How to Effectively Create a Crisis Communication Plan

In simple terms, crisis communication includes everything how organizations communicate with their people in tough and challenging times. When an organization faces a sudden problem, whatever they say and how they say comes under the umbrella of crisis communication. The main aim of crisis communication is to keep everyone informed, confident and calm. And that’s where internal messaging tools like Udext come in handy.

Using text messaging in crisis ensures that messages reach the concerned people instantly, even if other communication channels are down. Sending clear and concise messages prevents confusion and builds trust among employees. Udext offers you a streamlined way of communicating across your team so that you can easily collaborate during a crisis.

Let’s know how you can plan your crisis communications along with some real-world examples.

Understanding the Importance of Crisis Communications

Before we understand the importance of a crisis communications plan, let us first know what a crisis communication plan is. This plan basically refers to a strategic framework that states how an organization will communicate with its stakeholders at the time of crisis and after crisis, ensuring timely, clear and coordinated messaging to protect its reputation.

It is not just a reactive measure but a proactive approach that safeguard an organization’s integrity and effectiveness in challenging times.

Here’s why you should have a clear understanding of crisis communication plan:

• Prepares for Unexpected Events: A clear plan ensures your organization can respond quickly and effectively to minimize damage and confusion during unexpected events.
• Builds Trust: A strong crisis communication plan fosters trust among stakeholders, employees, and customers by providing transparent, timely information and preventing misinformation.
• Reduces Negative Impact: With a well-sorted plan, you can reduce the negative effects of a crisis on your organization by responding swiftly and efficiently.
• Defines Roles and Responsibilities: A clear plan outlines predefined roles, ensuring everyone knows their responsibilities and coordinates effectively to streamline communication.
• Fosters Employee Security: Keeping employees informed and addressing their concerns during a crisis fosters a sense of security and confidence.
• Evaluate and Learn: A good crisis comms plan includes strategies for post-crisis evaluation, helping your organization learn, improve, and adapt for future events.
• Ensures Legal Compliance: By adhering to communication regulations, a well-planned crisis communication strategy helps protect the organization from legal risks.
• Rebuilds Reputation: A clear, consistent communication strategy after a crisis helps rebuild your organization's reputation and restores confidence among stakeholders.

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Elements of an Effective Crisis Communication Plan

There are several key elements of an effective crisis communication plan and all aim to ensure well-coordinated and timely response.

Team Structure

A well-thought crisis response plan defines clear roles and responsibilities of the staff, including spokesperson, decision-makers and support staff. It should also include up-to-date contact information of all team members.

Risk Assessment and Identification

Whenever you are planning a crisis communication strategy, you must identify and state the possible crisis relevant to the organization along with their likelihood and potential impact. You must also include which are the vulnerable areas of crisis.

Prepared Message

You must not depend on creating on the spot messages in the time of crisis. A good crisis communication plan has clear, concise and adaptable key messages ready for different situations and for different people (media, employees, customers, etc.). You can also be ready with templates for social media posts, press releases and internal SMS to streamline the communication process.

Identify Communication Channels

You must identify and keep the preferred communication channels handy to ensure that messages reach everyone on time. For internal messaging SMS communication tools like Udext are the best. Apart from it, you can also keep social media, press releases and emails handy for communication with the public.

Training and Simulation

Training and simulating crisis situations are important elements of crisis communication plans. Conducting training sessions and simulation exercises prepares your crisis team for action in real-life scenarios. Also, these drills help you identify any weaknesses and areas of improvement in your plans.

Stakeholder Identification

Prepare a list of various key stakeholders who need to be informed in the time of crisis including customers, investors, employees, regulator bodies and others. Also, consider how communication will change with the different stakeholders.

Monitoring and Assessment

Create plans and procedures to monitor the situation in real-time. Once the crisis is over, review the response, assess the effectiveness of the plan and collect feedback for improvements in the future.

Post-Crisis Recovery

Your crisis communication plan must also mention the plan and strategy to rebuild your trust and reputation after a crisis.

Documentation and Accessibility

Make sure that your entire crisis communication plan is written in a clear and concise manner in an accessible format. Also, make sure that every team member can access the plan in the time of a real crisis.

