Crises happen so often in the business world that there’s an entire subset of public relations devoted to them known as crisis management. Given that how you respond to a crisis can either boost your brand or damage it significantly, crisis management is as essential to your business as the Keurig your team relies on to function. Or is that just R team? In all seriousness, the right publicist can be the key to effective crisis management. Here’s how.
What is Crisis Management?
The word “crisis” is defined as a time of intense difficulty, trouble, or danger. While that may seem ominous, a crisis for your business is really any unanticipated event that could disrupt your operations and/or cause potential harm to your brand reputation including:
- Product recalls
- Customer injuries
- Employee misconduct
- Security breaches
- Natural disasters
As such, crisis management is the art of not only responding effectively to events that have occurred, but also your strategic approach in anticipating crises.
How Can a Publicist Help?
A publicist can help with both aspects of crisis management. For example, R team is specially trained in the communication tools and techniques necessary to react promptly and strategically in a crisis as well as in identifying any potential vulnerabilities proactively. What’s more, because of our experience in the restaurant, hospitality, retail, health and wellness, business, and non-profit industries we’re uniquely equipped to help lifestyle brands with crisis management. Specifically, the benefits of partnering with a publicist include:
- Peace of mind – When a crisis hits, panic often ensues and that’s when mistakes happen. Likely this isn’t something you or your team deal with every day so it’s natural to be overwhelmed and not sure what to do. A publicist can take that worry off your shoulders, acting swiftly and surely on your behalf to protect your brand in the public eye.
- Freeing you to focus on the crisis – Realistically, you’ve got much more to worry about in a crisis than public relations alone. Having to split your focus between what to say in public as well as to your customers while also working to resolve the crisis itself is anything but ideal. With a publicist handling the media and your message, you’re free to focus on where you’re needed most.
- Controlling the narrative – Speed is everything in a crisis, particularly how fast you communicate about it. It’s so much harder to change perception once it’s in the news and/or on social media than to drive the message initially. While you’re wondering who to contact and what to say, things can quickly spin out of control. You avoid that entirely with a publicist because they can help you get the right message to the right people right away.
- Making the most of the situation – Often it’s just as much about how you say something as it is what you’re saying. A publicist has the training and the finesse to get your message across in a way that puts your brand in the best light. Yes, you want to be authentic, honest, and transparent about the crisis, but you also want the media as well as your current and potential customers to see the bigger picture. One crisis does not have to define your brand, and with effective crisis management, it won’t.
To learn how R team of publicists can help your brand with crisis management, schedule your FREE discovery call today!