A crisis in businesses is inevitable. You can’t see the future and don’t know what you may face tomorrow. In the same way, you cannot know when a crisis may occur, be it financial, reputation, or sales. What you can do is prepare yourself in the best way possible. 

Industries and businesses of all types and sizes are increasingly embracing issue and crisis communication planning. According to the Business Continuity Institute, an estimated 84 percent of organizations have an emergency communication plan in place. 

This is where Crisis Communication agencies come in. Let’s understand what crisis communication is and what purpose it serves.

What do you mean by Crisis Communication?

Crisis communication encompasses a variety of practices by which organizations communicate before, during, and after crises to avoid or repair reputational damage to the organization. It involves communicative and strategic processes that seek to foster safety and stability when normal operations are challenged by the crisis. 

In the current times, it takes less than a second for messages to get delivered to the masses through social media, websites, blogs, etc. In this scenario, brands need to be cautious about what they’re doing and communicating. One wrong or irresponsible move may lead them to a web of innumerable questions. Escalation of such issues often proves dangerous for a brand. Having a Crisis Communication team by your side helps you deal with those unwanted circumstances way more easily.

Let’s see what wonders crisis communication can do for your businesses:

Reputation Management

As the headline suggests, crisis communication helps you maintain, defend and restore your business’s reputation. Although crises aren’t inevitable, when they do occur, the effects can be very damaging. Proper handling before and after a crisis occurs can help minimize risks of financial or reputation loss. 

Strategic Communication

This is one of the important aspects of crisis management. After a crisis hits, the Crisis team acts as a spokesperson. They give full information or statement to the media and be the key source of information. This is important because if the information is not given in time, inaccurate information may spread to the public. In this regard, the crisis team needs to deliver a quick and formidable response at right time. 

Assist in recovery

After a crisis hits, it damages the reputation of a company in one way or another. The Crisis management firms offer on-spot guidance and help the company recover its image. This is done through various media-engaging activities like press conferences, press release dissemination; arranging CSR activities and other public-engaging campaigns, etc. Having a crisis communications plan in advance of an impending event can help ensure that information is not misinterpreted, improve the communication flow, and ensure timelier messaging.

Prepare for future

The crisis management team helps the company to prepare for future crises. Unforeseen events like natural catastrophes, the fall of the stock market, or negative reports can have an adverse effect on a company. You cannot stop these crises from happening, but you can prepare for these disasters so that they don’t escalate. 

Let’s understand this with an example.

Suppose brand ‘X’ is a renowned food brand caught in the web of severe reputational crisis when rumors about the poor quality of its products started circulating in the market. Now how will crisis communication solve this crisis?

First and foremost, they will need to put a stop to all the negative rumors. An official statement on the behalf of the company needs to be circulated in the media and public, addressing the issue and their stance on it. This can be done through a press statement, press conference, or media interactions. This will show the audience their transparency and reduce the negativity going around to some extent. The next step is to rebuild the credibility and image of the brand. The crisis team uses multiple tactics and strategies to stop the matter from escalating and at the same time defend the brand’s reputation. For example, they may introduce various initiatives or campaigns to show the brand in a positive light.

Needless to say, crisis management teams take different routes for different crisis cases. But their end goal remains the same- to maintain and protect the brand’s reputation.  

In response to the fast-paced environment, companies today are investing a lot of resources and money into crisis communication planning. They’ve begun to improve their approaches and methodologies to be better prepared for the future.