CRISES MANAGEMENT

Every organization is vulnerable to crisis. If you are not prepared, you will incur
more damage. The first step in crisis preparedness is mostly a failure to address
the many communications issues related to crisis or disaster response.
Experience of the past has shown that organizational leadership often does not
understand that in the absence of adequate internal and external
communications:

 Operational response will break down.

 Stakeholders will not know what is happening and quickly become
confused, angry, and react negatively
 The organization will be perceived as not capable and negligent
 The impact will be on the financial side and affect the reputation of the
organisation severely.
 Repairing loss occurring out of such damages takes many years at times.
 Financial losses can be recovered to some extent but damage to
reputation is irreparable at times.

The basic steps of effective crisis communications are not difficult, but they
require advance work in order to minimize damage.

The 10 Steps of Crisis Communications

PRE-CRISIS

1. Anticipate Crisis

If you are being proactive and preparing for crisis, gather your Crisis
Communications Team for intensive brainstorming sessions on all the potential
crises that could occur at your organization.

There are at least two immediate benefits to this exercise:

 You may realize that some of the situations are preventable by simply
modifying existing methods of operation.
 You can begin to think about possible responses, about best-case/worst-
case scenarios, etc. It is better to deal now rather than when under the
pressure of an actual crisis.

In some cases, of course, you know a crisis will occur because you’re planning
to create it — e.g., to lay off employees, or to make a major acquisition.
This assessment process should lead to creating a Crisis Response Plan that is
an exact fit for your organization, one that includes both operational and
communications components. The remaining steps, below, outline some of the
major topics that should be addressed in the communications section of the
plan.

2. Identify Your Crisis Communications Team

A small team of senior executives should be identified to serve as your

organization’s Crisis Communications Team. Ideally, the organization’s CEO
should lead the team, with the firm’s top public relations executive and legal
counsel as his / her chief advisers. If the in-house PR executive does not have
sufficient crisis communications expertise, he or/she may choose to retain an
agency or independent consultant with that specialty. Other team members are
mostly the heads of major organizational divisions, as any situation that rises to
the level of being a crisis affects the entire organization.

3. Identify and Train Spokespersons

Spokesperson Response

Any organization should ensure, via appropriate policies and training, that only
authorized spokespersons should speak for it. This is particularly important
during a crisis. Each crisis communications team should have people who have
been pre-screened, and trained, to be the lead and/or backup spokespersons for
different channels of communications. If any crisis has to be brought in control
it is necessary to carefully transmit any information to outside world. It is
important to choose a good communicator as their actions will influence how
your key stakeholders will react to the situation. If they can make your company
look human and your mistakes appear manageable, that will play a major role in
maintaining stakeholder support.

All organizational spokespersons during a crisis situation must have:

 The right skills

 The right position
 The right training

The Right Skills

Many senior-level corporate executives stand up in front of a 1,000-person
conference audience without a fear and perform beautifully – but get a virtual
lockjaw if a camera was pointed their way for a one-on-one interview.

These days, the spokesperson responsibilities invariably include online

communication, and social media as it is a very easy place to make a mistake.

Matching potential spokespersons’ skills with their assignments as a member of

the Crisis Communications Team is critical.

The Right Position

Some spokespersons may naturally excel at all forms of crisis communications

– traditional media, social media, B2B, internal, etc. Others may be more
limited. Only certain types of highly sensitive crisis (e.g., ones involving
significant loss of life) require the chief executive be the lead spokesperson .

The fact is that some chief executives are brilliant organizational leaders but not
very effective in-person communicators. The decision about who should speak
is made after a crisis breaks – but the pool of potential spokespersons should
be identified and trained in advance.

Not only are spokespersons needed for media communications, but for all types
and forms of communications, internal and external. This includes on-camera,
at a public meeting, at employee meetings, etc. Only 1 person cannot make
decisions about so many different types of spokespersons while “under fire.”

4. Spokesperson Training

Two typical quotes from well-intentioned executives summarize the reason why
the spokespersons should receive professional training in how to speak to the
media:

“I talked to that nice reporter for over an hour and he didn’t use the most
important news about my organization.”

“I’ve done a lot of public speaking. I won’t have any trouble at that public
hearing.”

In both examples quoted they thought they knew how to talk to the press.
They didn’t learn, in advance, the critical differences between proactive
PR, which focuses on promoting your organization, and crisis
communications, which focuses on preserving your organization.
Misunderstanding and or misinterpreting information about the organization as
stakeholders or the media is very common during a crises. It is the responsibility
of the spokesperson’ team to minimize the chance of that happening.

Spokesperson training teaches you to be prepared, to be ready to respond in a

way that does not lead to misinterpretation on the part of stakeholders.

