How to Create a Crisis Communication Plan that Maintains Trust

The world has weathered plenty of crises in recent years.  

From the COVID-19 pandemic to a simple software update taking out millions of systems around the globe, modern businesses are preparing for every eventuality. 

When your business is weathering a crisis, it can be easy to forget the importance of communication. People need to know what’s going on, how it will affect them, and what you intend to do about it. Your business has a responsibility to gather facts, communicate them with relevant parties, and offer support and guidance. 

That’s where a crisis communication plan comes in. 

In this article, we’ve put together a comprehensive guide on how to create a crisis communication plan that maintains trust in your organization through any catastrophe.

What is a crisis communication plan?

A crisis communication plan is a framework for distributing information during any crisis that affects your business. 

Frameworks are useful tools, especially during times of crisis. When things get chaotic, the last thing your employees need is to be floundering around looking for contact information and furiously searching the web for the best small business phone systems to contact investors on. 

A crisis communication plan is like a nautical map. A crisis can come along like a rogue wave, casting you out onto open waters. Without a map, you risk getting lost.

A business crisis communications plan offers a standardized, repeatable plan of action that can be deployed quickly during a crisis. This plan can help communicate important information to the relevant people, protect your reputation, and maintain business continuity.

What is business continuity?

Business continuity is the act of keeping a business operational through a crisis. It’s important for both the day-to-day running of your business and its reputation amongst customers, employees, and stakeholders.  

To a business, a crisis can mean anything from a data breach to an act of corporate espionage to a tsunami. Business continuity is a plan that gets business operations back to a basic level of functionality after any sort of disruption.

Why you should know how to create a crisis communication plan

If you’re not sure your business needs a crisis communication plan, here are some of the major benefits.

​​​​​​​Protects your reputation

A crisis can impact how people perceive your business.  

For example, a cybersecurity attack might cause investors and customers to lose trust in your ability to protect their data. And how you respond during a natural disaster can show your community members that you have their backs. 

Clear communication during a crisis is vital to protecting your reputation, and how you communicate that information is vital to people taking notice.  

Crisis communication lets you take control of the narrative, offer guidance, put people’s minds at ease, and apologize if needed. In the cybersecurity attack example, it would be wise to outline to the public the steps you are taking to rectify the breach and ensure it doesn’t happen again, such as reviewing your essential privacy protocols to safeguard client data. 

Creates a framework for quick deployment

Nobody wants to be stumbling around in the dark during a crisis. A crisis communications plan gives all relevant parties a framework for quickly deploying a communications plan of action during moments of chaos. 

Keeps messaging consistent

During a crisis, people rely on consistency. If your messaging is all mixed up, you risk looking unprofessional, untrustworthy, and uncaring.  

A crisis communication plan ensures consistency across all messaging and channels. This helps to protect your business’ reputation and reassure key stakeholders that you’re handling things competently. 

How to create a crisis communication plan that maintains trust

So, you’re here to learn how to create a crisis communication plan. The following steps will outline how to do this.

1)   Decide where to host your crisis communication plan

Before you start crafting your plan, it’s important to give it a home. Or, for extra security, a few different homes. 
 
You can:

• Create a digital copy: type up a document outlining your crisis communication plan. This can be hosted locally on each machine in your company and on cloud networks.
• Print: if power or networks go down, liberal distribution of printed copies kept in multiple safe locations is vital.
• Host on a cloud network: as well as keeping copies on hardware and on paper, using a cloud provider gives remote workers access as long as networks are up.
• Back up on an external device: creating backups on USBs or external hard drives offers an extra layer of protection if local machines go down.

2)   Identify types of crises and determine your risk levels

It might sound obvious, but defining which types of crisis you’re likely to encounter ahead of time can help you tailor your crisis communication plan. 

You’ll want to prepare for each type of crisis:

• Natural disasters: this includes earthquakes, tornados, etc. that might cause power outages, network disruptions, and danger to people.
• Corporate: internal crises such as espionage and sabotage, as well as key personnel changes like a CEO stepping down.
• PR: A PR crisis includes your business or its key personnel becoming embroiled in legally or ethically dubious behavior.
• Cybersecurity: pertains to both malicious cyberattacks and accidental data breaches.
• Technological: includes software or hardware failures.
• Financial: announcing bankruptcies or store closures.
• Workplace: workplace disruptions such as a disgruntled employee becoming violent or strike action.
• Contagion: local and global disease outbreaks. 

