Are you prepared for when things go wrong?

Posted by Kate Betts on 26th April 2017

April has seen a number of PR disasters for United Airlines, Pepsi, Nivea and even Tesco.

Big organisations like these tend to have large PR teams who are skilled at dealing with a crisis, but if you run a small business what do you do when things go wrong?

This month I talked to the Guardian Small Business Network to provide some tips for writing a crisis communications plan. It’s vital for businesses of all sizes to have such a plan; you don’t want to be trying to work out what to say, who to say it to and how to say it as the crisis plays out. Much better to be prepared.

The exact content of the plan will obviously be different for different business, but the chapter headings are roughly the same. These include: potential crises (think of all possible scenarios); audiences (e.g. staff, customers, stakeholders, media); how you communicate (social media, staff briefings, letters etc); what you say (you can prepare a holding statement and key messages in advance); who does what (who is media spokesperson, who takes responsibility for social media or talking to clients and so on?); how you do it (for example, where and when do you have a press briefing) and, of course, who has authority to activate the plan.

But the most important bit is the appendix, listing everyone’s contact details, log-ons for social media, website links, etc.

And make sure the plan is a practical document and not some theoretical tomb. I have seen so many where the first 25 pages are a justification of why the plan exists in the first place. Just get straight to the point.

You can read the full article by the Guardian Small Business Network here.

To find out more about how we can help you deal with a crisis situation at your business visit our crisis comms web page or get in touch on 01226 766 900 or email info@capitalbmedia.co.uk.