5. Establish Notification and Monitoring Systems

Notification Systems

In earlier days the only way to reach someone quickly was by a single phone or
fax number, assuming they were there to receive it…

Today, we need to have – immediately at hand – the means to reach our internal
and external stakeholders using multiple modalities. Many of us have several
phone numbers, more than one email address, and can receive SMS (text)
messages or faxes. Instant Messenger programs, either public or proprietary, are
also very popular for business and personal use. Audio and video messages via
email too can be sent. Also there is social media. This may be the best/fastest
way to reach some of our stakeholders, but setting up social media accounts for
this purpose and developing a number of followers/friends/contacts on the
various social media platforms (e.g., Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+) is not
something you can do after a crisis breaks, because probability of any news of
a crisis spreads faster and goes more out of control on social media.

It is absolutely essential to plan before any crisis, to establish notification

systems that will allow you to rapidly reach your stakeholders using multiple
modalities. The Virginia Tech campus shooting catastrophe, where email was
the sole means of alerting students initially, proves that using any single
modality can make a crisis worse. Some of us may be on email constantly,
others not so. Some of us receive our cell phone calls or messages quickly,
some not. If you use more than one to reach your stakeholders, the chances are
much greater that the message will go through.

For a long time, those of us in crisis management relied on the old-fashioned

“phone tree” and teams of callers to track people down. Fortunately, today there
is technology – offered by multiple vendors for rent or purchase – that can be
set up to automatically start contacting all stakeholders in your pre-established
database and keep trying to reach them until they confirm (e.g., by pressing a
certain number on a phone keypad) that the message has been received.
Technology you can trigger with a single call or email.
Monitoring Systems

Intelligence gathering is an essential component of both crisis prevention and

crisis response.

Keeping track of what is being said social media, in traditional media, by the
organisation’s employees, customers, and other stakeholders often makes us
aware of a “trend” about what people opine about your organisation. If the
voice of this trend sounds “negative” then that, if unchecked or ignored can turn
into a crisis.

Also monitoring feedback from all stakeholders during a crisis situation allows
you to accurately adapt to a strategy and tactics.

The monitoring systems should be established in advance. For traditional and

social media, Google Alerts are the no-cost favourite.There are a variety of paid
monitoring services that provide not only monitoring, but also the ability to
report results in a number of formats. Monitoring other stakeholders means
training personnel who have front-line contact with stakeholders (e.g., Customer
Service) to report what they are hearing or seeing to decision-makers on your
Crisis Communications Team.

6. Identify and Know Your Stakeholders

Who are the internal and external stakeholders that matter to your organization?
The employees are most important audience, because every employee in a way
is a PR representative and crisis manager for your organization whether you
want them to be or not! As they meet people within and outside the
organisation.

Sometimes crises can be resolved on the individual level before they reach a
viral tipping point. For these cases, it helps to create an escalation system within
your customer service team that can diffuse the issue before it gets out of hand.

Organisations can have specialists who work on complex or time-sensitive

cases. When customers have needs that require additional attention, the experts
intervene to assist. This helps the service representative manage a tricky
situation and ensures a more delightful experience for our customers.

In crises all stakeholders will be talking about you to others hence it is up to you
to ensure that they receive the right messages you would like them to repeat
elsewhere.
7. Develop Holding Statements

An example of holding statements by a hotel chain- their properties were hit by

a natural disaster, before the organization’s headquarters received any hard
factual information, they put out foll statements:

“We have implemented our crisis response plan, which places the highest
priority on the health and safety of our guests and staff.”

“Our thoughts are with those who were in harm’s way, and we hope that they
are well.”

“We will be supplying additional information when it is available and posting it

on our website.”

The organization’s Crisis Communications Team should regularly review

holding statements to determine if they require revision and/or whether
statements for other scenarios should be developed.

POST-CRISIS

8. Assess the Crisis Situation

Reacting without adequate information is a bad situation “shoot first and ask
questions afterwards”. However, if you’ve done all of the above first, it’s a
“simple” matter of having the Crisis Communications Team on the receiving
end of information coming in from your team members, ensuring the right type
of information is being provided so you can proceed with determining the
appropriate response.

Assessing the gravity or depth of crisis situation is, the first crisis
communications step you cannot take in advance. If you have not prepared in
advance, your reaction will be delayed. Also a hastily created crisis
communications strategy and team are never as efficient as those planned and
rehearsed in advance.

9. Finalize and Adapt Key Messages

With holding statements available as a starting point, the Crisis

Communications Team must continue developing the crisis-specific messages
required for any given situation. The team already knows, categorically, what
type of information its stakeholders are looking for. What should those
stakeholders know about this crisis? Keep it simple. Have no more than three
main messages that go to all stakeholders and, as necessary, some audience-
specific messages for individual groups of stakeholders. Different forms of
media will require messages according to its need. For example, crisis
messaging on Twitter often relies on sharing links to an outside page where a
longer message is displayed, a must because of the platform’s 140 character
limit.

10. Post-Crisis Analysis

After the crisis the question must be asked, “What did we learn from this?”

A formal analysis of what was done right, what was done wrong, what could be
done better next time and how to improve various elements of crisis
preparedness is another must-do activity for any Crisis Communications Team.
A solid in-house brainstorming session also can do the job.

“It Can’t Happen To Us”

When a healthy organization’s CEO or CFO looks at the cost of preparing a

crisis communications plan, either as a heavy investment of in-house time or
retention of an outside professional for a substantial fee, it is tempting for them
to fantasize “it can’t happen to us” or “if it happens to us, we can handle it
relatively easily.”

