Think this advice might not be for you? Think again. “Smaller companies are not exempt from crisis situations,” says Kim Oguilve, marketing and communications lead for Finnish energy startup Synergi.
She recommends that even young startups start putting together a crisis communications plan to cope with situations that could potentially damage their reputation further down the line.
Synergi — a startup that’s just two years old — already has one. “We’re operating a new industry where there are a lot of new regulations around the green transition and also new laws from the consumer side coming up, so we wanted to keep an eye on these issues that might grow into bigger issues in the future.”
In our Startup Life newsletter, Kim gave us her top tips for developing a crisis communications plan.
Assess the risks and scenarios you need to prepare for
If you have a dedicated comms person, get them to sit down with your leadership team for an open discussion about what could potentially go wrong in the company’s future. Might you at some point need to tell employees that a funding round has fallen through, or that you need to let people go? Other potential situations might involve geopolitical risks, like if your company’s hardware is built in a factory based overseas. What might the potential issues be there? You can’t plan for every eventuality, but getting on the front foot of some of these issues will enable you to act faster if and when they occur.
Put together a crisis response team
Decide who should be making decisions when a crisis arises. Your crisis response team might include:
- The CEO
- A spokesperson that has specific knowledge on something (for example, if the crisis involves something technical, you may want to have someone from the product or tech team)
- A marketing or communications representative
- A person who will communicate directly with employees
Create a chain of command so you know who says what when and in which order. The first step could be that no one communicates until the CMO and CEO have been contacted; then an official response is drafted by the CEO, CMO and relevant parties and then the CMO communicates privately with the respected party. The CMO then handles the communication with employees.
Map out key stakeholders
These could include customers, suppliers, investors, employees and the media — all of whom you’ll have to communicate with in a crisis. Who you communicate with first depends a lot on the specific situation the company is facing. For example, if there has been a case of sexual assault at the company, it’s important to communicate something to your employees straightaway, but it may be less important to tell your investors.
One of the most important stakeholders is the media, so ensure you have a dedicated person to communicate with them. Journalists need to know who they can reach out to at a company for a response when something goes wrong.
Hire a comms person
Lots of startups don’t hire a communications person until later in their journey, but I would recommend hiring someone as soon as possible. This is especially important for D2C companies that are more exposed to customers — and the issues they face are often more in the public eye. If something happens at a D2C company, people usually start talking about it on social media and then the ball rolls really fast. If you can’t hire someone full-time, hire someone part-time, or work with an agency to help you establish a crisis plan early on.
Never say “no comment” to the media
The less information you give out, the more guilty you’ll appear. If a journalist calls you, tell them politely that you don’t have all the information at hand right now and that you’ll get back to them. Then, you have a bit of time to prepare a response. Don’t let the pressure get to you where you feel the need to respond immediately — and likely, chaotically. My biggest tip would be to take your time to gather all the facts and information and come out with a detailed response.
Communicate internally
This is just as important as communicating externally. Don’t leave your employees in the dark as this can cause unnecessary tension, and damage your credibility with them. Let employees know every time a decision is made, or a decision is about to be made, and tell them the next steps. Keep them in the loop on updates. If you can, set up an anonymous chat line where employees can ask questions during the crisis, and then address them on public channels. This is a great way of providing psychological safety for employees when things go wrong.
Monitor social media
Have someone keep an eye on social media and what people are saying there — as we all know how things can get out of hand on X and LinkedIn. If there’s any incorrect information being spread, respond to those people and correct them. You might also want to post a statement on your social media to let people online know that you’ve acknowledged the issue and that you are dealing with it.
On the subject of… Crisis comms
Is your startup ready to handle a reputation crisis? Here’s how to prepare.
How to handle a crisis, by Speedinvest. The VC’s guide emphasises the need for founders to take a step back to assess the situation before reacting — and to communicate honestly and humanely with stakeholders.
Lessons in pitching to journalists. One from the Sifted archives on how NOT to rub journalists up the wrong way.
Read the orginal article: https://sifted.eu/articles/how-to-manage-comms-in-a-crisis/
