Win
How can marketers turn a potentially disastrous situation into a win? Combining intuition and logic is not the only way to manage a crisis. Turning obstacles into opportunities begins with taking the right mindset when thinking about obstacles. When problems in business crop up, leaders need to stay above the situation by understanding they have the power to turn a negative situation into a positive one.
This requires managing your emotions by staying calm and practicing self-control. Step back and take an objective look at the situation, which allows you to discover what you can and cannot control. You can’t change the situation, but you can address it honestly and positively.
There are many ways to turn around a crisis. Negative feedback about your brand can be an opportunity to create buzz.
Wendy’s social media approach is a good example. In 2008, the TV show “The Office” spawned a meme that went viral. People would place a comment about something that would never happen in a Wendy’s restaurant along with the response, “Sir, this is a Wendy’s…” Instead of being offended that their name became a punchline, Wendy’s took the opportunity to launch a humorous campaign on social media that featured social media faux pas and stereotypes but most importantly, fed interaction. The campaign was a success.
Once your team is clear-headed about the crisis, it’s time to take action. Attack the problem with energy and diligence and, of course, logic and intuition. If more obstacles arise, face them head-on to find unique ways to resolve them. Be prepared to fail, but remember that we can only learn to improve from our mistakes.
Every business encounters problems along its journey. By deploying a comprehensive crisis management plan that also covers communications, you can address these challenges in a positive way. Integrating reason, intuition, and a proper mindset helps the team win the company back from a disaster.
Charlie Fletcher is a freelance writer from the lovely “city of trees”- Boise, Idaho. Her love of writing pairs with her passion for social activism and search for the truth. When not writing she spends her time doodling and embroidering. And yes, she does love all kinds of potatoes!
