When a Crisis is coming, you need the expertise of Lighthouse PR.
A Crisis can strike at any moment, in any Company and Market.
That's why we believe in the importance of effective crisis management. At Lighthouse PR, we work tirelessly to help our clients navigate through crises and emerge stronger on the other side. We provide the full gamut of crisis services including crisis preparation and management, all communication aspects and crisis resolution.
Lighthouse PR leads the way.
Our recommendation is to have a thorough crisis management plan in place, ready to right the ship and help protect your brand and reputation. The Lighthouse team is well-equipped to provide this in addition to managing any unforeseen challenges. Our insights and expertise in crisis management have helped countless businesses overcome even the most difficult situations.
The Management Team are ultimately responsible for protecting the Business's Reputation.
We believe that every CEO has a ‘care of duty’ for the business. This includes complete protection of its brand, people and assets in the event of any predicted or unforeseen crisis situation before it sets off on its annual increased performance journey.
An organisation that’s engaging with its employees, external stakeholders and the general public on this subject matter, is far more likely to instil confidence and gain considerable trust, bolstering the emergence from any crisis with its reputation intact.
A CEO’s Crisis Checklist.
Crisis prevention, management and communication are all part of the CEO checklist to ensure the business can expand unencumbered without having to deal with issues that can seriously damage, harm, impact or limit that progress, within the mitigation services provided by Lighthouse PR.
It is in the interest of all investors and stakeholders that business risks are reduced to a minimum and good crisis plans are put in place to ensure a smooth, trouble-free journey.
Leadership in a Crisis.
The real test of leadership does not occur when everything is sailing smoothly, quite the opposite, as your leadership credentials are brutally tested during a crisis.
The way a leader behaves and acts during a crisis will establish their credentials as a good leader or a poor one. Lighthouse can train senior management in effective leadership, which includes managing crises in a highly effective manner.
When a Crisis Occurs, the Need to Communicate is Immediate.
Issues can happen almost daily and often need to be managed on the spot.
A business must be able to respond promptly, accurately and confidently during an emergency in the hours and days that follow. You must be ready with public statements that have taken into account all the consequences that may happen if you state anything that can be interpreted as wrong or misleading information.
Key Messaging Statements.
The statements you make need to have undertaken rigorous analysis and inspection against an indefinite number of crisis-dependent, changing scenarios.
If business operations are disrupted, customers will want to know how they will be impacted.
Depending on the crisis type, Regulators may need to be notified and local government officials will want to know what is going on in their community.
Employees and their families will be concerned and want information. Neighbours living near the facility may need information—especially if they are threatened by the incident.
All of these “audiences” will want information before the business has a chance to begin assimilating the correct information.
Be Ready To Deal With Any Crisis Situation.
If you want the right people at your side in a crisis situation, you would be professionally advised to contact Lighthouse PR.
In addition to working with our clients, and protecting their reputation by containing and controlling the narrative, the Lighthouse Crisis Management team also provides in-depth training, coaching and development based on our own extensive experience and expertise.
For reference, we can reveal that we have managed and helped contain some of the biggest and most worrisome crises in Europe, with our advice and crisis communication strategies.
Determine the Business Impact of Any Crisis Situation.
A business impact analysis (BIA) is a way to quantify the potential impact of a business-disrupting crisis.
Working your way through a BIA can reveal a variety of potential effects, including but not limited to: customer dissatisfaction, employee attrition, a seriously damaged reputation in the public eye, lost or delayed sales or income, increased operational costs, increased spending to recover brand equity, regulatory fines, etc.
A BIA is an important step to make sure your organisation is truly considering every angle of a threat, and it can help to make a business case for anyone in senior management who fails to see the value of crisis management plans.
Crisis Solutions.
Crisis Prevention & Management.
Prevention is not just better than the cure, it is the less costly and most efficient way to deal with a crisis situation in advance. It should be continuously adopted with set guidelines for crisis prevention management. ie fire drill) It enables the identification of potential risks and vulnerabilities, sets out the main elements that need to be considered in times of stress and gossip in the workplace and defines all necessary processes to face a crisis situation.
These processes are documented as form a significant part of the Crisis Manual.
