Why is crisis communication important

You may need to go out fighting or you may need to accept responsibility. Look to your CMP for the best way to respond to different crises. If you are indeed at fault, taking responsibility for the crisis and being forthcoming with what you plan to do, might be the best way to start rebuilding rapport with the public. Spokespeople should be properly media trained so they know how to front journalists.

If a crisis does occur, be proactive and take control of the situation. This may include holding press conferences, writing media releases and undertaking interviews. While daunting, it is an opportunity to get your point of view out there. Crisis Communication is crucial. Which brings me neatly to another important point, make sure you inform your employees about what kind of information they can tell their family and friends.

Make sure you stay in control of the outflow of information. Your reputation depends on it! Make it clear in your statement what the situation is and correct misinformation. Amid a crisis, there is no room for sugar coating anything. While your intentions may be pure, consumers want nothing but the cold truth, so they know what is going on. Source: Orange Theory. Yes — communicating with your consumers and staff is vital to any crisis communication plan; however, it should never be a one-way effort.

Take the necessary time to check in on your consumers and encourage feedback on:. Opening this vital line of communication will help you foster stronger relationships with your audience, and with this relationship comes trust and brand loyalty. Open, honest, effective communication is crucial during any crisis. December 8, December 8, Smarp is a leading employee communication solutio n used by organizations across the world. Not only does Smarp help organizations improve employee productivity , experience, and engagement, but it also enables employers to handle crisi s in a more efficient way by making sure that employees across the organization stay well informed and connected.

As learned earlier, proper employee communication is one of the most important prerequisites for managing crisis. With Smarp, employers are enabled to create specific audiences based on various criteria, they can engage employees in two-way conversations, create personalized employee news feeds, and measure the engagement employees have with the internal content delivered to them.

This is critical as employers can not afford employees to miss out on important information during crisis. Are you ready to master your crisis communication efforts and strategy? If so, schedule a Smarp demo to see how it can help you with that! Reach all your employees, from corporate to frontline, with targeted communications. Source: Deloitte Therefore, we have written a guide that can help you optimize the way your organization handles crisis in the workplace. What is Crisis Communication?

Keep it simple - keep your crisis communications simple and easy-to-consume for everyone. When communicating in times of crisis, simplicity is best, and clarity is king. Ensure your message has a clear objective, and make it relevant and tailored to your target audience.

Make it credible - Do you and your crisis communication team have credibility? Does your audience trust you? Ensure you always present the evidence to support your message. Show empathy - showing empathy during crisis is crucial. The best way to show empathy to people affected by the crisis is by active listening and encouraging bottom-up feedback. Show competency - In times of crisis and change, highlighting your organization's competency is important.

Do you have the skills, knowledge, resources, and people to follow through and get things done? If so, remind your people that you are ready to handle unprecedented situations.

Make it share-worthy - make your crisis communications visual and share-worthy. W ord-of-mouth will help spread your message and reach a wider audience. Encourage your people to share the message internally and externally where relevant. Setting up an Effective Crisis Communication Strategy Even though many employers are aware of the importance of crisis communication, not many of them have a clear plan and strategy about what to do when a crisis happens.

Create a crisis communication plan Like any other workplace strategy, crisis communication needs a well-set plan and objectives. More about how to develop a successful strategy in the following steps. Appoint your crisis communication team and spokesperson Choosing and appointing the right people who will be in your crisis communication team is extremely important.