Your business is thriving, operations are running smoothly, and your brand’s reputation is solid. But crises don’t always come with warning signs. A cyberattack could compromise sensitive customer data, a supply chain issue might halt production, or a viral social media post could put your company under scrutiny. In those critical moments, every second counts. The way you respond can determine whether your business recovers swiftly or suffers lasting reputational damage.
A crisis communications strategy is as essential for your business as an insurance policy is for your home. You hope you’ll never need it, and you’ll only truly appreciate its value if the unthinkable happens.
The cost of inaction
According to a This is Money report, 7 in 10 British homes are underinsured. It’s a worrying statistic, especially when the cost of rebuilding or replacing often skyrockets after disaster strikes. Unfortunately, many businesses take the same gamble with crisis communications.
This lack of preparedness mirrors a broader psychology of risk aversion: why spend time and resources on something you might never need? But the consequences of being caught unprepared can be devastating. Without a plan, businesses risk being overwhelmed by misinformation, reputational damage, and stakeholder mistrust – all of which can compound the negative impacts of a crisis, with potentially devastating results for your reputation and revenue.
The global permacrisis
The range of potential crises businesses face today is broader than ever. From natural disasters and extreme weather to technology failures and cyberattacks, the speed and scale of disruption are accelerating and increasingly difficult to keep up with.
Artificial intelligence (AI), for example, has become a double-edged sword. While generative AI offers incredible efficiencies, it also introduces risks through mis and disinformation such as deepfakes, which can be devastating for a brand’s reputation. Add societal issues, geopolitical tensions, and environmental crises into the mix, and it’s clear that organisations need a crisis management toolkit that’s robust, adaptable, and most importantly, well-rehearsed.
.Always-on crisis comms
Today, there is nowhere to hide in a crisis. News travels globally in seconds, and public perception is often shaped by the first narrative to emerge, no matter where or who it comes from. Without solid strategic preparation, businesses risk losing control of the story and their reputation. A poorly handled crisis can cripple a company, especially if stakeholders lose confidence.
Effective, consistent communications can help turn potential disasters into opportunities for transparency and trust-building, and preparation is at the heart of this. Crisis comms should never be purely reactive.
How to build your crisis communications strategy
While investing in a crisis communications plan can help business leaders prepare for external worst-case scenarios, it also helps demonstrate internal leadership, accountability, and foresight, ensuring the whole business is primed to get back to normality when the time is right. Here’s how to start:
- Create a toolkit
Create a comprehensive crisis communications strategy toolkit that outlines key actions, stakeholders, and messaging for the various potential crisis scenarios that are relevant to your business. Include pre-prepared statements and a list of spokespeople. Ensure the plan is agile and adaptable to a range of possible issues, from tech outages to natural disasters.
- Engage at all levels
The C-suite aren’t the only people who must be prepared for a crisis. Everyone in the organisation should understand the basics of your crisis response plan. Journalists may reach out to anyone for comment, so multi-level training and clear communication are essential. Keeping your teams in the loop can also speed up the process of crisis recovery, as it keeps morale high, and ensures staff feel valued and trusted.
- Test and review regularly
A plan is only as good as its execution. Run simulations to spot gaps and refine processes. Review your crisis response plan regularly to make sure the strategy remains applicable to all foreseeable risks.
The value of empathy
How a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) acts during a crisis can impact long-term company value, even after things calm down. For example, when the Covid-19 pandemic hit, CEOs who showed empathy and humanity during conference calls fared better financially. A study by the University of Cambridge found that each heartfelt, human-focused statement made by a CEO was tied to a 2.49% boost in cumulative returns. For a typical company in the study, worth $3.17 billion, that translated to about $78.9 million in preserved value during a turbulent time.
Think of a crisis communications plan as a reputational insurance policy. While you hope you’ll never need it, the peace of mind it provides is invaluable. Don’t wait until the house is on fire to take action.
To find out more about GOLD79’s unique approach to crisis communications, get in touch with shine@gold79.co.uk today.