Crisis Communications and Your Business: How to plan for the future

Chicago PR Agency & National Public Relations Firm

I agree with most when it comes to living in the now. Balance can be found if you go about life with your principles intact while living day to day and minute to minute.

However, when it comes to your business and crisis communications, you can't live for today. As a business owner, you are always living for the future, be it tomorrow, next year, or two minutes from now. Similar to other business strategies that you have to plan for, but different in so many ways because of the unknown. Crises are one of PR's great variables; you never know what may happen next.

How do you work today to plan for the unknown?
I broached this topic with a client of mine recently and we talked about many of the things we could do together to ensure that catastrophe wouldn't kill her business. She works for a business-to-consumer company with storefronts nationwide. She was concerned about how to effectively communicate with customers, the press and the general public if ever the need would arise in a crisis situation.

We first started talking about who the spokesperson would be, the protocol for internal communication, employee reactions and press statements. Then we turned to the cost-benefit ratio. How much would it take to effectively carryout a communications plan that covers all stakeholders and how would you quantify that with measurable results to come up with a return on the investment? All of these considerations must be taken in to account, along with the tactics to execute the crisis communications strategy.

One part of the discussion that really sticks out is when we got on to the topic of how social media plays a role in reputation management in times like these. You'd be surprised how much forethought needs to take place in order to keep concerned customers and the public at ease by using social media.

So, lots to think about and consider for tomorrow and today. Don't forget though about the role of technology. Press conferences and press releases used to be the only way to communicate with the public and your client base. These days, Youtube and sites like Vimeo has made video sharing so instant that putting a spokesperson on every computer screen in America with just a few minutes preparation time is 100 percent viable.

All Points Public Relations has more information about our crisis communications planning on our website. We've been creating contingency plans for companies for nearly 10 years as part of our collection of comprehensive PR capabilities.

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