Crisis? What crisis?

Every day brings a fresh batch of crisis situations, happening to businesses and organisations of all shapes and sizes, so it's no point thinking it'll never happen to yours.

Today's offerings include an execution, fraud, breach of duty of care, fire, massacre, trade pacts, taxes, raging hormones, social media posts, loss of drinking water through burst main pipes and a plethora of other situations. 

Depending where you work, these can range from murder, drugs raids, to fat cat salaries, food safety, outbreaks of disease, petty theft to a closed sign on a shop when it should be open, and everything in between.

So it makes sense to have a proper Crisis PR Management Policy on the shelf for when you do need it. This will cover who's in charge - and there should only be one person in charge when a crisis hits - to, if it's a housing issue for example, where people should be temporarily housed. If it's the drinking water case above, how long will it take to repair and what will you do to make people's lives run smoothly in the meantime?

Your policy needs to cover who does what, who says what and why, and who is going to investigate the situation and speak to the media. If you don't plan for this sort of eventuality, you can expect (in the worst case scenario) journalists to be camped outside your premises or even your home, waiting for the slightest glimpse of you and that's not very nice at all.

Make sure you regularly brief the media, if that's the appropriate action, and let them know when the next briefing will be. Even if it's to say you can't give any update, it's still communicating which is what people want in times of crisis. How many times do you hear that airlines haven't kept passengers in the loop while they spend many hours delayed without any information? It's relatively simple to avoid this, keep your customers informed and keep them customers in the future.

You'll also need to connect your policy to your Business Continuity Plan. This will ensure your business will carry on as seamlessly as possible if, for example, your premises are no longer available to use (through flood, fire, vandalism, riots etc). Where will your team go to work? How will they communicate with your customers? Mobile phones, social media?

All this needs careful planning and prior preparation. The odds of you being kidnapped and held hostage may be slightly lower than a four-hour power cut, but it's always better to think ahead and be prepared!