Crisis Communication
Have you ever been in a situation where it seems like, everything that could possibly go wrong has gone wrong and some extra?
Crisis is not a word I like to identify with and this is because in situations of crisis, I promise you that I can almost feel my heart trying to break free from my rib cage. And I bet you it is not a good feeling.
One very important duty of a customer success executive is crisis communication.
Crisis communication is the circulation of appropriate information by an organisation to inform the customers and stakeholders of issues that may have or will occur and have a negative impact on the brand’s reputation and image. Appropriate information because you do not want to communicate information in such a way that will further damage the brand’s reputation beyond repairs.
In crisis communication, what you say and how you say it is very important.
A case in point;
A financial company just experienced a malicious hack and some funds have been tampered with and moved to various individuals accounts. In response to this, they shut down their systems blocking all outbound transfers in order to contain the damage.
At the same time, other customers have been trying to withdraw their own funds and they are unable to and they are panicking.
Typically, the customers will reach out to the customer support team for resolution.
From here on, it can either go well or go south real quick.
So here we have Person 1 retting the customer;
“Our system was hacked and as such we have shut down transfers but please be rest assured that your funds are safe and the issue will be resolved soon.”
Best believe 90% of customers might not read anything after “hacked” and go into a frenzy. I am almost sure I would 🌚. And even after the crisis has been averted and their funds are indeed safe, most customers might just call it quit with the brand.
"Once beaten, twice shy…” even if they were not beaten
But then we also have Person 2 that goes ahead and says;
“We are currently experiencing a downtime with our systems and this has delayed the processing of your transaction. We sincerely apologize for this inconvenience and our technical team is working on resolving this and restoring service.
Please be rest assured that we will reach out to you with an update once the service is restored.
Thank you for your patience while we resolve this.”
Before we analyse this, know that even the most polite response does not guarantee that the customer will not be angry. The customer might be wondering if your brand is the next snake or monkey swallowing his/her money in the country. So the goal is not to look blameless but rather to communicate the situation to the customer and also let them know their complaint is being worked on.
Crisis are not only technological. Some could be flooding of a printing press, purchase of counterfeit items and so on.
Know this and know peace; crisis will occur in various forms and at various times.
Tips for Crisis Communication
Be proactive in your response to the crisis. Do not try to play dead or will the crisis go away. It would be best for the communication of the situation to come from you so that you can have some sort of control on the narrative.
Keep calm and focus on the priorities.
The goal of the communication should be to minimise damage to brand image and reputation and not to absolve the brand of blame/guilt.
Communicate effectively to the customers.
So I know you might be thinking of how best to avoid a crisis, which is a great line of thought I must say. However, crisis happens. Some small, some big and some ugly.
The real question now is how prepared is your customer success team to handle crisis?
Cheers,
Seun