How to manage a crisis

In the public sector, managing a crisis effectively and efficiently through open and honest communication is absolutely vital for maintaining public trust, especially in a time when trust is already at an all-time low. Only 14% of respondents to a recent Electoral Commission survey said they trust politicians.   

You work hard to build engagement with your communications so that people listen to, and act on, your messages about all sorts of things. You want to be a trusted voice and source of information. And how you communicate with citizens in a crisis goes a long way in helping cement that reputation as a trusted voice. In an emergency, communities that rely on your services daily will look to you for advice, news, updates, and in some cases, a simple ‘we’re sorry’. 

Crises can vary from potentially life threatening situations, especially for the blue light and health sectors, to a raft of unpleasant comments on a social media post. And we know that crisis comms and emergency comms aren’t the same thing. There’s a big difference between a life-threatening flood and an embarrassing post on X by your chief executive.

However, no matter how big or small the issue, it’s always important to follow the same process. 

Effectively managing communications in a crisis also means your organisation is more likely to hit business objectives. If a health crisis (such as COVID-19) is handled effectively, this will lead to better overall health in the community. If a fire breaks out in a housing estate and your crisis comms is effective, families will feel supported through a difficult time and communities will be safer.

Given the ongoing changing political landscape, and in light of recent events with M&S, The Co-op, and Harrods, we’ve put together some solid advice to make sure if (and when) some kind of crisis occurs, you know how to deal with it, tackle misinformation, and keep your communities informed and safe. 

An example of this comes from Reading Borough Council who were able to focus on reassuring the general public during the COVID-19 pandemic and a horrific terrorist attack in 2020 by managing misinformation and informing people of the facts. 

Northumbria Police are also an excellent example of crisis management done right as they were able to deliver effective and proactive responses to riots in Sunderland and Newcastle city centres.

And, you never know, you could come out the other side better off than when you started. A very well known example of this is when KFC famously ran out of chicken and managed to turn it into a bold, honest, and tongue in cheek campaign. Here’s how you can do it too.

Have a plan

Your organisation will have a crisis management plan, which should be reviewed regularly and kept up to date. Your plan will be bespoke to your organisation but it should: 

• Outline possible crises
• Identify who the key stakeholders are
• Define roles and responsibilities 
• Establish how your business will communicate during this time
• Provide a step by step plan of the different ways you will respond in different scenarios. 

A dedicated incident management team (IMT) could be in place when a crisis emerges for your organisation, and it should be clear with the command structure who on that team has the authority to make the decisions.

You should have a detailed communication plan that sits within this crisis management plan, but can also act as a standalone plan – after all, some comms crises may not constitute an organisational crisis. 

We like the GCS Crisis Comms Planning Guide – their STOP checklist sets out the elements for a robust plan. 

Messages, lines and spokespeople

The next thing to do is to prepare key messages, templates and lines that are pre-approved and can be ready to go as soon as a crisis hits. The faster and more consistent the communication is with the outside world, the easier it is to take control of the narrative and become a trusted source of information. Similarly to this, make sure you have dedicated people who will be responsible for speaking to the media and other stakeholders and ensure that they’ve had the correct training and have access to the approved messaging.

Listen

To help pre-empt a crisis, set up tools that will help you see what’s coming, such as social listening and media monitoring. These tools will ‘listen’ to comments and posts on social media as well as news outlets and other relevant channels. It will also compile them into themes and sentiment, making it easy to spot when something isn’t going your way and give you a head start in preparing messaging and getting it out to the public. 

It’s also a good idea to consider how you’ll manage your social accounts. With Orlo, our company Lockdown Feature enables Orlo admins to lockdown your accounts. This means that all scheduled content won’t be published, and instead will be sent for approval giving you the opportunity to make any changes, or just leave it paused until the crisis has passed.

• Have a plan
• Get key messages drafted and approved
• Listen and get an early heads-up

Your comms priority in a crisis should be taking control of the narrative. The longer you remain silent, the faster misinformation will spread and the higher your chances of reputational damage become.

Act quickly and decisively. Make sure your communications are transparent and honest. Using a platform with a shared inbox can make sure your responses are  accurate, timely, empathetic, and consistent, which will enable your team to meet public expectations: 32% of customers expect a social media answer within 30 minutes. 

A content calendar where users can schedule messages that can be approved before being published can also help with this. This will work to avoid speculation and can help to remind people that there are real humans working to fix the issues behind the scenes. 

Consider the different ways misinformation can be spread. We know that social media comments can take off in a flash, but remember other ways of communicating. AI can produce fake imagery that is scarily accurate and can add fuel to the fire, so it’s important to take into account ways of fact checking images as well. 

Don’t be afraid to correct rumours to stop them from spreading and remember to keep your messaging consistent. It’s important to note that correcting false information can take up as much time as pushing out separate comms messaging, so this is worth considering when putting your crisis team together. 

Make sure to use multiple channels to get accurate updates out to the public. Social media is great for speed, but don’t forget website updates, press releases, email and directly speaking to people where you can. 

Try to get the press and media onside as soon as possible. This will help stop the spread of misinformation, but will also ensure if they themselves publish something that is incorrect, you’ll already have a strong relationship with them and can speak to them about getting their article corrected. All of these channels will ensure that your messages reach multiple different audiences and that again, you are able to control the narrative proactively. 

• Control the narrative
• Act quickly
• Give everyone visibility of messaging
• Be human
• Correct rumours and misinformation
• All channels, not just social
• Make the media your friend

Evaluate

It’s important to have a debrief, evaluation, or analysis of how the situation was managed and to identify what worked well and what can be improved upon. Using a tool to easily and quickly see social media results in one place will make your life easier as you’ll be able to present real evidence of what worked well and what could have landed better. Make sure these improvements are noted and added into the crisis management plan for next time and update any processes that need to be amended.

Keep communicating

This bit is key to maintaining any trust that you’ve built with your audience before and during the crisis. If you said you’d do something off the back of the crisis, make sure you do it, and most importantly, make sure you tell your citizens that you’ve done it. A simple ‘you said, we did’ format works well for this and can do wonders for making your community feel as though you take their lives and experience of your service seriously.

Learn

And finally, learn from this experience. Is this something that will happen again? Are there any ways you can prevent it from happening again? How can you communicate better with your communities next time? All of these questions will help to strengthen your organisation’s resilience and ensure you’re prepared for any future challenges. 

Having an audience that is engaged on social media and trusts your organisation is vital when it comes to achieving your desired outcomes, so by proactively planning, responding and learning from crises, companies can mitigate potential reputational damage and come out the other side stronger.

Toolkits & Templates

• Local Government Association – Communications Hub:
  An resource offering practical guidance, case studies and tools to help councils engage effectively with residents, employees and stakeholders.
  https://www.local.gov.uk/our-support/comms-hub-communications-support
• UK Government Communication Service (GCS) – Crisis communication framework:
  Practical tools and templates for communication professionals: how to plan, develop and implement an effective response during a crisis, drawing on best practices across the public sector.
  https://gcs.civilservice.gov.uk/guidance/media/crisis-communication//
  
• NHS England – Emergency Preparedness, Resilience and Response (EPRR) Resources:
  Includes communications advice and links to incident response protocols.
  https://www.england.nhs.uk/ourwork/eprr/