The Crisis Manual is the complete ‘go-to’ reference manual for dealing with all anticipated crisis situations.
Assess Your Risks For Crisis Management.
The first step is a risk assessment, which identifies potential crises that would harm your reputation and disrupt your business function and/or processes.
Work with your leadership team, your crisis response team, if you have one, and other key stakeholders to begin listing all relevant threats and vulnerabilities that could impact the company.
These may include the following;
Public relations blunders
Large-scale customer complaints
Social media or influencer gaffes
Product recalls
Accidents at work
Cyber attacks
Data breaches
Management behaviour
Financial irregularities
Compliance issues
What Is Considered A Crisis?
There may be many different scenarios but the need to have crisis communication experts at your side will relate more to incidents of a serious nature;
accidents that injure or fatally injure employees or others, within the working environment
property damage that impacts the business operations
illegal activities or drug usage by employees
liability associated with injury to or damage sustained by others
production or service interruptions
oil, chemical spills or harmful releases with potential off-site consequences, including environmental
product quality issues
serious financial issues
Pre-scripted messages should be prepared using information developed during the risk assessment. This process should identify scenarios that would require communication with stakeholders.
Note that all messaging should be scripted to address the specific needs of each audience.
Crisis Manual.
Familiarise Staff To Deal With A Crisis When It Happens
All employees must understand their roles during a crisis. Remember, stress and panic can make it difficult to remember your role in crisis response; however, there are three ways to mitigate the effects of stress.
First, ensure that your stakeholders have the information they need. During tense moments of a crisis, people require rapid access to straightforward information.
Consider ways to quickly and effectively distribute a crisis manual, such as through a crisis management app, which includes real-time access to up-to-date documents, incident reporting, contact lists, messaging capabilities, and more.
Second, frequently train stakeholders on your crisis management plan. Stage regular tests and rehearsals to ensure that each individual is familiar with the plan, can respond confidently, knows where to get additional information, and understands his or her role.
Thirdly, only target and engage the right people, as crisis communications have to reach all employees, while others don’t.
Our capability helps you decipher and engage the right people, sections, and geographies who need the information, without needlessly involving those who don’t.
Crisis Communication Plan.
Once your plan is written, approved and tested, revisit it frequently.
It’s vital to keep the plan updated, especially as employees join or leave the company, new technologies are implemented, and other changes occur.
A crisis does not always happen during working hours and you need to be able to react to any given situation 24/7.
So if a PR nightmare or a product recall strikes on a Saturday afternoon, your people still have immediate access to the information they need to activate the appropriate plan right away.
Here are just a few criteria covering some of the key actions that need to be given due consideration in every organisation.
Define crisis scenarios and their action plans.
Identification and rating of possible potential crisis situations.
Crisis management & Communication training.
Crisis simulation.
Crisis manual/ handbook.
Key messaging development.
Prepare the contact database across all audiences.
Crisis cell – who and what.
Managing the Media in a Crisis.
If the incident is serious, then the news media will be on the scene or calling to obtain details. The Media will expect an immediate and prepared response, if you fail to do this, the worst will be assumed.
There may be numerous requests for information from local, regional or national media. The challenge of managing large numbers of requests for information, interviews and public statements can be overwhelming, for the untrained.
Prioritisation of requests for information and development of press releases, key messaging and talking points can assist with the need to communicate quickly and effectively.
Managing Customers in a Crisis.
With an advanced level of preparation, you can turn all the crisis negatives into positive outcomes, resulting in improved brand equity, market positioning and customer satisfaction, as audiences become ‘impressed’ with how the issue was professionally managed. And Lighthouse will be with you every step of the way.
Managing Influencers in a Crisis.
Almost every vertical market has an Influencer with a loyal following, if you are ‘signed up’ with an influencer, it is vital that they are contracted to the same guidelines as commonly used for sponsorship, with clear rules covering behaviour and statements.
They should only be utilised as a communication channel for crisis communication, under strict conditions, with a script approved by the crisis communication team.
Case Studies
Securitisation of Information.
No matter your story or your situation, please be assured that all confidential information that we learn about our clients stays with us, not just until the NDA expires, but forever.
The only information we will ever share is the information we’ve already agreed with the client that it is ok to reveal.
