In B2B, you must contact various stakeholders Develop during crises. These include partners, clients, and any other agency or government entities related to your industry. Keep an accessible contact list on hand to promptly reach these external stakeholders and officials when a crisis hits.
Similarly preparing a media list and messaging
in advance will help you quickly modify and share information. Your messaging should stick to the facts, remain transparent about what happened, outline next steps, and provide an opportunity or contact information to field questions.
Ensure your messages are received by using multiple communication channels. This includes sending press releases or media alerts as necessary, creating a landing page with frequent updates, identifying appropriate social media channels, and creating email content. Internal communications are also important to keep employees informed.
Create a crisis comms asset folder.
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Maintain organization by housing your crisis comms plan, contact lists, messaging, and other relevant information in one folder that is accessible to your crisis team. Drop additional assets into this folder as you collaborate and finalize them.
5. Practice, practice, practice. Media training will play a major role in preparing your crisis team ahead of time. Ideally, your designated spokesperson will be a familiar face for contacts and should feel comfortable speaking to the media and/or large groups of people.
As we learned from the OpenAI example
your team should know how to tactfully respond to difficult questions. Phrases like “I’ll check that information and get back to you,” and “Let me confirm with my team,” or even “We’re working on those details” may not deliver the responses people are looking for, but they provide your team with a chance to craft a better response in the future without losing credibility.
Public relations professionals will typically create briefing documents ahead of interviews to provide relevant information about the journalist, outlet, and expected topics of conversation. These briefing docs will usually include a list of key points to mention during the interview, along with potential questions and approved responses. Ensure every executive and leader at your company is aligned on messaging by providing them with a similar list of questions and responses they should know during and after a crisis.
While your spokesperson may be ready
to speak to the public, the rest of your team must understand the process of working during a crisis. Run a few practice drills with your crisis management team to ensure your team knows what to do and when. This also gives you a chance to iron out any problems.
6. Review and adjust. The lifecycle of a crisis may seem long while you experience it, but it will eventually end. Once the dust settles, meet with your crisis management team to discuss what did and didn’t work, making adjustments for future potential crises.
Whether your business operates in crisis mode for a few days or several months, be sure to maintain constant communication with your stakeholders, the press, and anyone impacted by the crisis far into the future. This will help rebuild your brand’s trust and credibility.
Related read: Crisis Communication 101 for B2B Companies—with Step by Step Crisis Reaction Instructions
Other Examples of Businesses Facing Crises
Reviewing instances of good and bad responses during crises can help businesses create their crisis communications plans.
Spicy (Chicken) Nugget of Wisdom
In one major example from earlier this year, fast food chain restaurant Wendy’s announced it would experiment with dynamic pricing. This caused backlash on social media and an avalanche of media coverage.
Dynamic pricing refers to changing the price of goods or services in response to demand. It isn’t even a new concept. For example, airlines have used dynamic pricing models for years, although most people don’t notice until they need to book a last-minute flight. And more recently, dynamic ticket pricing for concerts and events reached a boiling point, angering fans across music genres and leading lawmakers to get involved by proposing bills to address the issue.
The problem for Wendy’s wasn’t in the dynamic pricing; it was the media running away with the wrong messaging. When Wendy’s said it would implement surge pricing like Uber, customers became furious at the idea that their food could cost more.
Dynamic ≠ surge. Wendy’s backtracked and tried
to add some clarity to the situation, emphasizing the model they wanted to explore was dynamic pricing, not surge pricing. Similar to happy hours or BOGO deals, this meant prices might go up during peak hours, but they could also go down when demand was low. Unfortunately for Wendy’s, the public’s perception got ahead of them and created an entirely different narrative.
A (Dark) Web of Data
Managing customer data in the era the area code 646 is an overlay of all things digital is a daunting task, especially when millions of customers are involved.
In 2021, hackers claimed customer information was stolen from AT&T. Fast forward years later to March 2024, and that personal data was found on the dark web. This information included the social security numbers and account information of 65.4 million former customers and 7.6 million current account holders.
As part of its response, AT&T informed
regulators and its current customers of the data breach, sharing information about the incident and describing what data was aob directory dy leads compromised. The company also outlined its response, which included resetting passcodes for those 7.6 million affected. Additionally, all 73 million current and former customers will receive one year of free credit-monitoring services.