PR and Crisis Management- Do You Have A Crisis Management Plan?
Not having a crisis management plan can lead to seriously harming a company because a crisis can negatively affect the reputation of an organization if not handled properly. Therefore, having the right public relations experts is a must because they are an essential part of a crisis management team when it comes to protecting and defending an individual or company.
So, incase you ever find yourself in a crisis or want to avoid ever being in one, here are 5 PR Crisis Management Steps that can help you manage this process.
1. Prevention
A smart way to reduce the likelihood of a crisis happening is to prevent it by creating a crisis management plan that can help you reduce the risks. What is in this plan? Well you would have a step-by-step plan of how you would handle the situation based on the risks you or your organization might face. You would basically pre-plan and pre-assign tasks in order to save time. And remember, you should always update your plan because there are always new emerging risks.
2. Training
If your crisis happened or not, you or the members of the organization should be trained on how to properly react to the situation. If you are talking to the media or customers you should be able to know how to present information clearly without confusing them or leaving them with unanswered questions.
3. Response
Be extremely careful when it comes to checking all the facts and after you know what exactly happened, aim to have a response out to the public within the first hour. Also, use social media wisely in order to communicate your response and concern involving the crisis to the public.
4. Reputation
A crisis can harm the reputation of a person or organization, so understanding how the person or organization is impacted from the crisis is very important when it comes to repairing the issue. The PR crisis manager can take several directions when it comes to repairing such as; informing the public the organization meant to do well or the organization lacked controlled of the situation. The PR crisis manager can also remind the public of the past good work the organization has done and take full responsibility of the crisis.
5. Post Crisis
After your crisis is settled and it is no longer your main issue, you must remember that it still needs attention. Reputation repairing does not happen over night; therefore you must constantly update your customers and public with information on the process on what you are doing to recover from the crisis and what is next for you or the organization.