Reputation Management

Business Crisis Management

Building an External Crisis Management Plan

How our team actively addresses a crisis

Additional External Crisis Management Services

While the steps to creating a crisis management plan vary on a per-company and per-industry basis, we prefer to start with the following general framework and expand outward.

We build external crisis management plans for businesses and personalities from the ground up

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Risk Analysis

Our External Crisis Management Team will work with your business to speculate on broad crisis scenarios, in the public eye, your business could face based on both your current and intended future operations.

Activation Protocol

The triggers to identify that a scenario is, in fact, a crisis, should be predetermined. Before a crisis surfaces, and in accordance with the scenarios developed in the risk analysis, our External Crisis Management Team will match each scenario with an ‘urgency level.’ Each urgency level will indicate who in a business chain of command should be the first to be made aware of the crisis.

Chain of Command

When undergoing a crisis, it is important to pre-determine who in the company should be involved in the direct management or oversight of managing the crisis, along with who at the company is the final decision maker for actions taken in response to the crisis. The key decision-maker, along with the number of decision makers in a crisis scenario are dependent on the nature of the crisis, the size of the company, and where in the company the crisis stems from. For this reason, our External Crisis Management Team will develop a crisis specific organizational chart that will serve as an internal roadmap for communicating through crises.

Command Center Plan

While COVID-19 has created a world of remote working, external crisis management, to the greatest possible extent, should be handled in one centralized location, isolated away from your company's public work space. Circling back to the crisis scenarios developed in the risk analysis, our External Crisis Management Team, in collaboration with the company, will determine which roles at the company should have access to the command center, hence involvement in the crisis resolution.

Response Action Plans

Develop a plan to congregate all employees who will be involved in managing specific crises. In communication with the client, ourExternal Crisis Management Team will create information flows for members in the chain of command to contact employees who will be involved in the crisis response. Communication can be administered via phone call, text or email in a brief and secure manner.

Curate rules of engagement for employees directly involved in crisis response. Our External Crisis Management Team, in collaboration with the client, will create rules of engagement that employees must follow in crisis situations. The rules will vary per client’s company size and industry, but examples of rules of engagement may outline how employees can communicate regarding the crisis and how to modify their work schedule in order to deal with the crisis. These rules of engagement should be provided to employees in their orientation or in their training processes.

Form a plan on how to appropriately make employees outside of crisis response aware of the crisis, how the company entered a crisis scenario, where the company currently is in the crisis, how to communicate if approached by parties outside of the company like media outlets or external stakeholders, and plans to resolve the crisis.

Resources

Initial discovery to learn about client’s marketing strategy. This includes brandpositioning, target audience, strategic messaging and more. Obtaining a completeunderstanding of a brand’s marketing strategy will set the stage for integration partners,along with conversion goals.

External Crisis Management Plan Review

How we actively address external crisises for our clients

With your crisis management plan already in place, here is how our team actively assists our clients in addressing a crisis:

Diagnose the crisis

Once we have been contacted by your company, our team immediately begins to assess the situation and gather information about the crisis at hand. We generally provide this information to our clients directly after the initial diagnosis has been conducted to ensure effective communication and transparency throughout the event.

Contain the crisis

A well-crafted containment strategy is critical to preventing further damage or chaos from arising from the crisis. Our team includes professional experts with extensive backgrounds in crisis management, including corporate communications, public relations, branding, and more. Additionally, these experts have years of hands-on industry experience managing both minor and major crises, having helped companies of all sizes around the world effectively manage the fallout from negative events.

Respond to the crisis

Once we have a good understanding of the situation, our team will work to present a plan of action that will enable you to take control of the situation and limit the damage as much as possible. Our focus is on helping you to communicate as clearly as possible with your audience during every phase of the crisis - starting immediately with our diagnosis, and continuing all the way through the conclusion of the event. To facilitate this, we have created a number of specialized tools and services that allow us to maintain consistent contact and provide regular updates to our clients in a timely manner.

We offer customized crisis management services to fulfill the needs of brands, corporations, and personalities

As mentioned previously, each of our client's situations is unique and demands a comprehensive approach to ensure that their specific needs are met in the most efficient and effective manner possible. However, the general framework for action outlined above remains very similar in every case. In addition to our traditional services that are centered on analysis and support, we are also able to provide additional assistance based on a client's specific situation or needs. These include:

Pre-crisis consulting

Helping you to prepare your organization to effectively handle a crisis before it occurs. This includes the development of comprehensive protocols and communication strategies to limit damage to your company's reputation in the future.

Crisis response training

This training prepares your crisis management team to handle any escalation of the crisis on an ongoing basis. It typically involves immediate assistance during the early stages of the event until our support team can properly evaluate the situation and develop an appropriate course of action for moving forward. Training includes development of useful strategies for dealing with the media and other important stakeholders, as well as how to properly assess and monitor ongoing issues in a way that will allow you to protect your brand and move forward as quickly as possible after the crisis has ended.

Post-crisis communication plans

Assistance in developing strategies to help you continue communicating with key stakeholders and media even after the crisis is over. This can include ongoing support in the form of press releases, social media posts, and other relevant communications to help repair your brand's image and demonstrate your company's commitment to responsible business practices.

Recovery audits and impact studies

These assessments are useful in providing an objective assessment of the damage incurred by the crisis and developing a detailed plan for making any necessary repairs to your operations to prevent future problems. Our team will work with your leadership and management to ensure that your company is restored to normal operating status as quickly as possible to minimize any adverse effects on your business.

Don’t wait for a crisis to arise. Beat the curve and have defense mechanisms in place.

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