As soon as a crisis strikes, employees require immediate and accurate information – but when receiving information from multiple sources they can quickly become confused.
Therefore, timely communication of accurate and open messaging is vitally important to avoiding rumor, innuendo, and inconsistencies from spreading across an organization.
1. Listen to Your Audience
Crisis communication requires companies to keep their audiences updated in a timely manner and be attentive to any audience concerns or queries that arise. For example, during a natural disaster like COVID-19 it is critical that communication be regular and provide real-time updates; this reduces anxiety while stopping the spread of misinformation or false rumors. Providing reassurance while outlining what actions the company is taking helps build empathy and establish trust with stakeholders.
However, companies must remember that not every crisis calls for immediate action to be taken against it. Before reacting, companies should carefully evaluate if their response would only exacerbate rather than rectify the situation at hand – an extensive risk analysis and plan can come in handy here; internal communication channels like town hall meetings and virtual collaboration tools may be useful tools during such times.
2. Communicate with a Purpose
When communicating during a crisis, it’s essential that all messages remain consistent and coherent. Any inconsistency creates confusion and an impression of incompetence; furthermore it fosters distrust between employees.
Communicators must take the time and care necessary to tailor content specifically to their target audiences, including addressing needs like geographic risk, language proficiency or ability levels. For instance, in communities threatened by wildfires creating content tailored specifically for both home owners and renters can help reduce anxiety by informing audiences what to expect from local governments and reduce fear levels among audiences.
Consistent updates and reassurance reduce anxiety while stopping the spread of rumors, making employees more comfortable submitting feedback or comments, which enables their organization to respond more rapidly. Internal communicators can utilize tools like ContactMonkey to pre- draft emails for release at set times as well as track response metrics – this provides invaluable data that helps optimize internal communications during crises situations.
3. Communicate in a Consistent Tone
Crisis communications require communicating in an unambiguous, consistent tone to reduce confusion and establish trust with audiences that the information received is accurate. Furthermore, it is vital to distinguish fact from speculation in order to prevent further spreading falsehoods and spreading disinformation.
Shared accurate and consistent information is vital in providing all audiences with equal access to accurate information, particularly vulnerable communities that may lack traditional media channels but instead depend on nontraditional sources for news or crisis communication. Emergency and crisis communication strategies must therefore take this into account when designing emergency and crisis communication campaigns.
Making sure your messages are easy for employees and stakeholders to comprehend is another key part of communicating in a consistent tone, such as providing email, text messaging and social media as channels of delivery for crisis communications.
4. Communicate with Emotional Intelligence
At times of crisis, leaders must demonstrate emotional intelligence. This includes active listening, empathizing with employees’ concerns and providing clear messaging; nonverbal cues like open body language and facial expressions convey empathy and understanding as nonverbals do not. Emotionally intelligent leaders have proven they can better handle crises without producing additional stress levels or unintended outcomes than those without these skillsets.
When a business encounters a crisis, it’s vital that they have a plan in place outlining communication protocols and key spokespersons. Additionally, this plan should contain a list of stakeholders affected by the crisis such as clients, local communities and regulatory authorities so that specific information can be tailored specifically for them and distributed accordingly through preferred channels. Using ContactMonkey as an email tracking service can further optimize internal communications by monitoring when emails are opened and altering release schedules accordingly ensuring the message reaches its audience in an efficient way.
