How to Communicate in a Business Crisis

When an unforeseen crisis bruises your business, you can sink or swim, depending on how you communicate with customers and employees.

Instructions

Difficulty: Challenging

Preparing for a Crisis

1. Create a plan for how you would handle a variety of business crises, such as theft, fire, key employee illness or death, loss of a primary supplier or regional catastrophe.
2. Talk with others in your industry about how they handle certain business crises.
3. Work at building a positive relationship with the community and customers, in case you need their support in the future.

Communicating During Crisis

4. Quickly and cautiously communicate with your employees and customers, as well as the community.
5. Appoint a spokesperson to communicate with the media. Be clear and consistent with your message.
6. Communicate about crisis in as many ways as possible - print, telephone, radio, television or mailings. Focus on any positive outcomes.
7. Assemble a group of employees, if appropriate, to be part of a crisis team.
8. Put your plan into action - hesitancy and delay will spur rumors and increase anxiety and despair.

Communicating After the Crisis

9. To regain trust from customers, make good customer service a priority.
10. Maintain contact with media, if appropriate.
11. Put together a plan to rebuild your positive reputation in the community.

Tips & Warnings

• No one wants to believe that a crisis can happen to him or her, but proper planning can be the difference between a minor setback and disaster.
• Disasters are always a shock, no matter how prepared you are.
• Keep private despair to yourself, and rally yourself and your troops in public.
• Be a good listener to those who need to vent their feelings.
• Be sure your family is taken care of during the crisis.
• A crisis is stressful. Take care of yourself through exercise, prayer, meditation - whatever works for you.
• Some people handle crisis well; others do not. You may need to offer additional assistance to employees and customers who react negatively to abrupt change.
• You are prone to illness and injury when you are overworked and not sleeping. Pace yourself.
• Give your employees and customers something special for surviving the crisis.
• Launch the business into new directions, using the business crisis as the instigator of change.
• Don't be surprised if depression hits long after the crisis has passed. This is a natural reaction when no longer fighting for survival. Seek professional help, if necessary.