Top 5 Crisis Communications for Businesses During COVID-19

If you are like me, you feel like the world we live in is completely different than it was just a few weeks ago. Companies, as well as their employees, are learning to adapt to the new normal of working from home, the economic consequences of the crisis, the business impact for their customers the list goes on. It is also clear that no one was 100% prepared for the pace at which this new normal occurred. In my own life, my spouse and I are struggling with our work lives and dealing with having our daughter at home with schools closed. My teammates and their families are going through the same problems, and our clients are feeling the financial impact of business uncertainties.

In the midst of all this, some companies are doing a great job communicating with their customers, their employees and their families, and their investors regarding PANDEMIC and its impact on all of them. You've all seen this video from the President and CEO of Marriott International. Obviously, the hospitality industry (and hospitality in general) is severely affected in this climate, but what is remarkable is that the message is sincere, vulnerable, timely, factual, decisive and action-oriented. What can we learn from Arne and other companies by communicating with our clients?

How do leading companies communicate during a crisis?

PANDEMIC has obviously been a great crisis for many companies. But it is not the first or the last of many crises that affect companies. Companies see regulatory crises (especially in highly regulated industries like financial services, compliance, etc.), security crises (for example, with data breaches). Businesses need to communicate with the various stakeholders very quickly, otherwise the narrative is written for them. Furthermore, with the ubiquitous presence of social media in our personal and business lives, communication must be designed across multiple channels. Add to that the complexity of companies that have multiple stakeholders in any customer (cheap buyer, IT, communications must reach all of these stakeholders to leave no one behind).

So here are five tips for planning Crisis Communications for Businesses

1. Create personalized emails for different stakeholders from a well-known person in your company

As soon as possible, send emails from known leaders within your company (could be your CEO, CCO, CMO, etc.) to your customer's key stakeholders informing them of the immediate steps your company is taking to mitigate the impact of the crisis.

We sent this email to key people in our clients to discuss business continuity and how we will care for our clients and employees during the PANDEMIC outbreak. We use the Journey functionality in Gainsight. The feature allows us to customize the name, company and other relevant fields to reach multiple stakeholders with the same email.

2. Interact with users on your product (in the app)

Supplement your email communications with timely in-app messages, especially to reach end users who are more likely to engage in the app than through email channels. One of our clients, Absorb LMS, created some training courses and participated in the product to speak

3. Coordinate email and in-app communications without spamming customers.

W hen trying to reach your customers through email and in the app, it's also important to respect how immediate attention. A system crash or data breach type scenario could justify an action of this often you communicate with anyone. In many companies, the marketing or CS teams can run the email messages, while the product or CS teams can run the messages in the application. It is important to ensure that these approaches are coordinated and that users do not feel engulfed in spam.

4. (Advanced) Reach customers through other means

 In some crisis situations, you may choose to interact with your customers in more intrusive channels (like SMS) because the crisis requires your immediate attention. A system crash or data breach type scenario could justify an action of this magnitude to reach customers and simultaneously create a ticket in their tracking systems.

5.Journey has been a critical feature for our clients to communicate with their clients over the past few weeks in response to PANDEMIC, as evidenced by the rapid growth in weekly emails being sent from JO to our clients.