Protecting your brand and business is essential, but making sure you protect your customers is crucial. If you do not communicate to them early and let them know what steps you are taking then you could end up with a bigger problem to deal with.
Here are our quick top ten tips on messaging during a crisis:
1. Your website is your shop window, it’s the first place your customers will go to for information. Ensure you have a pop-up or clear banner notifying your customers you are closed until further notice (if you’re a retailer for example) and have a clear information box on what you are planning on doing.
2. Draft your messages clearly, concisely and keep them consistent across all your channels of communications, including social media. Mixed messages have a detrimental effect. Keep your instruction clear and to the point.
3. Keep your tone of voice friendly and informative - this is the time when sensitivity is of paramount importance.
4. Draft up an FAQ page to put on your website, if you haven’t done already. People will have questions eg when will you open? Are you doing home deliveries? Will I get a refund? And so on. Make sure you give your customers all the information they need so that they feel assured.
5. Make sure you have a reactive statement ready for the press. Having one solid statement with all the crucial information needed will ensure your team are consistent with what’s being said. Don’t do this and you could get yourself in trouble. Say nothing and you could lose the risk of hiding something and that could be problematic.
6. Keep your digital content clear and do not put any obstructive imagery around your messaging. Make sure that your customers can see your messages crystal clear. You should apply the same on any social media posts as well. Remember the more concise your message the more your customers will understand and understand quickly.
7. Ensure that you have messaging and communication for your staff both internally and staff who are working in operations or outside of the business. It’s crucial that you also have a set of questions and answers for them to make them feel that they are being heard.
8. Give your team and staff the opportunity to ask you questions on a virtual format that you can then answer. This allows your team and staff to keep up the morale but also keep the communication and dialogue fluid and transparent.
9. Always adhere to guidelines that are given to you to ensure there is a level of consistency especially given our current circumstances. As much as any business wants to run and become profitable its times like this where we need to focus on the safety of people. Encourage your staff to encourage your teams to work from home.
10. Remember that collaboration and teamwork equals positive and strong results. In times of crisis and in times of need, we all need to do the right thing. Putting out positive messages sharing instructions that are clear concise is very important.
Remember we’re all going to be in lockdown in one way or another, self-isolating, being quarantined, or going for a solo walk around the garden or gasping for fresh air through the window. Whatever your situation think about the bigger picture and the impact.
