PR Crisis Action Plan

So you have a potential PR Crisis bubbling and there's a list a mile long of to-do items... what comes first?

Dealing with a PR Crisis can be tricky - they tend to unfold very quickly and any action you take (or don't take) has the potential to make the situation even more challenging.

The first thing we do when we're consulting with clients is create a timeline - we need to know every person that was involved, who did what and when. This helps us ultimately form our language around the crisis and the tone of any communication if/when we need to start addressing our stakeholders. Speaking of which....

The second thing we do is create a map of who the stakeholders are which sits alongside that timeline. In the context of a PR crisis, this might include staff, board members, shareholders, customers, media and maybe even the authorities. Then, as you move through your PR Crisis, you can form crisis comms that are relevant to each group and time them accordingly.

Then take a deep breath and start forming a game plan!

Remember, your game plan needs to have enough of a framework that it (hopefully) will provide some direction but be flexible enough that as the PR crisis continues to evolve, you can move with it.

Here are our top tips:

• Establish who knows what (and when they knew it)

• Understand from your management team how much information they are comfortable with the public knowing versus what is confidential

• If it involves illegal activity, notify the relevant authorities as soon as possible - a delay in notifying them may come back to bite you later

• If you’re dealing with a situation that will continue to evolve over a period of time and requires multiple updates (COVID restrictions are a good example of this), consider creating an information hub on your website where all publicly available information is neatly organised so if your customer misses an email update, they can go to the hub and find whatever they are looking for.