Crisis Communication Strategies

Crisis communication strategy is a systematic approach through which you can manage communications at the time of emergencies. With a clear strategy you can ensure that information reaches the people clearly and effectively and there is minimum confusion. Here are key crisis communication strategies:

• Provide updates to stakeholders as soon as possible and delays can lead to misinformation and increased anxiety.
• Use internal messaging tools like Udext to frame a clear, simple and direct message which is easy to understand. Avoid jargon and be transparent of what is known and what not.
• Create customized messages for different audiences to address their specific concerns and needs at the time of emergencies.
• Get a designated crisis team ready with a clear chain of commands to ensure consistency.
• Continuously monitor the situation through social media and other channels to make adjustments in communication strategy if required.
• Get your crisis communication tools ready and create channels for two-way communication to address the crisis promptly. Ask for feedback and express concerns.
• Post crisis, conduct a thorough review of the response to check what worked and what needs improvement.

Real-World Crisis Communications Example

Here are some real-world crisis communication examples that utilize effective communication channels to manage crises.

During Covid, in March 2020, when Tesla faced temporary shutdown due to government mandates, they utilized internal communications tools to inform their employees of safety protocols, work-from-home policies and regular updates on production timelines. They used the company's internal SMS texting system and emails to ensure that everyone felt supported and informed in those tough times.

Another great crisis communication plan example is that of the Boeing 737 Max crisis. After the two fatal crashes, there was a significant crisis situation for Boeing. However, with an effective internal communication plan, they communicated updates on investigation, organizational changes and safety protocols. These briefings helped employees understand the situation and company’s response, fostering unity in challenging times.

Other than these retailers like Walmart have been utilizing internal communication platforms to notify their employees of inventory shortages, operational adjustments and new delivery calendar.

Internal communication systems like SMS, emails, etc. are an integral part of any organization be it an educational institution, manufacturing company, tech company or non-profit organization to manage the crisis effectively.

Crisis Communication Steps

The crisis communication must be done in a structured manner to ensure the effective management of the situation. Crisis communication steps are divided into six stages.

Prepare Pre-Crisis Plan

First of all, develop a comprehensive plan mentioning roles and responsibilities and different procedures to follow at the time of crisis. Identify potential vulnerabilities and prepare a predefined communication strategy. Pre-crisis preparation ensures that an organization is well-equipped to handle any potential challenging situations.

Monitor Risk and Identify Early Warning Signs

The second stage includes continuous monitoring of any potential risks and identifying early warning systems. Stay vigilant and study industry trends, news outlets, social media etc., to identify any issues at the horizon. With this, you can take proactive measures to mitigate the impact of the crisis.

Identify and Assess Crisis

Once you notice an emerging crisis, you need to quickly assess the nature and severity of emergency communications plans. Under its scope and how much impact it can bring. A thorough evaluation of the crisis helps you make informed decisions and develop appropriate crisis communication strategies.

Response and Communicate

As soon as you identify the onset of any crisis, inform the crisis management team and relevant stakeholders immediately, try to collect as much accurate information as possible from reliable sources to understand the facts. Plan a strategy including key messages, communication channels, target people and the instructions for the spokesperson. Remember to maintain transparency, authenticity and empathy in whatever you do and say to maintain trust and credibility. Also, ensure that your crisis communication team is well-coordinated to ensure consistency in messages across all platforms.

Implement and Execute

Once you have the right strategy, it’s time for execution. Create clear messages for the different audience and use appropriate channels to share the initial messages. For internal communication, integrated SMS tools like Udext are the best as you can instantly send important messages to many people.

Also, guide the spokesperson of what and how to communicate with the media and public to ensure consistency. Give regular updates to stakeholders to keep them informed and address their concerns promptly. Monitor public sentiments and media to assess the effectiveness of the communication efforts. Also, be ready to revise messages based on the feedback received.

Evaluate and Learn Post-Crisis

The final stage includes evaluation of the crisis and learning from the experience. Conduct a review of the crisis response and assess what went well and what didn’t. Based on the feedback, make plans to improve future crisis comms plans.

Don’t forget to mention how the organization is receiving and implementing new plans to handle future crises.

How to Use Udext for Crisis Communication

In this era, where you may come across any unexpected crisis, it is essential to have a robust crisis communication plan. Tools like Udext helps you in this planning and allows clear delivery of messages, minimizing confusion and fostering trust. Understanding how to define crisis comms rates is important for organizations to navigate through the challenges effectively. Also, following crisis communication best practices help your team to respond effectively and adapt to changing circumstances.

So, are you ready to strengthen your crisis communication strategy? Request a demo from Udext and keep your team informed during critical times.

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