Three Tips to Hone Your Crisis Plan

For many businesses, 2020 has been the year of the pivot. Organizations have had to adjust, re-adjust or completely change marketing plans, operations and more. Additionally, when COVID-19 hit many were caught off guard and had to develop crisis responses in real time.

It’s important to have crisis plans and responses in place to properly handle sensitive situations. Well-thought out responses to any crisis illustrate the integrity of your organization.

There many nuances to crisis planning, however, starting with these three components will leave your organization better prepared in the future.

Plan. Spend time considering what could happen that could affect your business. What events can have an impact on your business? Your customers? Brainstorm worst-case scenarios.

Prepare. Develop key messages, talking points and a response plan around each scenario that demonstrates your cooperative actions to respond to and remedy the situation, and that show your company’s leadership, integrity and sensitivity.

Practice. Role-play the scenarios with your internal crisis response team to practice being interviewed by a member of the media. Most importantly, consider investing in media training to help you better prepare your crisis response and aid in your message development. Having an outsider’s perspective can help identify and address vulnerabilities, ultimately benefitting your organization.