Telling Everyone You're OK - A Key Element In Crisis Communications

Have you ever noticed that one of the first side effects of most disaster situations is that the phone lines in the area immediately go down?

I don't know what first crossed your mind when you heard about the Sumatra earthquake and tsunami, but for me it was people's faces.

Steffie, Subandriyo, Eischa, Yuswan, Ibu Hetarihon, and dozens more of my friends made during the 14 months that I lived in Indonesia. I wanted to know if they were ok, if they were directly affected, and most importantly, what I could do to help.

There's a consumer insight here. I believe that the first thing people think about in disasters is how it affects the people they know, or maybe just know of. That's why the phone lines go down - calls to check.

We've talked a great deal about how every company needs a crisis communications plan to handle any kind of crisis. And for most companies, their crisis communications plan doesn't kick into action unless they are directly involved.

Consumer behavior says that's not the way to do it. It says that if there's a crisis in your area, your customers, clients and friends want to know your status...

Even if you're not affected.

Imagine your reaction if you were to receive a note like this:

"As you are aware, this morning a major earthquake and tsunami struck the west coast of Sumatra. While damage reports are still coming in, it appears that loss of life and property will be huge.

"Fortunately, none of our facilities nor employees were directly affected by this disaster. All of our production lines are operating at full capacity, and we see no difficulty in meeting all current and future orders."

It's a simple, informative way to let people know that everything's ok.

And it could help to ensure that the order they were hesitating to send you still arrives.

You could even take this announcement further by announcing that you are sending a crew to the disaster site to assist in rescue and cleanup efforts, too.

How close does a disaster have to strike to trigger this type of communication? That's up to you. But remember that few people pay enough attention to the news reports to know more than the general area where something occurred. On top of that, most people have very little concept of geography. (I've heard many times "Oh, I know someone from the U.S.. Do you know them? They live in Texas." "No, Texas is more than 1000 miles from where I live.")

Conclusion - don't forget to include an "all's well" alert system in your Crisis Communications Plan - it can not only reduce concerns, but it may help to preserve business that you might have otherwise lost.

Need more information on how to develop and implement a Crisis Communications Plan? Pick up a copy of Crisis Communication Planning: Organizing and Completing A Plan That Works. It's a must for every organization!

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Tags: Crisis Communications