Crisis management, the bread and butter of public relations, is being redefined right now. We are undoubtedly facing an international crisis of unfamiliar scale. But it is not only the disease itself where the unknown outweighs the known: the ways businesses respond to the crisis it creates, at a business and strategic level, will probably one day add a new chapter to the field of crisis management.
So how does managing the coronavirus crisis differ from other corporate crises? And where is it still important to go back to basics and apply the established rules of traditional crisis management?
How is coronavirus different from any other crisis?
One of the most important points in crisis management is identifying the crisis, defining it and taking responsibility for it. Many studies have shown that in a crisis, consumers, investors and shareholders expect the company to take responsibility: to admit the mistakes that were made, and even to apologize. But the coronavirus crisis is what the field calls an "external crisis": one that "fell" on the company from above, not one the company is responsible for (unlike, say, mispricing, a faulty product or administrative corruption). So the crisis is not hard to identify, and there is nothing to take responsibility for. This brings business owners some real advantages. First, crisis management research has shown quite clearly that shareholders, investors and customers tend to be far more alarmed by an internal crisis than by an external one. Second, there is no fear of customers flocking to competitors, because in these unusual circumstances competitors at home and abroad are in exactly the same boat. Business owners can take some encouragement from the fact that, very unusually, they are experiencing exactly the same crisis as everyone else in their field, in Israel and around the world. Still, two main factors will shape businesses on the day after coronavirus: how they went into the crisis, and how they choose to come out of it.
The companies that will survive: those that prepare and keep thinking
The first and most fundamental stage of crisis management, which is relevant to this crisis too, has the somewhat misleading name "crisis prevention". In an interconnected economy, where many forces outside a company can trigger a crisis within it, it isn't realistic to stop crises from coming, and that isn't the idea. Crisis prevention means creating internal mechanisms that stop a crisis from tearing the company apart, and it should happen long before any crisis is on the horizon. A company's internal crisis protocol should include, among other things, dark sites ready to go live across the company's media channels, a designated company spokesperson to face the media during the crisis, and methods for analyzing online conversation about the brand, to understand consumer perceptions and mood as the crisis unfolds.
These tools are also likely to be highly relevant as businesses return to operation on "the day after". Most experts predict that the post-coronavirus economy will not go back to exactly what it was. More consumers comfortable with technology and remote shopping, consumers far more concerned about hygiene, consumers wary of goods made in China, and certainly some living with greater economic uncertainty: smart crisis-prevention mechanisms prepared in advance will make it easier to adapt to the new post-crisis market.
Don't dig in, and don't disappear!
Precisely in a crisis, once it has been defined and a response strategy chosen, it is important to stay in constant contact with stakeholders and partners and keep them updated on every change. The coronavirus crisis sent many brands into a "freeze". Instead of moving quickly past the initial shock, they fell silent for all kinds of reasons: "the malls are closed and most of our business is there", "we don't have an online store", "we have no way to reach consumers", and many more reasons and excuses, some realistic but none of them right. Past experience teaches that precisely during external crises, it is important to keep creating experiences for consumers that are part of the brand story: experiences that will be remembered as the positive side of the crisis and that strengthen brand awareness and perception in the future.
Between crisis and opportunity
Another rule of crisis management that is highly relevant to the current crisis is seeing a crisis as an opportunity. Research has shown time and again that managers who see a crisis as a threat tend to react more emotionally and offer limited, Band-Aid solutions. Managers who manage to see a crisis as an opportunity tend to think more openly and produce deeper solutions that can keep serving the organization after the crisis is over.
The coronavirus crisis is a severe one that has already been called the "angel of death" for many businesses, and it is far from easy to see an opportunity in it. Still, it is worth remembering that even in this new situation there are opportunities for businesses that make the right adjustments: to improve online services, to build delivery operations beyond food, for several businesses to team up on combined delivery packages, to rethink a more hygienic shopping experience, to highlight the value of local production, and much more.
Having worked in PR for many years and supported companies through times of crisis, we are amazed time and again by how resilient and resourceful the Israeli economy is. We believe that combining creative thinking, boldness and flexibility within the organization, with the willingness to keep managing the crisis together with you from an objective, rational perspective, is the winning recipe for getting through crises and even turning them into an opportunity for renewal and growth.