Setting up your company is just the start. Then you have to maintain your business and set it on a course for constant growth, so you can please your shareholders and make a profit. But over any company’s lifespan, at least one crisis will inevitably appear. Executives and company owners need to know how to navigate these crises—whether it's the loss of key employees, an economic downturn, or defective products—to prevent their businesses from falling apart.
That’s easier said than done, of course. But with the right strategies, you can be prepared to handle any crisis that fate and the market send your way. Let’s break down eight major crisis management tips to keep in mind when your business seems to be falling apart.
8 crisis management tips
1. Have a plan ahead of time
First and foremost, you need to put together a crisis management plan well ahead of your first crisis’s arrival. Having a plan in place allows you to:
- Hire key personnel before you need them, such as a crisis management specialist. If you don’t have the cash flow for dedicated personnel, you can appoint one of your existing team members (or even yourself) as the go-to or point of contact person for anyone handling crisis-related matters.
- Anticipate potential accusations or crises for your company based on its industry, products, and interpretation.
- Come up with potential solutions or responses ahead of time. For example, if you’re about to launch a new product and you know there’s a chance that some people will find something wrong with it, try to anticipate those problems and have answers ready so you're not caught off guard.
Perhaps most important, planning ahead of time enables your company to budget time and other resources for crisis management appropriately. This is doubly important in a company's early years when budgets are tightest and every single dollar spent counts.
2. Delegate, delegate, delegate
During a crisis, you need to remember not to take personal control over everything, especially if you are the CEO or head of the company. Instead, you need to delegate tasks to your crisis management or response team members, including PR spokespeople.
By delegating tasks, you’ll ensure that vital work gets done on time and there isn’t a lot of back-and-forth or delay between your responses to the public.
3. Speak to the public
Always speak to the public immediately following the development of a crisis. The last thing you want to do is go radio silent, particularly if the crisis in question affects your customers or clients.
If word gets out that a crisis is coming your way, face it head on and immediately put out a public statement. All you have to do is acknowledge that you recognize the crisis and are working on solutions or potential work-arounds.
This does two major things to benefit your organization:
- It shows that you are taking charge of the situation.
- It can calm down or reassure clients or customers who haven’t experienced the same crisis factors before.
Say that you launch a product with a slight danger of catching fire in consumers’ homes. Someone accuses your company of being deliberately unsafe by creating this product.
When you speak to the public calmly and immediately, you look like you aren’t running from the situation. Instead, you are taking steps to fix the issue as soon as possible, which will bolster your credibility and reinforce public trust in your company. This will, in turn, prevent your business from falling apart or seeming unstable.
4. Accept responsibility
You should also accept responsibility for any crisis and all future messages. Don’t try to shift blame or make it seem like a crisis is someone else’s fault. All this does is make your leadership look unprofessional and ineffective.
Even if the crisis in question isn’t your fault, take responsibility anyway. You lose nothing by shouldering the burden of solving the crisis or promising to help customers overcome their current difficulties.
5. Develop practical solutions quickly
Once the initial PR response is under control, you need to quickly develop practical solutions for your customers or clients. Practical solutions can include:
- Refunds for any defective or potentially dangerous products
- Improvements or patches for software products or subscriptions
- Replacement products depending on your industry or niche
Ideally, you’ll have potential fixes ready to go because of your earlier planning. But if you don’t have a solution already in mind because of the unique nature of the crisis, start work on one ASAP.
6. Keep to a simple message
Throughout a crisis’s duration, you’ll probably need to make many public announcements. Make sure to keep your messages simple and don’t inundate the public with endless details or excuses.
Keep to a simple message that:
- Acknowledges the crisis
- Provides the public with an update on the crisis and potential solutions
- Reinforces your dedication to handling the crisis, whatever it may be
By focusing on a simple message, customers never forget that you are doing your best to solve their issues. A simple message can also prevent your business from further suffering by not giving your critics additional ammunition or words to twist to their own devices.
7. Be decisive with employees
Sometimes, crises force leaders to fire certain employees. For instance, perhaps an employee caused a major PR disaster because they were caught on camera saying something inappropriate at your restaurant.
In times of crisis, people respect leadership and decisiveness. Show you’re in charge by firing problematic employees and hiring new ones right away. Don’t allow sentiment to get in the way of doing what needs to be done. That’s especially important in the early days of the crisis when the public may demand rapid decisions that show you are doing something or anything at all.
Similarly, if your employees are not to blame, don’t throw them under the bus. Defend them to restore faith in your leadership and company culture and earn back your customers’ respect.
8. Hire a legal team (if necessary)
From time to time, even small businesses may be sued by one or more clients or customers. Lawsuits can be scary, but they don’t have to be provided you have a skilled legal team on your side. You should never try to face a lawsuit by yourself, as even basic lawsuits can come with legal mines or potential missteps that can throw your business into chaos.
Make a crisis management plan and stick with it
Ultimately, coming up with a crisis management plan and sticking to it is the number one way to navigate any crisis life throws at your company.
With the right plan and the right team on your side, you’ll weather any storm and clear crises one after the other for future profits and success. Good luck!
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