What exactly is crisis comms?

When is Comms not Comms? When it’s Crisis Comms.

That headline might sound a bit odd to anyone who hasn’t worked in comms or hasn’t had to deal with a client crisis – but it’s true. Sometimes crisis comms is the art of choosing whether to communicate or not, and what, or how little to communicate.

Crisis comms is a standalone expertise. It’s a skill that many communications professionals luckily don’t have to learn or don’t have to deal with, but working in an agency and dealing with multiple clients, there are sometimes occasions when crisis comms situations crop up.

How should you approach crisis comms?

The main issue with crisis comms is that it isn’t a ‘one fits all’ process – it’s something that has to be carefully considered before making any decisions. Things you need to think about are:

• What are the benefits of commenting and as a result of that, what are the risks of commenting?
• What are the risks of not commenting?
• What are the risks in replying no comment?
• Who is the comment directed at (press, clients, customers, partners) and at the end of the day, what will a company achieve by responding, or not?

Different crises, different approaches

The most common comms crises to hit the headlines in recent times have been data breaches and hacks (if you missed the M&S one you must have been living under a rock). With these kinds of situations, businesses have a statutory obligation to inform the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) of the breach.

Then, that business must also inform any affected customers that they might have had their data breached, which inevitably means sending out an email to let them know that their personal details might be at risk. Usually, this is where and when the press finds out about issues and goes to the business asking for a comment.

In this situation, the business has already shared information with your customers on what happened, how it happened, and what steps have been taken, so that information is already out there. Therefore, you have no choice but to make a comment to the press reiterating the same things. But it’s imperative that you stick to the facts to keep your customers informed.

Where crisis comms becomes tricky is when you are asked by the press to comment on something that isn’t in the public domain, something that hasn’t been announced by you or anyone else (examples could include criminal activity by a staff member, the reporting of issues to statutory bodies, etc) or an issue that could significantly damage the reputation of your business.

As a business owner, you then have to sit down with your comms team or PR agency and discuss all of the options – the details of the press query, the risks of commenting, the risks of not commenting, how should any comment be formed, what information do you want to put out into the public domain and what do you not.

Should you comment?

If your business has made a genuine error, sometimes the best thing is to put your hands up, admit your mistake, and apologise sincerely, and unless there are any further repercussions that will be the end of it. Although be warned, it will likely be brought up in future stories if something similar happens again. The key to crisis comms is only giving as much information as you have to.

If you become aware of an issue that could damage your business’s reputation if it got into the public domain, then don’t delay in contacting your comms and PR team. Tell them honestly and openly what has happened, how it happened, and they will prepare a comment in case one is needed. It’s better to be prepared and allow yourself more time to make key decisions.

Sometimes the right thing to do is to write a detailed comment, sometimes just a comment confirming an issue has occurred will do. Sometimes a simple ‘no comment’ will suffice and at other times saying nothing is also the best thing to do.

Consult an expert

There is no standard approach – it depends on the nuance of the situation. So if you find yourself in a crisis comms situation and are at a loss of what to do, it’s often a wise move to consult the experts. It’s not worth the risk of possibly damaging your and your business’s reputation by penning a comment yourself or speaking to a journalist without prior briefing.

If you don’t have the in-house expertise or resource to handle a PR crisis, finding the right PR agency can help prepare you to tackle the situation appropriately.  It’s a small expense that will pay dividends in the long run, and hopefully make a difficult situation end quickly with minimum reputational damage.