Crisis communications tips to keep you out of hot water

Having worked in communications in the water industry for more than 30 years, and given the current hostile headlines around water companies, you won’t be surprised to hear I’ve managed many crises in my time.

So I’d like to share some communications advice on what to do when faced with a crisis or the potential of one happening, whatever your industry.

Of course, preemptive crisis planning goes without saying. A plan with the right operational, customer service and HR people for example and how and where they will be involved in the event of a crisis, along with what the key messages will be, should already be in place.

Instead, I want to focus on how the communicator plays the key and essential role amongst many other supposed more senior management colleagues who are not blessed with that rare commodity called common sense.  

Here are my top tips:

Influence

The communicator in crisis management, eg the comms/corporate affairs director/PR manager, has to have influence inside and outside the organisation. Within it, because they need to be able to talk to the right people, beyond the reporting lines and protocol of internal hierarchy. There’s no time for niceties when key information is required, and fast. Externally, they need to have built excellent relations with the media and other stakeholders to be able to exert influence when it may be needed most.

Trust

Whoever the communicator reports to at the top of the company, whether CEO, MD, president or chairman, has to trust them and vice versa. This is paramount and crisis management won’t work effectively otherwise. Plus, the communicator’s crisis management advice to the likes of the CEO will often dictate an organisation’s current and future reputation. 

Confidence

Self-confidence to have courage of conviction based on common sense and experience is critical to be successful. This can sometimes be in the face of senior management objections to a strategic communication approach. But the communicator has to remember that in most cases, these doubters arrived at the table with skills other than communications.

Instinct

A gift usually borne out of practical and pragmatic past experience. If a communications decision is wholly subjective and a close call with several different options, instinct can play a decisive role. A dangerous tool if used in isolation, but with the benefit of experience and understanding of the crisis issue in front of you, instinct can be the decider. Where instinct really comes into its own is as a sixth sense to see a potential crisis management problem before it happens.

A good communicator can foresee a seemingly innocuous issue developing into a potentially high profile negative one when others can’t. Intervention on instinct should be part of the communicator’s DNA.

Pour water not petrol on the flames 

Once when I reported directly to the MD of a water company in the north, a local newspaper carried a front-page story about an individual allegedly made ill by the local water supply. The story was not accurate and justified grounds for complaint. I said I’d contact the editor and ask for a correction and apology.

The MD felt it should be taken further with representation by a top London legal practice who thought we had a good defamation case against the publisher.

I disagreed, saying that this would damage our previously good relationship with the newspaper, whilst also potentially raising visibility of what was just a one-off story in a local newspaper to other regional and even national media outlets. The phrase “winning the battle and losing the war” came to mind.

We were at odds, so the MD brought it up at the next executive management meeting for their view. The vote was overwhelmingly in favour of my recommended action.

It was embarrassing for him and didn’t help our future relationship. But most importantly, we killed the story.

Be nimble

Another time, I was reporting to the MD of a water company in the south. He was about to make a major company announcement at a press conference for the national media which we’d rehearsed with him the day before.

Two hours before the conference, a reporter from a national tabloid appeared at reception asking to speak to the MD. I explained the press event was happening shortly and the MD was not available. He handed over photographs of the MD taken out of hours. I said we would respond later by telephone.

I handed the photographs to the MD and said he should be replaced at the press conference with another director. He strongly objected. I explained if he went ahead, he’d likely be asked questions and the story could even end up on national TV news, which would be embarrassing for him and the company.

A few minutes later he agreed. The conference went ahead with little concern about his absence. The story around the photos appeared with no comment from us in the now defunct News of the World the following Sunday but no other regional or national media outlet carried the story or followed it up. The damage limitation to the company was achieved - and a major crisis was averted. 

Hopefully, some of this advice will help you stem the tide when a crisis wave comes crashing your way…

Alan Smith worked for major UK water companies in comms for years before setting up international consultancy Water-People in 2000. During his career, he’s managed crisis comms including a dam collapse in Derbyshire, Europe’s biggest coastal clean-up in the south west of England to serious droughts. In his book Is That the Water Board? Alan reflects on 60 years of working in the public and private sector.