Crisis Management Plan

What it is and why it is important?

In order to develop an effective crisis management plan, it has to be understood that a crisis can last anywhere from a few hours to a week or months. This plan needs to be able to account for that period of time and be modified accordingly. A crisis management plan (CMP) outlines how to respond to a critical situation that would negatively affect an organization’s profitability, reputation, or ability to operate. A critical situation could be a negative post on social media, store incidents, internal brand issues, and several other things. This plan provides a solid strategy to navigate the issue in a position favorable to the brand.

Additionally, when there is a social media crisis plan, brands can connect with the consumers directly. A crisis plan is vital to any brand, and when developed correctly, it is the go-to plan for any issue. This plan is ideally in place before an issue occurs. A crisis plan has a few key elements to make them the most effective.

Key Elements of a Crisis Plan:

• Anticipation of Potential Crisis: Brands should be proactive and prepare for any future event, from management issues to product concerns or even a crisis like COVID-19.
• Clear Communications Process: There should be a clear understanding of the type of communication being produced, who or where this message is being delivered, and ensuring internal and external consumers are being addressed.
• Sense of Urgency: It is important that brands deliver messages at the appropriate time. Ideally, a message would be sent on social media right away, followed up by a more formal, detailed message.

Crisis Communicates Gone Wrong

A memorable crisis management scenario is United Airlines’ response to a passenger being forcibly removed from a plane. I have provided the video posted by a passenger on Twitter for reference below. Social media has become the channel of communications that delivers at super speeds, giving brands just moments to catch up and hopefully get ahead of the crisis. In this situation, United Airlines took the appropriate route in issuing a statement. However, they did not do it gracefully. In the first of many statements, United did not directly address the incident with the passenger, only the overbooking of the flight.

The first statement addressing the issue described it as an “upsetting event” to make matters worse. For days, the responses changed over three times. This event sparked controversy on every social media channel, with tremendous backlash on the CEO.

In my opinion, this was a communication crisis that went horribly wrong. The issue should have been addressed head-on with a solution provided to consumers along with an apology. This solution could have been suspension of the employees in question, incentive for the passenger to return to the airline or a roll-out of new policies and procedures. Think was a lesson for all brands and communications agencies of what not to do.

Crisis Communication Done Correctly

In 2018 Southwest Airlines had an unfortunate incident occur when an engine exploded midair with passengers aboard. The explosion happened about 20 minutes into the flight, killing one passenger. Southwest acted quickly by updating the public via social media channels. They keep everyone informed throughout the whole ordeal. The Southwest team successfully landed the plane with no further injuries and had staff ready in Philadelphia with resources for continued travel, trauma counseling, and more.

Additionally, the CEO, Gary Kelly, issued a heartfelt statement expressing Southwest’s apology for the malfunction, a reminder of support available for passengers, monetary compensation to “ease the burden,” $1,000 travel voucher, and personal calls were made to each passenger to check on their well-being. Southwest’s social media team continued to monitor channels, and the various conversations had around the incident. Overall, they did a great job of focusing their efforts on the passengers while also managing the social media conversation and conducting a thorough investigation.