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My Short Notes: Communicate in a crisis By Kate Hartley

Writer's picture: Siddhartha DebSiddhartha Deb

Abstract:

What’s in it for me? Create a crisis communication plan to help your business weather any storm.

For today’s businesses, learning how to communicate in a time of crisis is more important than ever. Today’s consumers create deep connections with brands and hold them to high ethical standards.





*self-referencing Post





Takeaways:


1. Consumers build close relationships with brands that are authentic and transparent.

a. In today’s world, consumers connect with brands on an intimate level. When we like a brand, we enter into an emotional relationship with them. We give them our loyalty, and we expect their loyalty in return.

b. These are called passion brands – ones that, for some reason or another, just get us. Once these brands have us hooked, we’re with them for life. If you tried persuading a Mac user to switch to a PC, for example, you probably wouldn’t be that successful.

c. Every brand will experience a crisis at some point– and when they do, they’ll need to know how to respond. We’ll take a look at this in the following blinks.

2. Brands can trigger consumer outrage in multiple ways.

3. Social media gives consumers a platform to take down brands.

4. The first step in planning for crisis communication is defining what a “crisis” means for your brand.

5. The first step in planning for crisis communication is defining what a “crisis” means for your brand.

6. The first step in planning for crisis communication is defining what a “crisis” means for your brand.

a. So, how can you work out if your company is in crisis?

b. Well, one way is to work out the difference between an issue and a full-blown crisis.

c. So, next time you approach a potential crisis, take a minute to think. If there is no public emergency, and no risk to your reputation or finances, then you’re unlikely to be facing a real catastrophe.

7. Your brand’s survival depends on having a plan for when a crisis strikes.

a. It’s impossible to predict when and where a crisis will occur, but businesses must be prepared. So, let’s dive into how you can do this.

b. The first step to creating a pre-crisis plan is to select your crisis team. This should include representatives from all business departments, including HR, legal, compliance and risk, and technology. You should also include teams from PR and marketing, who will be responsible for communicating the details of the crisis to your external audience.

c. Make sure you’re absolutely clear about what everyone’s roles are. You’ll need to know who is authorized to activate a crisis plan, and who is ultimately responsible for decision-making.

d. Secondly, within your team, try to come up with every possible scenario you can think of that could negatively impact the reputation of your company. Categorize these scenarios first by type, and then by level of threat.

e. Lastly, agree on the appropriate level of actioactivityn for each threat level. In some circumstances, you may not even need to take action. But it’s important to keep a watchful eye on an issue so that you’re ready to act if things escalate.

f. So, minimizing the damage caused by a crisis is all in the planning. Businesses need to be quick, alet, and prepared to spring into action where necessary.

8. In the event of a crisis, brands need to respond quickly and accurately.

a. A key part of crisis management is knowing how to manage the volume of responses you’ll get online.

b. When it comes to responding directly to queries, it’s a good idea to triage which ones you respond to first, based on their importance. Also, prepare a few template responses. That way, if several people are asking the same question, you can use this template to respond to things more quickly.

c. A final tip? Make sure you get your facts straight. Think back to the situation with British Airways: had they waited to post accurate information, rather than rushing to issue a response, they may have saved themselves a lot of hassle.

9. Factual communication in a crisis is essential to build trust.

a. Just as journalists have to pay attention to the facts, so do all communicators. If brands want to maintain the trust of their audience during and after a crisis, they need to deliver clear and accurate messages.

b. There are four principles of journalism that Adie abides by that are also relevant for brands when communicating in a crisis. They are: get to the story, find the facts, verify the facts, and report the facts. Let’s unpack this one by one.

c. First up, get to the story. In a crisis, don’t rely on third parties for your information. Try to get to the source of the issue and chat with the people affected. To get your facts straight, you must experience firsthand what’s happening.

d. Next, find the facts. During a crisis, emotions are running high and, as people scramble to make sense of what’s happening, rumors can spread. Brands should strip that all away, and find factual information that explains what happened.

e. Then, verify the facts. Before you communicate with your audience, make sure you’re absolutely certain that what you’re telling them is correct. If you go public with what you believe to be true, but it later turns out to be false, you’ll lose the confidence and trust of your audience.

f. Last, report the facts in clear, unambiguous language to avoid any misunderstanding. This is particularly important for brand leaders. As we’ll see in the next blink, straightforwardly telling the truth is essential to maintaining a good relationship with your customers.

10. Leaders should navigate a crisis with clarity, empathy, and decisiveness. rust.

a. Churchill set a clear and decisive aim for what he wanted the nation to achieve, and he provided a roadmap for how to do it. This is what crisis expert Jonathan Hemus calls setting a strategic intent – which is something all business leaders should do at the start of a crisis.

b. So, how can leaders set their strategic intent? Well, a good way to start is to picture what things will look like six months down the line. Will your stakeholders be happy about how you responded to the crisis?

c. It might help to write down in a clear, simple sentence, what your strategic intent is and what you want the outcome to be. This will help focus your efforts, and those of your team, on one goal.

d. Another aspect of effective leadership is empathy. When things go wrong, leaders should speak to their audience as human beings. This involves using a sensitive, conversational tone of voice while avoiding jargon and corporate language.

e. Showing empathy also involves knowing when to say you’re sorry. This is what Nick Varney, the CEO of UK theme park Alton Towers did when his company was responsible for an accident.

f. As a leader, it’s you who will set the tone for how your business responds to a crisis. In addition to being smart and strategic about the moves you make, it’s also important to be human.




Bibliography


Kate Hartley. (2022, June 06). Book Source. Personal. Communicate in a crisis.




Note


These are all personal notes and reviews for self-referencing; The self interpretations are not meant for any profit or marketing.




Suggestion to readers


Please read the entire book. Suggested.

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