Case Studies of Resolved Crises.
These are anonymized case studies (trust and commitment are a fundamental part of our values) with some examples of types of crises managed and their resolution. We want to show a small part of them to provide an honest example of the type of issues that can be resolved with great communication.
Insolvency Crisis.
Insolvency Threatened.
A company was being sued for non-payment of invoices by just one recognised supplier. The company chose to calmly deflect the issue, resulting in bankruptcy proceedings being served on our €500m turnover client.
Media Meltdown.
This was covered by one Media group which rapidly aggregated into a full-scale meltdown with coverage across all National and Business media, culminating in a massive downturn in business orders, cancellation of orders from concerned parties and a proposed financial investigation by independent auditors.
Removing Negative Media Coverage.
The Lighthouse team swiftly dealt with the situation and managed to get all mentions of the allegations removed from the public domain. Recommendations were provided on how to deal with the situation and the correct procedures installed to ensure such an event is prevented from happening in the future.
Crisis Prevention.
A combination of heavyweight crisis management and crisis communication was required as the correct crisis prevention mechanisms were not adhered to.
Lighthouse has crisis-managed several instances of insolvency attacks for a variety of companies in various market sectors. We have dealt with all the related issues that affect staff, unions, suppliers, partners, customers, investors and the board.
Thanks to our extensive knowledge in the fields of crisis management and strategic partners that specialise in insolvency law and judicial restructuring, we can deliver resolutions to suit different stakeholders in suitable contexts.
Cyber Attack Crisis.
Cyber Pandemic
A cyber attack can have serious consequences for any business operation. In these situations, it is imperative that the correct communication is immediately relayed to all department heads within the value chain of the business and dependent upon the seriousness of the attack, the correct countermeasures need to be rapidly implemented.
Treatment & Cure.
Work undertaken by Lighthouse and the CCNE teams significantly reduced the negative impact of the attacks to minimally affect the day-to-day operations.
Unfair Competitor Crisis.
A company suffered attacks on social networks by the competition, which affected the confidence of its customers, causing damage to the business.
Responses Provided and Retractions completed.
The work undertaken by Lighthouse reduced the attacks to zero within weeks and completely alleviated all customer concerns.
We established an action plan that allowed us to deny all the misinformation and inaccuracies stated by the competition. At the same time, the legal team took action for an alleged crime of unfair competition and another of slander.
Ex-employee Crisis.
A company was haemorrhaging customers and asked us for a contingency plan to reduce the reputational impact caused by the loss of clients, all of which were taken by previous employees at the senior management level.
Customer Engagement.
We launched a relationship plan with journalists and key customers aimed at making the facts known with total transparency and clarifying all the necessary doubts. This action completely ceased all customer churn with customers returning to the company.
Legal.
In parallel, the legal team developed litigation procedures based on false information being relayed to the media and customers by the previous employees.
Brand Damaging Crisis.
Investigations cause reputation damage.
A leading company in its sector of activity and a large part of its board of directors were investigated, which led to great media attention and serious reputational damage.
Media Relations.
To manage this, we worked with the company advising its senior management team through the implementation of a media relations plan with the main media, and at the same time strengthening corporate communication both in the media and in internal channels.
Media Retractions.
This made it possible for journalists and media owners to retract all published information that had nothing to do with the reality of the events.
Internal Crisis.
Conflict & Confrontation.
A leading company in its sector suffered a historical internal confrontation between two groups of partners that culminated in a lawsuit by a minority group and the matter aired in the news, and digital media, resulting in severe damage to its reputation.
Shareholder Protection.
We focused on generating a strong relational protective shield around its main shareholders, stakeholders and senior management team.
We proactively engaged with the business, financial and economic media, using persuasive communication techniques to clarify the issues and achieve a consistent positive share of voice for our clients.
Lighthouse is a Member of the Crisis Communications Network Europe.
Lighthouse is the only crisis communications agency in Romania and the first in Central & Eastern Europe to be elected to join as a primary member of the prestigious CCNE.
With this strategic alliance, Lighthouse can deliver best-practice crisis management and crisis communication solutions, leveraging the huge experience of the EU network to benefit all businesses in Romania.
More about the Crisis Communications Network for Europe HERE.
