Develop a Crisis Communication Plan Ahead of Time

The Institute for Crisis Management defines a crisis as: "a significant business disruption which stimulates extensive news media coverage. The resulting public scrutiny will affect the organization’s normal operations and also could have a political, legal, financial and governmental impact on its business."

When your integrity or reputation or that of your company is threatened by negative media attention, you have a PR crisis on your hands. The crisis can be brought on by an accident, an omission, a defective or contaminated product, a scandal, a natural disaster or misbehavior. If in the eyes of the media or general public you don’t react appropriately to the situation, your PR crisis becomes even worse.

In a time of crisis, don’t put your head in the sand and don’t say, “No comment.” Your company should report the bad news, even if your CEO has been accused of a crime. This proactive approach prevents your company from being put in a weakened, defensive position. Have a crisis communication plan and a designated crisis team in place before anything adverse happens.

The crisis team and its tools should include the following:

• Competent spokesperson(s) who can answer calls from the media promptly and have enough media training to know what to expect and how to conduct themselves.
• People who can escort media professionals when they arrive on your premises. This is especially important if the crisis involves safety issues, such as a fire or a chemical spill, but remember that journalists can ask anyone anything and you must never give the appearance of trying to hide something or over-control a situation.
• Cell phone numbers and contact information for everyone on the team, because the crisis could occur in the middle of the night.
• Procedures for how and when the crisis team will meet, how they will obtain and draw up a list of the known facts regarding the negative situation, how they will approve the action plan and prepared statements, and how and when they will disseminate the information to the company employees and the media.
• A template for a news release with fill-in-the-blanks to contain, at a minimum, the standard who, what, when and where of the negative situation. This news release should be sent out within hours of the crisis.
• A ready-made contact log to be filled in with the names of journalists and persons affected by or involved with the PR crisis.
  

Often it is best to designate one individual as the primary spokesperson to represent your company and interact with the media throughout the PR crisis. This person should tell the truth and should never speculate. To help this spokesperson, the crisis team must provide a list of all the known facts and provide it fast.

If the spokesperson does not know the facts, he or she should say something to the effect of: "We are still gathering the facts, but we will hold a news conference at (place and time).” If no place and time have been determined yet, the spokesperson should obtain the name and number of the journalist and call that person back with the information ASAP.