Thousands of organizations hit by natural and man-made disasters have suffered

far more damage than would have occurred with a fully developed crisis
communications plan in place.

Gradually organizations worldwide are finally getting serious about crisis

preparedness, whether we are talking about crisis communications, disaster
response or business continuity. Certainly, client demand for advance
preparation has increased extensively in the past decade. Still 90 percent of
American organizations remain either completely unprepared or significantly
under-prepared for crisis.

Organisations should choose to be part of the prepared minority. The

stakeholders will appreciate it…
Crisis Scenario Examples

Some of the most common types of crises include:

 Financial- Financial loss such as announcing a bankruptcy or store closures.

 Personnel- Changes to staff that may affect operations or reputation such as
employee furloughs, layoffs, or controversial behaviour.
 Organizational- Misconduct or wrongdoing as a result of organizational practices.
 Technological- Technological failure that results in outages causing reduced
functionality or functionality loss.
 Natural- Natural crisis that necessitates an announcement or change of procedure.
For example, defining safety precautions amid a health crisis.
 Confrontation - Discontent individuals confront an organization as a result of unmet
needs or demands.
 Workplace Violence - Violence is committed by a current or former employee
against other employees.
 Crisis of Malevolence - A business uses criminal or illegal means to destabilize,
harm, extort, or destroy a competitor.

In addition, anything that could stall or halt business continuity is a good example of a crisis
that will require immediate communication with customers and/or the public.

CARE – Our customers are our utmost priority. Customer service is at the top of our
corporate values.

COMMITMENT – In times of crises, we view communications as an absolute necessity. It is

essential to provide relevant, factual, updated information to stakeholders, utilizing media
across all platforms.

COMPETENCY – is important. Customers and stakeholders demand value for services and
it’s important they know that the company knows what it is doing, and that is solving the
problem or crisis the quickest way possible. A competent, credible representative speaking to
them via media is crucial.

COMMUNITY – With or without a crisis, relationship-building should be given importance.

There are a million channels where new communities sprout daily nowadays.

CONTINUITY –A continued process of anticipating crisis and planning in advance should be

done then facing new ones won’t be very challenging. Never stop monitoring, planning,
anticipating for the next crisis.
CASE STUDY: SUMMER SUPPLY SHORTFALL OF 2015

The case study shared here is about the power supply shortfall threat that Meralco
(Phillipines) faced in the summer of 2015. The Department of Energy (DOE) warned the
public that the whole Luzon region will experience 7-week brownouts in the summer months,
due to a power supply shortfall. Add an increase in electricity rates to that situation and it was
undoubtedly, a crisis situation.

This was an opportune time to put the 5Cs in motion.

First, we showed we CARE.

We put a communications plan in motion, anchored on empowering our customers and all
stakeholders with information on how each of us can help in easing the supply shortage.

We empowered our COMMUNITIES with solutions.

Meralco customized approaches for different communities- for business customers, a

demand-side management program was identified and propagated. For residential
customers, an energy efficiency campaign via mass media and social media was put in place,
for our homeowners to learn and implement in their own residences.

We brought forward our COMMITMENT to solve the crisis.

The crisis called for an integrated effort across all involved sectors, and that was showcased
via consistent, unified communications, in partnership with the Philippine government, and
business and media groups. The Meralco communications team also did not waste any
opportunity to propagate the measures being undertaken – from press interviews to creative
content development, months before summer even starts.

We built on our individual and group COMPETENCIES and lived up to our mission to be
an enabler.

As the biggest electricity distribution utility, Meralco is also the go-to resource for
consumption management information. The summer supply threat was the proper context to
build on this, which Meralco utilized via creating programs that put forward demand-side
management and energy efficiency.

Lastly, Meralco recognized that Crisis Communications is a continuing process.

Meralco started the summer crisis communication campaign several months before the
summer season began, and continued the months after, up until the supply became stable.

Energy efficiency is also still widely communicated today, as we rally on with empowering
solutions.

The communication efforts for the summer crisis campaign was well-received in the local
industry, winning a Gold Anvil at the PRSP Anvil Awards and a Merit award at the IABC
Quill Awards.
On the international front, the campaign won in the prestigious PR Week Awards Asia 2016
in Hong Kong, as the first and only Philippine Gold Winner in Issues Management & Crisis
Communications category.

The summer crisis campaign also bested other cases from Asia Pacific at The Gold Standard
Awards for Issues Management & Crisis Communications.

This was also a key contributor to the Meralco Public Information Office win as the first-
ever PRSP Anvil Awards PR Team of the Year – a feat I so often say as the greatest
achievement in my almost 30 years in the industry. Thank you again PRSP, for this
recognition.

Let me conclude by itemizing the 5Cs once again… in times of crises, show you CARE.
COMMIT to resolve the task at hand. Build on your COMPETENCIES and showcase them.
Strengthen and grow your COMMUNITIES. And CONTINUE learning from each crisis
encountered.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------