9 Crisis communications actions you need to take right now

With the CDC recommendations related to COVID-19, here at 48 West Agency we are practicing good citizenship and pausing all in-person meetings. We are fortunate the nature of our work allows us to leverage online tools available to keep us all connected and productive. Because one of our core strengths is crisis communications, we are working with our clients through this uncharted journey.

The most important aspect of managing a significant and unplanned event related to a company’s operations is having a plan. A crisis has three phases: before, during and after – sometimes referred to as planning, crisis and recovery. The most powerful part of communicating in any crisis is establishing trust. Without trust, you will see higher levels of anxiety, higher levels of uncertainty and higher levels of disruption.

Some best practices we recommend all businesses do as quickly as possible:

1. An immediate audit of all content and media, including social media and advertising placements. Content calendars are usually planned a month or two in advance and your message then is almost certainly not what you want to communicate now. The same is true for advertising insertions.
2. Careful social listening for your brand, products and services. Make sure you are monitoring for mentions and sentiment and have a system in place to respond when necessary.
3. Understand your employees’ and customers’ more pertinent needs and address them. You won’t be able to align with them until this is met.
4. Be consistent. Be accurate. Don’t withhold vital information.
5. Make sure spokespeople are prepared and knowledgeable. Everyone should be working from the same talk points.  
6. Don’t report the news. Your job isn’t to report on a rapidly evolving issue. Your job is to ensure employees, customers and investors have the information they need about your operations.
7. Anticipate the “aftershock effect”, the unintended consequences of the initial shock. These are the near-term implications for employees, customers and investors as we are past the peak of this crisis.
8. Focus leadership messaging on facts and keeping morale up. Studies show people want to hear information directly from their manager. Employees need positive reassurance where possible.
9. Plan for the eventual recovery. This will have a cycle, and while difficult, that means an opportunity to revisit, rethink, and refocus on what you do best. The challenge is to be ready for the comeback.

Managing through this type of complexity is accelerated learning. If you are managing communications through this turbulent time and want to bounce any ideas off an experienced set of eyes, I’m here for it. You can message me or ask in this thread. We are all in this together.