The importance of a good crisis communications plan

In January 2012, the SPCA in Cattaraugus County came under fire from a group of individuals claiming the animals in its care were neglected and the shelter was mismanaged.

Up front, I want to note that I have been involved with this SPCA since 2000, as a volunteer, as an employee and as a board member (I remain a volunteer). Although my personal connection to this shelter, and moreso, its animals may influence my words here, I come from the viewpoint of a communications professional.

One would have thought that the SPCA board and staff would have, after things settled down from this event, addressed the matter of responding to such situations. In fact, this exact subject was brought up by myself during my time as a board member, but nothing was ever drafted and things continued on as usual.

Until August 2012, when the above group of individuals partnered with "Animal Allies of WNY" - the group that had brought about sweeping changes at two western New York shelters in the past year - to again attack the SPCA's care of its animals and the management of the shelter.

Putting aside my own feelings about the allegations, the first thing that came to my mind was "how is the SPCA going to respond to this?" I had since resigned from the board of directors and had been the only person on the board with real-world public relations knowledge. I had done interviews on behalf of the shelter and was the chair of the board's PR committee.

If a crisis communications plan had been in place, there would not have been frantic phone calls to board members and volunteers seeing if they can speak with a reporter or put out a release; in fact, I think things may have calmed down by this point if a good plan had been in place.

Such a story has tremendous public interest, and that can spark a media frenzy that lasts for days. All businesses and organizations need to be prepared for such an event, even if one may never occur.

Being able to respond promptly, so that you don't appear to be hiding from the media, and being able to tell your message concisely and calmly can make the type of impression on the audience that makes them think there is more to a story that just this event.

Being prepared, being positive and taking a proactive stance is essential in crisis communications. That means laying out in advance the channels of communication - who will speak to whom and when - as well as creating talking points around a variety of issues.

These talking points can be modified in the future to fit a specific occurrance if needed, but it gives anyone who might be communicating with the media a set of key messages to convey, and helps to make that message flow across all channels.

In the case of the SPCA, there was no plan in place to direct who talks to the media and what message they were trying to convey. Consequently, board members and employees were interviewed in a hurried fashion and fell back on several tired accusations in ititial communications instead of being positive from the start.