June 3, 2010

Credit Union Management’s online-only “PR Insight” column runs the first Thursday of every month.

Many organizations put crisis communications planning on the “to do” or “nice to have” list. Few think a reputation-changing crisis will actually happen, and many think their organization can just address issues as they arise. The truth is crises occur without warning and can often have long-lasting effects that impact your credit union’s reputation. 

Crisis communication planning is not just an integral part of overall public relations, but vital for any and every business. This month’s column will walk through the 10 steps of crisis communications planning. 

Please note: Because of the nature of crises, it is important to remember that plans must be flexible to be effective. For instance, negative media coverage may impact the public’s perspective, making it necessary to revise or modify the plan. 

Step One: Identify the crisis or crises. Use identifying the crisis as a multi-department brainstorming opportunity. What possible crises, large or small, possible or impossible, might you face? Are you located in an area prone to natural disaster? What if your credit union was involved in a data breach or widespread fraud? What if a former employee or member started a negative social media campaign against your credit union?  

Next, gather as much information as possible on the potential disaster. Who would it impact? Employees? Members? How many people? How many branches? You want as complete and accurate an understanding of the situation as possible. While you will have one process for crisis communications planning, there are a number of crises your credit union should be prepared for.

Step Two: Establish a crisis communication team. Before any planning takes place, it is important to determine who will be involved in the crisis communication process. Typically, the team would include your credit union’s CEO, head of public relations, vice presidents, or managers of key departments, and legal counsel.

Step Three: Determine the appropriate positioning/messaging to address the crisis. After you have a complete understanding of the situation and which of your stakeholders, e.g. employees, members, community, etc., are involved, the crisis communications team must determine the best position for the credit union, whether it is a public apology, an explanation, or an offer to help. 

Step Four: Designate spokespersons. Designate a spokesperson, preferably your CEO, to handle all communication to the company’s employees, customers, shareholders and the media. In some cases, it may also be necessary to identify several spokespersons to handle different types of communication, whether the crisis impacts a particular product or service, or the disaster occurs at a particular branch. 

Step Five: Develop frequently asked questions. With your credit union’s position on the crisis in place, develop FAQs. This document can be used for internal purposes only to ensure spokespeople are sharing the same, uniform information, or it can be distributed to the media to help quickly and accurately answer their most common questions. The FAQ should consider potential questions an employee, member and/or media person may ask, and provide complete and truthful responses. 

Step Six: Develop communications to employees and members. With the proper planning in place, it is time to actively communicate with your stakeholders. Communications should not only be personable and comforting, but also address the specific concerns of the employees and members, whether it is fear over job security or uncertainty about the safety of personal financial information. 

A personal letter from the CEO is best, but you should also consider updating your credit union’s Web site with crisis information. Do you have employee and member e-mail addresses? How about phone numbers? Can you text them? If you are active in social media, can you post crisis FAQs on your Facebook page or share important links through Twitter or your blog? The more communication channels you use, the quicker the word spreads, and you can get ahead of the crisis.

Your credit union should set the goal of communicating within 24 hours of the crisis. 

Step Seven: Determine the media communication method. Communications with media in time of crisis is either proactive or reactive. Ideally, we would like it to be proactive, which means you should communicate with your local media shortly after you reach your stakeholders, if not at the same time. 

In many cases, the media can be your credit union’s friend in getting information out to as many people as possible in a timely manner. Should you be talking to the local newspaper, radio station, or TV network? If you have branches or members nationwide, or you are helping in a national relief effort, it might make sense to contact the national media?  

Press releases and written media responses are effective ways to share approved information and quotes in a time of crisis. If the situation or media require a more immediate response, your spokespeople should be ready to take calls or open a conference call line to answer multiple inquiries at once. If the crisis is extremely sensitive in nature, e.g. involves human loss, it is best to put a face to your credit union in a taped press conference.

Some crises, such as a disgruntled employee, are internal issues and, therefore, they may not involve the media initially. You should still be prepared to field media inquiries if the news spreads. In this case, rely on your spokespeople and your FAQ. 

Step Eight: Facilitate media training refresher. A media training refresher is recommended in time of crisis. A refresher often helps spokespeople fine tune their responses and feel more comfortable fielding questions. It is also an opportunity to review how to respond when you don’t know the answer. In most cases, a simple “I don’t know the answer to that, but I will find out and follow up with you immediately” is a sufficient response.

It is imperative to uphold your promise and follow up by close of business or within 24 hours. 

Step Nine: Track media coverage. To ensure your credit union’s crisis communication plan remains appropriate and successful, the crisis communication team must continuously track media coverage, whether positive or negative. The media’s perspective can provide a good idea of how your credit union is being viewed by stakeholders. Tracking media coverage can also help determine if positioning and messaging should be clarified, expanded or redirected. 

Step Ten: Evaluate your crisis communication plan. After the crisis, it is important to debrief and evaluate the plan with your credit union’s crisis communications team for any necessary modifications. Make sure to document the process and plan for the future. 

Elizabeth McMillan, APR, is an account director for William Mills Agency, the nation’s largest independent financial services and technology public relations firm. Follow William Mills Agency on Twitter as well as check out the FinTech Marketing blog.