Perform risk assessments to determine which crises you should prepare a plan for.  

For example, factors like reliance on large amounts of technology can leave you more vulnerable to an IT lifecycle management crisis. But if you operate in a location that never suffers earthquakes, an earthquake crisis management plan isn’t relevant. 

Or if your CEO is a notorious social media troll, you might want to prepare for some bad PR.

3)   Define a minimum level of business operations

Business continuity means defining which functions need to be operational to avoid disruptions to customers, employees, and key stakeholders. Understanding this can help you create a more comprehensive crisis communication plan. 

For example, a financial institution is responsible for securing people’s financial data. In the case of a cybersecurity event, you’ll need to reassure customers that their money is safe, meaning your business continuity plan is all about maintaining that level of security.

4)   Add relevant contact information

Your crisis communications plan should include contact information for employees, customers, stakeholders, higher-ups, investors, and media outlets.  

Try to gather as much contact information as possible—email addresses, phone numbers, social media accounts, and even physical addresses. If you have CRM software, many providers can integrate with your phone systems, like Hubspot VoIP integration. 

This ensures you can communicate with whoever is relevant to the specific crisis. You can also later use this information if you need to launch your recovery strategy to win back unhappy customers.

5)   Establish the right communication channels

How you distribute information is dependent on who you’re communicating with and the type of crisis you’re weathering. 

Here are the channels to consider:

• Emails
• SMS messaging 
• Emergency SMS alerts if networks are down
• Call center software for mass customer contact and support
• A dedicated spokesperson
• Phone calls
• A press conference
• A press release
• News websites and outlets
• Social media channels 

Make sure you have multiple communication channels open. If a natural disaster disrupts power and internet access, emergency alerts will be more useful than email.

6)   Establish a chain of command

A clear chain of command lets everyone know who they should contact if they identify a crisis situation. This hierarchy helps to streamline the flow of information when it counts. 

The person at the top will depend on your business, its structure, and if you’ve appointed a dedicated crisis team. It might be the CEO of your company, or it could be someone you’ve appointed. This person should have the authority to disseminate information to other relevant parties in the chain.

7)   Use templates and examples

If you’re not sure how to start writing your crisis communication plan, a template or example can help. 

A web search will provide a variety of free templates. If you want to see a crisis communication plan in action, here is an example of a business doing it right and a business doing it wrong.

Chipotle

In 2015, Chipotle was responsible for an E.Coli outbreak that spanned several states. 

In response to this crisis, Chipotle quickly sent out a press release and responded on social media. But they went a step further. Chipotle’s founder Steve Ells took out a full-page ad in the Boston Globe to showcase the company's new food safety plan. He even went on the Today Show to apologize.

The company’s transparency and dedication to righting its wrongs helped to save Chipotle’s reputation through this crisis.

United Airlines

In 2017, a 69-year-old doctor was forcibly and brutally removed from a United Airlines Flight. The whole incident was caught on multiple phone cameras, immediately going viral. 

A brand’s worst nightmare, right?

However, instead of a sincere and apologetic crisis communication response, the company’s CEO made a statement to downplay the incident.  

To add more fuel to the fire, he penned an email to his staff commending their actions and blaming the passenger for being “belligerent”. This email was then leaked to CNBC. 

Eventually, the CEO apologized, but the damage to the brand’s reputation was already done. 

Creating a crisis communication plan for better business continuity

A crisis communication plan is an important part of managing disruptions to your business. Developing a good crisis communication plan will allow you to protect your reputation and facilitate the quick deployment of important information to employees, customers, and stakeholders. It also helps to prevent misunderstandings that might cause further disruption. All in all, it is a repeatable roadmap to successfully implementing crisis communication. 

​​​​​​​Use this article to create a crisis communication plan today and prepare your business for any eventuality.