Crisis communication: preventing our own words from becoming a trap

During these last few months and while communicating about the pandemic, we have repeatedly seen certain patterns of communication and amongst them the most common mistake has been that the organization becomes its own enemy by anticipating messages that were not ready to be launched, either because the announced plan was not ready or because they could not specify the concrete actions to be developed.

Whenever there are situations when Crisis Communication needs to be applied, the most important advice we can give organizations and their spokespersons in order to communicate correctly is not to anticipate anything that has not been confirmed and is not clear. Sending those messages could develop into a situation where we may be forced to issue a denial or clarification instead of using that precious time to stop and/or manage the emergency situation at hand. Furthermore, if we give the impression of not being in control of the situation, the consequences are a wear out and loss of credibility (which are the last things we want in a situation like this, naturally prone to a decline in these values), at a crucial time for the consolidation of our image as far as the public opinion is concerned.

When managing risk or crisis situations we cannot afford the impulse to quickly respond to the media – or sometimes the eagerness to be in it – that could make us communicate too early without having even considered the most sensitive questions we are going to be asked soon after.

We understand that our colleagues working for public institutions are familiar with these procedures, but we need to point out that the pandemic has generated a lot, even too much information, and pressure has been extremely high.

CTC Comunicación always recommends companies and organizations to have a Communication Plan for Crisis situations in place, that should include the strategy and the company procedures as well as role definitions within the Crisis Communication Committee, spokespersons training or, included in the action plan tools, pre-drafted documents and releases that would save precious time that can be used to attend other aspects of the crisis or emergency management.

What commonly occurs is that the success in Crisis Communication will depend, to a large extend, on having positioned ourselves as a reliable source of information previously in normal times.

In this context we have observed how some sectors, that as a matter of course ought to have been important players in the current crisis, have not been present in the media. But that is another story we will get back to shortly.

Thank you for staying connected.