Dear
Afrihost,
As we
head into day two of no emails and no website I can’t but wonder why don’t you
have a crisis communication plan in place?
Is it
that you don’t have a communication team or agency? Is it that they aren’t
advising you, or, most likely, is it that you are not listening to their
advice?
In a
time of crisis, your stakeholders need to hear from you, more than ever before
and be kept updated. Businesses are dependent on your services. Three generic
social media posts does not cut it.
At
minimum, you have everyone’s alternative, non-Afrihost email addresses. Your
CEO Gian Visser has been close on to spamming my Yahoo email address in the
last week with some or other ‘free’ promotion. You should also, have a data
base of your client’s mobile numbers, so you should be able to use WhatsApp effectively
to give regular updates.
Keep your
stakeholders informed. Even, if you don’t have all the details, a bit of communication
is better than the absolute crickets we’re receiving at the moment.
It
does not have to be long correspondence either:
Here’s
what we need to know:
- Explain
what happened.
- Very
importantly, is our data safe? Has it been compromised? Should we be worried?
- What
is the progress? (Even if you don’t know say so)
- What
alternatives do you recommend?
Provide regular updates. Then once it is resolved, don’t stop your communication there, let us know what you will be doing to prevent this from happening again.
The
absolute lack of communication shows that you don’t respect your stakeholders,
and this will definitely impact your reputation incredibly negatively, and it
will take a lot of time, resources and money to try and rebuild it.
Another
tip, stop promotions, the last thing that your customers who are desperate to
get emails want to hear, is from Gian promoting a free offer. We want to hear
from Gian, but we want to hear directly from him how this crisis is being resolved.
In
this day and age, to not have a crisis communication plan in place is inconceivable.
But, clearly
you don’t, so here are the basics:
ONE: Have a plan. In the ideal world, everyone would already have a
crisis communication plan in place having scenario planning plotted out with
high risk / high impact; high risk / low impact etc. identified. Part of the
plan would include:
- Who the key stakeholders are that need to be communicated with;
- How: The channels of communication to be used and,
- What the key messages need to be.
The minute there is a crisis, everyone should know who needs to communicate
what to whom. It’s very important to have a clear spokesperson during the
crisis: this person should ideally be the leader of the organisation, in this
instance, Gian Visser.
But, having a plan in place of how to engage with your key stakeholders should at minimum include: employees, customers, shareholders and suppliers.
TWO: Be responsive and give timeous feedback. Many livelihoods are dependent on conducting business via their websites and emails. Communication is key.
THREE: Keep stakeholders updated. Give regular updates. Even just a WhatsApp to give a progress update is better than hearing absolutely nothing from you.
FOUR: The message needs to be clear and consistent. Have your protocols been compromised, is our data safe? Tell the truth. Pull the plaster. If things have been compromised, educate your stakeholders what it means, what is being done to rectify the situation and what can the consumer do so long. Not hearing from you, we do think worse case scenario.
FIVE: In any crisis, empathy is very important. Whenever there is a crisis, people are impacted and especially livelihoods. Be sure to highlight that in any communication. Although you currently rating zero on the empathy scale with your non communication.
SIX: Keep in simple. We don’t need technical explanations, just the basics and progress updates.
SEVEN: Take action, and share what it being done.
Reputations are built on trust, respect and authenticity. Your reputation is teetering on the edge or disaster.
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