Managing a Crisis in 6 Steps - MultiCall

No organization is impregnable to a crisis. This day and age of the pandemic has certainly proven that. But besides this, companies are also always vulnerable to other forms of emergencies, be it a product’s server outage, cyber hacking, and so on. Hoping the problem goes away is not much of a solution.

Crisis management need not bemerely reactionary; it should be preventative and preparative in anticipation of potential emergencies as well. Effective crisis management allows the ability to greatly reduce the amount of damage the organization may suffer as a result of the crisis. Limiting potential damage in a crisis comes down to a few simple steps:

Anticipate emergencies

The first step is to prepare. As the old adage goes; ‘Fail to Prepare; Prepare to Fail’. It’s essential for effective conferencing to engage the participants, and to stay clear on the call’s agenda. Why should it be any the less necessary for crisis management?

As Murphy’s Law put it, “What can go wrong, will go wrong.” In anticipation of this, it’d be wise to be proactive and arrange an intensive brainstorming session to go through all the potential crises that could occur at your organisation.

This would require the right communication to do so as well, the likes of which MultiCall is. A group calling app dedicated to let you call many with the ease of calling one, its Call Scheduling system lets you plan your sessions ahead, both for date and duration as well.

Create and test response plans

However, situations aren’t just preventable only by modification of procedures and processes. The brainstorming process should lead to the creation of a crisis response plan as well. This needs to be tailored for your organisation, including both operational and communications components in order to maintain continuity.

Simply put, what will you do and what will you say when a crisis occurs? Of course, ensuring the messages contained in the crisis response plan are delivered effectively and efficiently, means that it needs to be tested.

This is where crisis training and simulations come in, as well as media training for those who could be giving statements and interviews. Most importantly, taking these steps will help ensure you can carry out your response plan in a real-life situation, not just in theory.

Set a crisis communication team

Like with preparation calling in the right people is just as essential to crisis management as it is to effective conferencing. A small team of senior executives needs to be set to serve as your company’s crisis communications team. This team’s critical objective will be to set the communications process for your business during a crisis, so as to maintain operational continuity.

MultiCall’s Call Monitoring feature lets you set Groups and Favourites, with the ability to select members directly from the contact list. Ensure that a clear process is created and communicated to staff. Reinforce said process via other communication channels such as newsletters, employee handbooks and intranet as well.

Establish monitoring systems

Word of Mouth is one of the most powerful marketing means that goes beyond a company’s actions. That said, it acts like a hammer. A highly useful tool, or as a weapon to destroy.

Knowing what’s being said about the company in traditional and social media, be it by employees, customers, or other stakeholders can let you to spot out a negative “trend” that could potentially turn into a crisis. The impact of a negative word about a company can potentially go all the way to a crash of stock prices in the market!

Likewise, monitoring feedback from stakeholders during a crisis situation allows you to adapt your strategy and tactics to overcome the problem. Furthermore, your company needs to have the means to reach the internal and external stakeholders as soon as possible. Once relevant groups are added, MultiCall can let you reach out immediately to whomever your wish. This is inclusive of its ability to add contacts and call instantly!

Communicate!

Obviously, the first rule of crisis management is to communicate. The first few hours in the crisis’s wake are critical and can set the tone for the duration of the crisis. This means being as open as possible; telling what you’re aware of and when you have become aware of it.

It also entails explaining who is involved and what is being done as corrective actions. Be sure to correct misinformation promptly when it emerges. Remaining silent or appearing removed could enrage the public and other stakeholders.

Enabling effective communication for business across industries is imperative. For that, the main edge that MultiCall helps make simultaneous group calls at just a click of a button, with superior sound quality, the ability to schedule calls ahead of time. All this is at minimal use of data since it does not require the participants to have the app.

In the context of business, aspects such as individually signing in, and the setting of moderator and security pin number that otherwise comprise the setup of a conference are eliminated with MultiCall. In just a four-step process, users can sign up with an account for their company, select a Tariff plan (whether it’s prepaid or post-paid) that suits them, and then add users to whom they can allocate money based on the requirements for the group calls.

Post-crisis analysis

Following a crisis, a formal analysis of whatever happened is required. This is inclusive of:

• What was done well


• What could be done better next time, and


• How to improve various elements of your crisis response plan


 

As the crisis comes under control, a company should examine how effective their responses and actions were during the crisis, and the impact the incident has had on its employees, brand(s) and reputation. If any of those are negatively impacted, a company will require steps to counter them.

The very operation of a business, the start of any relationship, the ability to lead and the building of trust, all are dependent on effective communication. It also is quintessential in crisis response,  and acquiring the optimal value of everyone involved. By following the steps mentioned, the business leader of tomorrow will be able to overcome the emergency and reach more, now.

When written in Chinese, the word 'crisis' is composed of two characters. One represents danger and the other represents opportunity. - John F. Kennedy