Your Post-Crisis Communications Plan

You’ve made it through a crisis and successfully implemented your crisis communications plan, but now how do you move forward? In public relations, we see a great deal of information about preparing for crises, but how you react and move forward after a crisis is just as important. Post-crisis communications allow you to stay in touch with your audience, those affected by the crisis and your stakeholders.

3 Steps To Start Your Plan

1. Listen And Assess The Situation.
   Perhaps the most important task is to listen to your stakeholders and audience. Monitoring what is being said about the crisis and who is talking about it will give you the foundation you need to create informed responses.Evaluating your situation post-crisis also gives you the opportunity to improve your crisis communications plan. Listen carefully to the negative points your stakeholders, the media and your audience are pointing out. Try to clearly identify where you can improve your crisis communications plan by utilizing the negative feedback.
2. Adapt Your Message To The Current Situation.
   While you should have written preformed messages to include in your crisis communications plan, you will need to adapt these messages to fit your current situation. You should concentrate your communication efforts on forming messages to send to stakeholders and the media. Keeping these two groups well informed and providing all information you have promised to them will help you remain in control of communications.
3. Continually Monitor Negative News And Look To The Future.
   With the 24/7 digital nature of news, even after a crisis has past, negative information about your organization can resurface and pose additional problems. By closely monitoring negative news, you will be able to appropriately address any future issues that develop from a past crisis.

After the crisis has passed, you need to maintain communication that details how you have resolved the crisis and are working to ensure it does not happen again. By keeping your stakeholders and the media well informed after the crisis, you are able to stay ahead of any possible news stories and misunderstandings.

Successful communication cannot stop once a crisis has passed. Developing a post-crisis plan will help you remain in control of difficult situations and prepare you for any negative information about the crisis that may resurface later. For more information on crisis and post crisis plans, contact Debbie Goetz.