Crisis Communication

Crisis communications are generally considered a sub-specialty of the public relations profession that is designed to protect and defend an individual, company, or organization facing a public challenge to its reputation. These challenges may come in the form of an investigation from a government agency, a criminal allegation, a media inquiry, a shareholders lawsuit, a violation of environmental regulations, or any of a number of other scenarios involving the legal, ethical, or financial standing of the entity.

Many organizations suffer extensively because they do not have proper crisis communication strategy setup. On February 2007 JetBlue had one of such crisis due to delay. 9 planes filled with passengers sat on the tarmac for more than 6 hours with no food, drink or polite handling, poor decision making, and a complete system breakdown that (even more frighteningly) indicates that JetBlue doesn't have the infrastructure or policies to cope with challenges that are going to crop up from time to time in the airline business. Now that was a serious situation and to come out of this situation JetBlue needed to execute the best in crisis communications.
Here's what JetBlue did do right:

• " I'm mortified," said CEO David Neeleman on February 19th, acknowledging responsibility, and getting that acknowledgment, and his vision for making things better covered in major print and broadcast media
• Put customers first. JetBlue built its reputation on customer service so last week's events really hurt. Yesterday, nearly a week since the problems, they released a Customer Bill of Rights feature it on the JetBlue homepage.
• Brought CEO Neeleman to customers via a heartfelt conversation delivered via a YouTube video.

According to Nancy E. Schwartz, Nonprofit marketing expert, JetBlue should have done more than what CEO David Neeleman did. She pointed out some great logical solutions in her blog.
Here is an interesting article where the author created a model of crisis and discussed several dimensions of crisis. Examining the dimensions of a crisis, which executives can clearly recognize and relate to, helps the public relations counselor provide truly meaningful, strategic advice. It is this kind of analytical approach that helps senior management avoid career-defining moments, unless the moments are deserved.

The most important communications strategy in a crisis, particularly in the first few hours, is to be open with the public by being available to the news media. There are several contradictory theories regarding what to tell and when to tell. According to Frank Corrado it should be “Tell It All, Tell It Fast!” and some other says “Tell as much as you can, as soon as you can”. Both of these theories may have some pros and cons, but organization needs to be careful and wise.

Bill Patterson pointed out some most important rules of crisis communications:

1. Have an in-depth crisis communications plan that includes dealing with the media, the community and your employees.

2. Make sure the crisis team has been professionally trained in doing hard news interviews.

3. Name a spokesperson and two back-ups today. Do not wait for the crisis to occur.

4. Deal with the crisis head-on. Do not hide out.

5. Respond to reporters’ questions immediately. They expect a return call or an on-site interview within 10 minutes of the request.

6. Never lie. The big lie would be stupid but many executives tend to tell the little white lie. When you even think of telling a lie in a crisis situation, say the name "Richard Nixon."

7. Never go off the record. In a crisis there is already much confusion. Do not add to it. Tell a reporter only what you want to see on the front page of the local paper.

8. Practice implementing your crisis plan by going through a mock crisis once a year. Do not forget the news media element during the practice.

Crisis communication is very important function of organizational communication. Organizations must handle it very carefully before it’s too late.