Thursday, January 13, 2011

Crisis Communcations Management: The 7 Dimensions

I was re-reading "SEVEN DIMENSIONS OF CRISIS COMMUNICATION MANAGEMENT: A STRATEGIC ANALYSIS AND PLANNING MODEL," originally published in the Ragan's Communication Journal, in 1999.

The article outlined the seven critical dimensions of crisis communication management:

Operations;
Victims;
Trust/credibility;
Behavior;
Professional expectations;
Ethics; and
Lessons learned.

When your company, or brand, is hit with a crisis situation, these seven dimensions will exist and how you navigate them can be the difference between arriving at the other side of your crisis intact and better, or shutting your doors for good.

In the Operations Dimension, you must:
*Be Candid and tell the truth...even if it's painful.
*Explain what happened, in full detail to the public, the media, your staff, and any other interested parties.
*Declare a public commitment of positive action to be taken by your company.
*Say you're sorry…very simple, but often so hard to do.
*Promptly as for help. Assemble a panel or team to review the issue and discuss how you can improve in the weak areas. Include consumers, parents, etc as often as possible. Partner with interest groups, non-profit organizations, government organizations, etc. Really vow to learn and then become a resource.
*Publicly vow to never have the situation arise again, to the best of your abilities, and outline the steps you're taken to ensure it will never happen again.

-In the Victim Management Dimension
, you must empathize with the victim. REALLY listen to their complaint or concerns. Assure them your company cares and tell them you are working speedily to fix whatever caused their issue; follow-up with them to offer not only retribution to the immediate issue, but an opportunity to return to your company with some sort of perk or freebie.

-In the Trust and Credibility Dimension, you must: *Provide information
*Ask for public input
*Listen carefully
*Show change for the better
*Stay in touch with the victims- update them on new changes within your company
*Speak in plain English- this is no time for technical jargon
*Bring victims, etc into the decision making process

-In the Behavior Dimension, you must basically walk, talk, and act sincerely sorry. This is no time for arrogance or finger pointing. Be nice and be sorry.

-In the Professional Expectations Dimension, you must review your industries specific code of ethics and be assured that you are acting within them.

-In the Ethical Dimension, you must look at the moral and ethical questions involved in the situation and address them publicly, honestly and quickly.

-Finally, in the Lessons Learned Dimension, you must really institute company wide changes for your brand to seriously become better and uphold your promises to all interested parties.

I pray that your company never endures a crisis, but if you do, I hope this brief primer gives you a good place to start working towards a remedy.

~Dominique