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.

Difficulty: Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Internet Access
• Business Loans
• Personal Organizers
• Computers
• Cellular Phones
• Business loans

Communicating After the Crisis

1. To regain trust from customers, make good customer service a priority.

2. Maintain contact with media, if appropriate.

3. Put together a plan to rebuild your positive reputation in the community.

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.

Preparing for a Crisis

9. 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.

10. Talk with others in your industry about how they handle certain business crises.

11. Work at building a positive relationship with the community and customers, in case you need their support in the future.

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.

Who Can Help:

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[paigeturner]

on 5/29/2009 Good points. I would also reach out to peers and experts within industry for an outside opinion on how to resolve the issues at hand as well as have a post mortem after the fact to ensure that the same thing doesn't occur again.

[lucyyy]

on 5/5/2009 When in doubt, just tell the truth. The general public, and most clients, can accept mistakes better than dishonesty.

[kp3028]

on 2/2/2009 Having a written procedural manual so everyone knows exactly what to do, helps everyone stay focused and calm. "Being prepared" is not just something for Boy Scouts,